Help on asphalt driveway - Certified SoftWash Roof Cleaning

Roof Cleaning Tallahassee · Freshmen Member

Help on asphalt driveway

AC Lockyer · Administrator

Seal coat turns gold when exposed to bleach. We teach here never to bag gutters. It creates a false sense of security and always causes heartache. Time is all I have found to remove those stains. Sorry.

AC

Roof Cleaning Tallahassee · Freshmen Member

AC, it's not seal coat just plain asphalt. He said it's a white and chaulky looking. (going over in the morning to take a look). I might be in the market for a few gutter canes here shortly. evileye

Brian Friel · Sophmore Member

We always bag the gutters to collet any runoff, but then we rinse all gutters after the cleaning and usually never have a problem. I have been called back 2 or three times if my memory serves me correctly and we have cleaned somewhere around 1,000 roofs. Each time that I went back it was just a residue that was left on the surface. I was able to get rid of it by using a bucket with dawn and water and then scrubbing it with the soft brush that we use on gutters surfaces. The biggest problem you will have is if it was fresh concentrated cleaner that actually broke down the suface of the asphalt. If that is the case then you will not be able to make it look any better. I would certainly give the soap and water a try. It can't hurt.

Brian

AC Lockyer · Administrator

Roof Cleaning Tallahassee wrote:
AC, it's not seal coat just plain asphalt. He said it's a white and chaulky looking. (going over in the morning to take a look). I might be in the market for a few gutter canes here shortly.

Then it might just be salt. Then you in luck. Use hot water and lots of soap. DO DEGREASER just a foamy soap. LIGHT pressure wash off and do the entire area so you dont have a big clean spot.

AC

AC Lockyer · Administrator

PA Roof Cleaning Company wrote:
We always bag the gutters to collet any runoff, but then we rinse all gutters after the cleaning and usually never have a problem. I have been called back 2 or three times if my memory serves me correctly and we have cleaned somewhere around 1,000 roofs. Each time that I went back it was just a residue that was left on the surface. I was able to get rid of it by using a bucket with dawn and water and then scrubbing it with the soft brush that we use on gutters surfaces. The biggest problem you will have is if it was fresh concentrated cleaner that actually broke down the suface of the asphalt. If that is the case then you will not be able to make it look any better. I would certainly give the soap and water a try. It can't hurt.
Brian

Agreed. Good post Brian.

AC

Roof Cleaning Tallahassee · Freshmen Member

Thanks for the quick feed back Brian and AC ... you guys are aces!

AC Lockyer · Administrator

Your absolutely welcome!

Ray Burke · Community Member

I somewhat disagree and would like to propose an alternate solution, no pun intended. You have essentially cleaned the asphalt. With normal traffic and wear it should return to normal within a couple of weeks. You could either do nothing, or clean the whole thing. If you clean the whole thing, all of it may be lighter for a while. Be very careful using a surface cleaner on asphalt!!!!

If you want I could come by and take a look.

Brian Friel · Sophmore Member

I would go as far as to say, never use a surface cleaner on asphalt!

Brian

Matt Lancaster · SoftWash Systems Pro Staff

I had a very similar situation this past summer (very minimal staining in a 4'X4' area) first I hit the stain with a quick LIGHT squirt of KARNAK roofers cleaning agent and let it sit for 30 seconds then I gave the driveway a LIGHT rinse with low pressure. The drive was single wide and maybe 25'long the results were decent and there was improvement. I am NOT recommending this cleaning agent because it is an ASPHALT REMOVER and you could do more harm than good. Under NO circumstance do you want to apply it to a coated driveway it will degrade the coating. I will post a picture of the solution so you can see what it is, I use this stuff all the time as a roofer it removes anything from your hands. The truck beds the customer’s windows etc... But roofing is a different sport.

The point I am getting at was the customer saw I was concerned and proactive about his problem and he accepted the results happily and recommended us to his family because we responded promptly and provided in his words "EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE" not ignoring problems and giving the customer some extra time can go a long way even if you are unable to completely solve the problem and they realize you made an effort to correct the issue.

I did not give this customer any monetary credit and he promptly paid in full with a GREAT recommendation.