How to clean a patio, Preparation and cleaning tips

Wondering how to clean a patio? Great We are here to help. Feel The Pressure UK is a professional exterior cleaning company that provides the very best in roof, brick, stone, render and patio cleaning services for home and property owners all across the south-east. Using only the very best in professional exterior cleaning equipment including Doff hot water jet washing systems and professional pressure washing technology, our team guarantee always to deliver only immaculate results with surfaces being cleaned to the very highest of professional standards which results in spotless finishes and all cleaned surfaces being left 100% sterilised. 

During the warm months of spring and summer professional patio cleaning is in high demand as residents all over the UK love nothing more then to spend quality time in their beloved gardens and outside areas, during these months alone our team at Feel the pressure Uk provide dozens of professional patio cleaning services on a weekly basis, with many years experience in the profession and with hundreds/thousands of professional cleans under our belt we know all there is to know about cleaning patios safely and effectively. In this blog we are going to explain to you the best and recommended ways to clean common patio surfaces along with certain preperations and checks that should always be made in order to help your patio cleaning service run as smoothly as possible.

One of the first things you always need to check before committing yourself to a professional patio cleaning service is that the external water flow at the property is suitable for purpose, this is normally checked by our team before providing our quotation as it can play a major factor in the patio cleaning process and how long the patio cleaning service might take. There are many different types of jet washing machines/jet washers out there that can be used for providing patio cleaning services, you have hot jet washers, cold jet washers and lots of different variations of jet washing pumps with different water flows and pressure levels. One of the most common jet washer brands that most homeowners are familiar with is the brand Karcher as it is widely advertised and sold in most local stores. At Feel the pressure UK there are two main jet washing systems that we typically use when providing professional patio cleaning services, the first one and the most common for us is the the highly renowned Doff steam cleaning system, the Doff pump runs on a water flow of 6 litres per minute the same as your conventional jets washers/Karcher’s at this flow rate there is never normally any problems, ill explain more below.

The Doff steam cleaning system is a hot water jet washer that is used by our team for cleaning patios made from natural and artificial stone. Doff patio steam cleaning is a delicate patio cleaning solution that uses a combination of superheated steam and low pressure which only needs an extremely low water flow of around 6 litres per minute to operate, around the same amount as any conventional household jet washer/Karcher. When using a conventional size pressure washer like a Karcher or in our case the Doff cleaning system water is sucked directly from an external water tap strait to the pump though a hose, if not enough water is fed to the machine it will struggle to operate properly and you will fill it fluttered as the water passes though, this puts a lot of extra strain on your pump as it try’s harder to suck the water needed, this can cause a lot of problems and your machine can be damaged in many ways. You can always simply cheek your water flow by getting a bucket and measuring how many litres you can fill in a minute, like I said conventional jet washers like Karcher or any machine that connects directly to the tap shouldn’t normally have a problem as you average external water tap will usually produce a flow of around 10/15 laters per minute but then again you could be unlucky and connect to one of few taps with a poor flow, that is why we always recommend checking the flow rate first.

The second piece of professional jet washing machinery that we use for patio cleaning at Feel the pressure Uk is of a much higher water flow, High-pressure jet washing/pressure washing is used by our team when cleaning patio surfaces made from block paving as a much heavier water flow and pressure level is needed when cleaning block paving in order to remove the mud and unwanted weeds from deep within the gaps. High-pressure jet washing machinery usually flows at a water rate of around 21 L per minute and up so a good water outlet with a good flow rate will be needed for things to run smoothly, high pressure jet washing machines that operate using a high water flow of 21 litres and above stuck the water direct from their own water bowser you just have to keep the bowser toped up by feeding the water strait from the external water tap, the best thing to do and what we do at Feel the pressure UK is we start filling our water bowser before we do anything else so by the time we have finished setting up the rest of the patio cleaning equipment we have 400 L to start with and then all we have to do is keep it topped up, the last thing you want to do when taking on any type of patio cleaning service is have to keep stoping because of a bad water flow that is why it is fundamental to be checked and never looked over.

The very first thing our team do when arriving at a patio cleaning service and what we always recommend to anyone planning to clean a patio themselves is to remove all objects from the surface of the patio including furniture, plant pots and barbecues, theses are free of the most common items that you often find on a patio during the spring and summer but whatever items are on the surface when we arrive will be removed by our team once given the owners consent. There are two main reasons why all objects are always removed from the surface of the patio before the cleaning service starts, reason one being so we can professionally clean every inch of the patio thoroughly and evenly and the other reason is to simply move every thing into safe place so there is no risk of it getting dirty from the splash back of water during the patio cleaning process, if you are planning to use patio cleaners/patio cleaning solutions, most of which will contain substances including sodiumhypochlorite / liquid Once everything has been moved off of the surface into a safe place we can start on the next step of the preparation, sweeping the surface.

When our team at Feel the press UK book-in any type of professional patio cleaning service we always guarantee our costumers a spotless finish for their surface, after being in the patio cleaning business for some years now and after providing hundreds of professional services this is a result that we can always achieve. When Feel The Pressure UK guarantee you with a spotless finish this is exactly what you get meaning all surface dirt and stains will be removed from your patio and the natural colour will be fully restored, It also means things like leafs and other debris will be completely removed from  the floor and surrounding walls as a spotless finish at Feel The Pressure UK means spotless. It is always best to sweep up and remove small objects like leaves, twigs and whatever else might be on the surface before you start the cleaning service, when water is projected from a jet washing  to apply water because once the surface is wet it makes things a lot harder for them to be removed as they tend to stick with the water, there is nothing worse than trying to clean a patio floor with leaves flying all around the place because they haven’t been bagged up so the best thing to do is get straight in and bag everything up while the surface is still dry it will save you a lot of time and headache in the long run, trust me we are the professionals.

The next step when preparing a patio for cleaning is checking your drainage and clearing any objects that may be blocking or restricting the water flow. If the water that you are using during a patio cleaning service can run directly towards a clear functional drain then you shouldn’t normally have any problems, while you’re concentrating on the cleaning service at hand the dirty water can automatically be disposed of with little or no effort at all but if the drain is blocked or if it has anything obstructing the water flow this could soon cause unwanted problems, water could rapidly build up with nowhere to escape causing you to stop your work to try and unblock your drain, I’m blocking the drain when full up with water is a messy process this is why it’s recommended to clear the drain before you start the patio cleaning process. checking the drain for blockages is simple, simply find the drain that the water runs towards, remove any leaves or debris covering the filter cover, if you have already swept the surface as suggested to do beforehand then there shouldn’t be anything covering the filter cover so instead lift filter cover and check if there is anything inside, If there is simply remove it wearing a pair of gloves, once you are satisfied that the drain is clear replaced the filter cover to stop anything but water going though during the cleaning process. When cleaning surfaces like block paving sometimes a lot of mud can come up from in between the joints, the drain filter cover prevents such elements from entering with the water so it is important that the drain filter clover is securely in place.