What’s Causing All the Rust Stains on Your Concrete?

Commercial properties have a lot of things staining their concrete surfaces. People leave behind gum stains and graffiti. Cars leave oil stains and rubber prints. But, aside from when you find rust near water spigots, it can be tricky to track down the culprit behind widespread rust. Here’s how to find it and how to stop it:

What's Causing All the Rust Stains on Your Concrete? Landscaping

Ask your landscapers if their chemicals include iron.

Some plants need more nutrients and chemicals than are available in the soil. So many landscaping companies use fertilizers with trace amounts of iron. Those bits of metal can be spread around during the application process and long after the landscapers leave. Even a faint, sporadic coating of iron can stain your concrete with splotches of orange rust.

What can you do about the rust?

The best way to make your sidewalks and parking lots look better is to get them pressure washed. Pressure washing can easily remove rust stains from a variety of sources, not just landscaping. Even better, it can get rid of many of the other stains plaguing your exterior surfaces.

Create pathways around the medians.

If your parking lot has green medians, then pedestrians and customers are going to walk across them. That means the granular fertilizers are going to get shifted around and start staining your concrete again. Use a combination of unpassable hedges and clear concrete paths to redirect the traffic.

Schedule a regular washing.

If you get your concrete pressure washed, then your building automatically looks more inviting and better maintained. But nothing lasts forever. Schedule regular pressure washes so your concrete surfaces always look clean and rust-free.

214 Pressure Washing can clean away anything from algae and moss buildup on the side of your building to graffiti. Contact us here to schedule either a one-off appointment or an automatic schedule.