[Tony Ebbs]

Hi
New to the forum, looking forward to talking to friends old and new.

Did a job last week on a slabbed patio totally covered in black lichen, turns out the last time it was cleaned was near on 10 years ago, I tried Sodium Hypochlorite and a couple of other chemicals but no joy, turned the machine up to 150 Degrees and this did the job but would be pain staking cleaning every individual slab.

Any advice would be much appreciated

[Mike Halliday]

Hypo would deal with that no problem, you must have been mixing it too weak or not letting dwell long enough,.

these are exactly the same pavers and it took an hour dwell time to finally get clean

[Tony Ebbs]

Much appreciated Mike cheers, think I had it off there a bit too quick, left it for around 10 - 15 minutes got another one next week that looks the same so will give it longer.

[Buckland]

Mike - we've got a sort of gritstone-type paver block (not actually stone obviously) which cleans fine with the mosmatic (we did it four years ago) but it has black lichen in certain areas that don't get traffic or are shady  the pw does not touch these - if we did use hypo on the lichen would we need to treat the whole area or could we just spray the affected areas?

dave

[Tadgh O Shea]

Just scrub them with stainless steel scouring pads it dose not matter how old they are as these pads will eat through the toughest of lichens then just rinse off with water.

[Kev Martin]

SIC Brush quicker and cheaper

[Paul Moss]

Where do you get these pads from

[Paul Moss]

Mike that's a weird after picture, if you look at it closely you can see the original whirlaway circle which looks cleaner than the rest of it. Or is it just my eyes😄

[Tadgh O Shea]

Where do you get these pads from

Hi Paul, if its the stainless steel scouring pads your enquiring about they are available from most janitorial suppliers, ask for the 40 or 60 gram ones which are far superior for removing stubborn lichens.

[Mike Halliday]

Mike that's a weird after picture, if you look at it closely you can see the original whirlaway circle which looks cleaner than the rest of it. Or is it just my eyes😄

No Paul that is where a plant pot was sitting,

The use of SS SCOURING PADS  is an incredibly bad idea, I have tried it and it and also used a brass  saude brushes it  marks the pavers, I have done jobs that need hypo over the full patio if you tried to use  scouring pads it would literally takes days and quadruple.the cost more like times it by ten.

This is the job, would you really get on your hand and knees

[Mike Halliday]

Hypo... Before during and after, I did a full clean incuding hypo on half of this job  to get a photo for my website ,you can see what it looks like before I use the hypo its cleaner but the hypo makes it massively better, to suggest using wire wool for lichen is proof Someone has never cleaned a drive, it's like  telling someone to clean a carpet with a toothbrush.

( one of the photos is too big so will list it separately )

[Mike Halliday]

This full patio was cleaned using a 35hp machine, the most powerfull PW I've seen for domestic cleaning,  it still will not remove lichen.

You can see the effect of using hypo

[Tadgh O Shea]

This full patio was cleaned using a 35hp machine, the most powerfull PW I've seen for domestic cleaning,  it still will not remove lichen.

You can see the effect of using hypo

  Mike, as i have said before you put 5 or 6 s/s scouring pads under a floor cleaning pad on a slow speed scrubbing machine, i would recommend to use a double sided microfiber type floor cleaning pad as they grip the s/s pads far better than using standard fiber pads,  i have used these s/s pads plenty of times to remove stubborn lichens  without causing any damage to patio slabs, one of the biggest uses for these s\s scouring pads in the trade is for cleaning baked on grease from the insides of commercial ovens as they wont scratch the glass doors.

[Paul Moss]

Guess you would need chemical , power and heat on a job like that . Mike what where the pads you refered to using.
Mike does a monster scrub pad for hard floors that rios the poop off, I wonder if  it would work on flags

[Mike Halliday]

I mentioned scouring pads but was refering  to wire wool not specifically scouring pads.

The photo above of the patios took 40 mins to clean,  if you count the set up and put away time then an 1hr just straight power & hypo no need for anything else,

this is how you clean a patio,  this is how companies who are powerwashing every day  do it,

 I've only ever heard tadgh mention scouring pads or any type of mechanical method,  I'm a big believer in not reinventing the wheel if there was a better way to do it then the professional companies (who like I say are powerwashing every day, not doing the odd job now and again) would be using it, they are not stupid they are  intelligent guys who know thier business.

[Tadgh O Shea]

I mentioned scouring pads but was refering  to wire wool not specifically scouring pads.

The photo above of the patios took 40 mins to clean,  if you count the set up and put away time then an 1hr just straight power & hypo no need for anything else,

this is how you clean a patio,  this is how companies who are powerwashing every day  do it,

 I've only ever heard tadgh mention scouring pads or any type of mechanical method,  I'm a big believer in not reinventing the wheel if there was a better way to do it then the professional companies (who like I say are powerwashing every day, not doing the odd job now and again) would be using it, they are not stupid they are  intelligent guys who know thier business.

Hi Mike, this thread is about removing tuff lichens, as you know bleach will not remove stubborn lichens, i was just sharing that i have found stainless steel balls of wool to be a safe and effective way to remove these little feckers, its up to guys themselves which ever way they want to use them, i have used them manually and also mechanically with good results, i will go as far as saying i have not come across a better tool for removing them without causing damage to patio slabs, if anybody has a solution for removing old and ingrained lichens i would be delighted to know about any other solutions. cheers Tadgh

[Kev Martin]

SIC Brush fitted to a Mono Rotary Machine Job done

[Tadgh O Shea]

SIC Brush fitted to a Mono Rotary Machine Job done

Kevin, would a SIC brush not be to aggressive for use on patio slabs.

[Kev Martin]

It depends on the grit you use!   180 grit is perfect for this application as it hard enough to remove the crud, soft enough to get in all the riven parts, pits and fissures but not aggressive enough to do any damage to the stone.  Couple it with Miracle Liquid Poultice A&B and it gives amazing results

[B Bailey]

How much are the brushes Kevin?

[Kev Martin]

How much are the brushes Kevin?

What size?  For which Machine?

[B Bailey]

Rocky.

[Kev Martin]

Rocky.

Bill

You are using the interchangeable clutch system so to you they are £93.70 less your discount works out at £74.96 + VAT as your current clutch fits all the interchangeable brushes and drive boards!

Kev

[B Bailey]

Thank you.

[Tony Ebbs]

Much appreciated guys for the great answers, out of interest what % Hypochlorite do you use?

[Mike Halliday]

It comes in 10% or 14/15%, best to try to get the stronger version