We have a fair amount of block paving and it needs cleaning: moss in a lot of the joints and a little staining.
I could use the pressure washer but I've been warned it will blow all the sand out of the joints and will leave stripes on the surface unless I'm very careful.
Anyone got a workable alternative?
TIA
mortar the sand in and use it hard enough to make the stripes all the same color. :-)
On normal slabs, yes unless careful it does streak but I found taking more time and just a section at a time does it properly, I also used a cheap washer. It probably will lift some sand from the joints but I would go for it and then brush some more sand in.
In message , SS writes
Is a T-Racer OK for block paving? My drive hasn't been touched for some time and is looking tatty.
Should be fine.
Last time I did the moss on mine, I used a cheap wet/dry vacuum cleaner with a "tooth" made out of a couple of inches of scrap steel from an old shelf unit, attached to the end of the spout with a jubilee clip.
It worked really well. The tooth easily scraped out the moss, which was then instantly slurped up by the vac. I got about three vac-fulls off my drive. Very satisfying.
Cheers,
Colin.
Now that sounds like it's worth a try!
Ideal. The jets are angled to make the bar spin, which means they don't hit the joints square on. So they don't remove as much sand.
Patent pending I hope?
Pressure washer [1] will work fine. It will remove 'some' sand, but not enough to destabilise the blocks. Just brush in some more when its dry.
[1] DIY machines tend to have 'vario' nozzles where you twist the end to alter the spray angle. This is acheived by two metal/plastic plates deflecting the jet of water. Effectively you get uneven cleaning.A commercial mahine will have a properly engineered jet that will give even impact pressure over its entire cleaning width - so no stripes.
Yup, very good.
Having just completed cleaning my patio (with mortared joints) and almost completed the drive (Block paved, sand in the joints) the Karcher K5.700 Pressure washer and the 300 T-Racer were brilliant on the patio, but the T-Racer was not good at getting all the moss from the joints in the drive.
In the end I just used the spinning "Dirt Blaster" lance on the drive - took ages, but it looks like new now!
The moss was pretty bad on my drive, as it has been down for about 10 years and this was its first clean!
Toby...
Washing up liquid and a stiff broom works well enough for me. I've watched neighbours at work with their Karchers, and the job actually seems to take longer. It also needs re-doing just as quickly
Just had a look at this combination and it's around £300 (ouch!).
Screwfix have a Karcher K254M and T50 T-Racer (Quote No: 67106 ) for £130. Would that combination do the job?
And just discovered that Focus have a Karcher 259m deluxe on offer until
6 April at £119.99 (-10% discount on my card).Any use for the job?
TIA
You just need to look at the pressure and the flow rates really - the reason we went for the one I mentioned was, it was on special offer at Costco at the time, it had a water cooled induction motor and came with the Dirt blaster lance and the T-Racer. I wanted the T-Racer for the main patio, and hoped it would work well on the drive (Which it didn't, but if I clean the drive more often, it will probably be fine!)
The high pressure hose also had a little reel at the top which is handy, and should help prevent the HP hose from getting tangled up and damaged (although that does mean the hose comes out near the top of the machine, making it easy to pull over!). The hose is pretty long compared to some models, which is good, as it means you don't have to move the pressure washer so often while cleaning a large area.
Oh and compared to my old cheapie machine from Lidl, it is much quieter.
Toby...
Total effort required squirting the pressure washer is going to be a hell of a lot less than the broom though, especially on a reasonably sized area!
Toby...
Yebbut I need the exercise
'Eventually' I suppose is the answer. More power = faster cleaning. Still be faster than any other method.
The K5.700 is around twice the cleaning power of the K254M.
20% more cleaning effect than the K254.
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