Drive way possible old sealer failure?!?!?!

[Charles G. 14]

Hey everyone, i have a driveway cleaning and sealing coming up soon. There is one spot by the front porch at first glance i thought was just scum, dirt, and just built up crude. Upon closer inspection it is hard scale i would call it. Not sure if it is old driveway sealer that has been built up and broke down too much over the years or what? I tried a test spot to see if it would come off with just heat and pressure with no effect at all. Any help on how to approach this would be great?!?!

[seymore 90]

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[Craig 111]

Hey everyone, i have a driveway cleaning and sealing coming up soon. There is one spot by the front porch at first glance i thought was just scum, dirt, and just built up crude. Upon closer inspection it is hard scale i would call it. Not sure if it is old driveway sealer that has been built up and broke down too much over the years or what? I tried a test spot to see if it would come off with just heat and pressure with no effect at all. Any help on how to approach this would be great?!?!

It looks like old peeling sealer. Are you going to strip it all down first? Just by looking at it that is a job that would take me 10 seconds to politely say "no thanks" and walk away. Here's why:

The sealer looks old, moldy and infected. The white area that is bubbling had degraded, bubbled and peeled. What is your customer expecting from this cleaning and sealing? Just curious.. I'd like to see what it looks like after you clean it. Hopefully a lot better. But if the sealer is compromised and there is mold underneath from moisture coming up through it you'd have to do a total restoration ie, strip, clean and reseal.

Those pavers are covered in calcite. It looks like years of accumulation and by how white they are the only thing that will touch them is straight HCL mixed 1:1 with water. And then you'll probably need to do it 10 times to get it about 95% off.

You might luck out though... sometimes the white gets transparent enough that you only need to clean in once. Even if there is left over calcite, the sealer you use (with color enhancers) will hopefully darken and even out the tones.

Personally, I would walk away from this one. It's a character builder. We could do it but I've done enough of them to pass on the rest.

Edited October 10, 2012 by Craig

[David Phillips 14]

Definitely looks like years of over-applied acrylic sealer. Unfortunately pretty typical for Nashville aggregate. You could strip the old sealer off, but like Craig said, it's not a job you really want. Honestly the best thing you could do is tell the home owner to just wait a year or two and it will fail and flake off on it's own. Probably not what they want to hear, but their alternative is to pay you $2-$3 / sq.ft. to remove it, and that's probably not going to happen. If you want me to, I'd be glad to take a look at it with you. Might not actually be that bad in person.

[WashMe 16]

I'll do it

[Craig 111]

Rust Removal Tennessee to the rescue!