Who does concrete cleaning in Austin?
Live Oak Exterior Cleaning cleans driveways, walkways, patios, pool decks and entry aprons across Austin and the Hill Country. Flatwork is run with surface cleaners for an even result, oil and rust and organic staining are treated individually, and pavers are handled at a pressure that leaves the joint sand where it belongs. Fully insured.
Three different stains, three different jobs
Most of what sits on an Austin driveway is not dirt, and the things that are not dirt do not come off with water and pressure alone.
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Oil and transmission fluid
Petroleum that has soaked into the pores. It needs a degreaser and dwell time to break down and lift, repeated for heavier deposits. Fresh lifts fully, old lifts partially.
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Acorn and leaf tannin
The brown and black spotting under live oaks. It is a plant dye rather than dirt, and it comes out with the right chemistry rather than more force.
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Rust
From irrigation water, metal furniture or fertilizer. Rust needs an acidic treatment to convert, which is a different product entirely from everything else on this list.
Method
Why the whole slab comes up even
A pressure washing wand is a narrow jet moved by hand. Every pass overlaps the last one imperfectly, and the result is faint banding across the slab that you do not notice while working and cannot miss once it dries.
A surface cleaner holds a fixed width at a consistent height and speed, so the energy reaching the concrete is the same everywhere. On a driveway, a patio or a pool deck, that is the whole difference between clean and finished.
What we clean
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Driveways and aprons
The most trafficked concrete on the property, and the first thing anyone sees from the street.
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Walkways and patios
Paths, entries and outdoor living areas, including the shaded stretches where algae makes them slick.
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Pool decks
Cleaned with attention to traction, since this is the surface people walk on wet and barefoot.
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Pavers
Lower pressure to keep the joint sand in place, weeds cleared from the joints, re-sanding flagged if it needs it.
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Retaining walls and steps
The vertical concrete and limestone that gets skipped when only the flat surfaces are quoted.
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Garage floors
Where the oil usually originates, cleaned at the same visit as the driveway it has been dripping onto.
WOW! Live Oak came highly recommended and the amazing difference on our driveway, patio, sidewalk and entrance was amazing. Could not recommend higher. I have 5 neighbors that immediately took biz cards when they saw our home.
Michael and Sarahvia Google
Common questions about concrete cleaning
How much does driveway cleaning cost in Austin?
Concrete work is priced on area, condition and how much specific staining there is. A straightforward annual clean of a two-car driveway and a slab carrying years of oil and tannin are different jobs. We quote after seeing it. It is also one of the services that is noticeably better value inside an Exterior Reset, because the setup and the water are already there.
Can you remove oil stains from my driveway?
Fresh oil usually comes up completely. Older oil that has soaked deep into the pores will lighten substantially, often dramatically, but we will not promise it disappears. Concrete is porous and oil that has been sitting in it for years has gone somewhere a surface clean cannot reach. We will tell you which one you have before we start.
How often should I clean my driveway?
Once or twice a year for most Austin driveways. Under heavy oak cover, two to three times, because acorn and leaf tannin stains the slab every season. Driveways with a vehicle that drips benefit from more frequent attention, since fresh oil lifts and old oil does not.
Will pressure washing damage my concrete driveway?
Not at the right pressure with the right technique. We clean concrete around 2,500 to 3,000 PSI using a surface cleaner, which spreads the work evenly instead of concentrating it. The damage people see on concrete comes from a wand held too close, held in one spot, or fitted with too narrow a nozzle, which etches lines into the surface that do not come out.
Why use a surface cleaner instead of a wand?
Because a wand cleans in stripes. It is a narrow jet moved by hand, so the overlap is never perfect and the result is a slab with visible banding across it, which is more obvious once it dries than it is while you work. A surface cleaner covers a fixed width at a consistent distance and speed, which is what makes a large area come out looking like one surface.
Do you clean paver driveways?
Yes, and at lower pressure than poured concrete. Pavers have joints full of sand, and too much pressure strips that sand out, which is how a cleaned paver drive starts shifting underfoot. We clean them, clear the weeds from the joints, and tell you if it needs re-sanding afterward.
Let us look at your concrete.
Tell us the area and what is on it, and we will scope it.
Rather talk it through? 512-883-5420