Restoring Patio/bricks - Anything can be done about this? Pics.

I would love to just buy some new good looking sandstone paving and replace everything, but... due to 70m2 area that needs doing I feel like this would take me way too much time and effort and I would probably break my back from lifting all that as it's a huge area which wraps around all house and I'm too cheap to pay someone to do it.



I have just recently pressurewashed everyting and it made a huge difference , but I just have a regular domestic cheapo pressure washer which can only take so much grime off and it does nothing to bricks..

I have taken some pictures, was wondering if maybe someone could give me some ideas how I could go about making everything look fresh again, I'm up to swapping the horrible looking cement tops which sits on top of the brick walls as it would be rather easy/fast to do, I would want to do something about the bricks - can you maybe do some acid wash or sand them to make them look again as the day they were made? And I'm not sure if something can be even done to the concrete patio slabs? can they be perhaps sanded with grinder somehow to take off the worn layer and reveal a fresh layer or something like that?

The concrete patio slabs themselves are in good condition, just the colour of them is looking nasty from the old age, and now the slabs which probably have been red many many many years ago now looks Pink , I have tried some patio stain product sample http://www.floorpaintexpress.co.uk/seal-n-tint-concrete-stain.html but it was totally useless as didn't made any difference at all, but I'm up to try different/similar products.

If someone has attempted to do something like this before or has seen how it's done would be great if you could give me some ideas.
Thanks,
more Pictures if someone could take a look:
http://imgur.com/a/OuwIv

Done many like this with caustic soda, soaked with water sprinkled with the caustic soda, give a bit of a scrub then leave to soak for half hour bit more of a scrub then rinse off.

Pigeon85 said:

Done many like this with caustic soda, soaked with water sprinkled with the caustic soda, give a bit of a scrub then leave to soak for half hour bit more of a scrub then rinse off.

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a quick google search showed:

caustic soda !or Lye !is used as a paint stripper, is highly toxic and will burn your skin off in seconds if you let it touch you

if its inhaled it can and usually does cause pneumonia or worse

dont mix it with bleach or youll blow the road up

My mother had to have skin grafts after it burned her face a number of years ago - she was lucky it missed her eyes. :'(

One of our neighbours burned his arm at the same time (it was Xmas) and he needed operations too.


Yeah I think I'm good with skipping that product.

wau5 said:

a quick google search showed:

caustic soda !or Lye !is used as a paint stripper, is highly toxic and will burn your skin off in seconds if you let it touch you

if its inhaled it can and usually does cause pneumonia or worse

dont mix it with bleach or youll blow the road up

My mother had to have skin grafts after it burned her face a number of years ago - she was lucky it missed her eyes. :'(

One of our neighbours burned his arm at the same time (it was Xmas) and he needed operations too.


Yeah I think I'm good with skipping that product.

Click to expand...

As long as you have safety in mind there's no problem, as with many products used most can cause harm, we all use them on a daily basis but if you know the risks then you take the correct precautions.

Sodium hypochlorite (bleach) will clean the paving better Than almost anything. Dilute 3:1 water:hypo and add 50ml ish of shampoo. Sprinkle on and lightly brush to Agitate not scrub. Leave for 20mins and keep the surface damp then agitate again. Then after another 10 mins wash off.

Do that to bricks too as it will clean lichens and algae.

Then repeat using a diluted mortar acid. That will clean the bricks well and etch the concrete a tiny fraction. It will most likely drain a little colour out of the red ones so test it first.

Rinse down everything well. Obviously the run off from both is toxic to plants so only do this if you can direct the run off down drains.

Both may alter the colour of tarmac or natural stone surfaces so beware with that too.

I actually tried bleach few days ago, just on few slabs as test, it removed a bit but that's about it.. even a weak cheapo pressure washer did 100x better job than it in my case.

Fair enough but using the solution of hypochlorite I mentioned has been as good if not better than pressure washing in my experience. What bleach were you using? I'm talking 15% strength?

You will find any kind of grinding not feasible and sand blasting prohibitively expensive.