Patio Cleaning | Sarah Dawkins

I have been looking at my patio for a while and thinking how dirty and mossy it is looking. As winter is approaching, I did not want it to get worse and someone slip on it. I was just going to use sodium bicarbonate but had a read around the internet to see if there was anything I had not thought of, as you know me, it had to be something natural.

There are many chemical laden products that you can use to clean outside stone and concrete but these were not on my list of things to use. Other options were:

Washing detergent (powder or liquid)

Washing up liquid

Vinegar

Coarse Salt

Sodium Bicarbonate

Power Washer

Good old elbow grease!

I decided that I would give the washing detergent a go. I have some home-made so I added it to hot water in a bucket.  Then came the hard graft, using elbow grease to scrub off the moss and mildew from the stones with a stiff brush. I can’t say that it was easy and I have the blisters on my hands to prove it. It certainly got my heart pumping and raised my heart rate (think of it as a work out – without a gym).

By the time I was about two thirds the way through it, I was beginning to tire and my hands had become red and sore. The last third didn’t get the same amount of scrubbing as the first or second third. I have attached a during and after picture (together) as I didn’t think about taking a photo before, however, you can see in the during photo that the dry patio has a grey tinge to it, whereas the after picture shows a healthy pinker tinge to the stone. I know the sun is shining on my newly cleaned patio too but it is definitely cleaner!

Well, I think the sun has just passed over the yard arm, it’s 5 o’clock somewhere and I am going to “pour me something tall and strong” as Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffet say.

What do you use to clean outside stone?

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