Taking leaf tannin and algae out of shaded Okatie concrete, evenly, without the wand striping that comes from doing it the quick way.
A driveway in open sun gets dirty. A driveway under canopy grows a crop. That is the practical difference between concrete in most of the Lowcountry and concrete around Okatie, where long wooded approaches are the norm rather than the exception.
Two separate problems stack up. The first is algae, the green-black film that makes shaded concrete slick after rain and is a genuine slip hazard on a sloped drive or a set of steps. The second is tannin, the brown leach that comes out of leaves, pine needles and mulch sitting wet on the surface. Tannin is the one people mistake for permanent staining. It usually is not, but it does need the right cleaner rather than more pressure.
A lot of Okatie driveways are not one surface. They start as concrete or pavers at the house and give way to gravel, shell or packed dirt somewhere before the road, and that transition is where the trouble concentrates. Vehicles carry grit and organic matter up from the unpaved section onto the paved one, and the first few feet of concrete past the join take the worst of it.
It is worth pointing that strip out when we arrive, because it often wants more dwell time than the rest of the slab and it is the part that makes the whole drive look tired. We also take care with the runoff there: on a wooded lot the ground beside the drive is usually already soft, and we would rather direct water away from it than cut a channel through your edging.
The method we use on the paved sections, and why a surface cleaner rather than a wand, is explained on our main driveway and concrete cleaning page.
The cosmetic improvement on a shaded drive is dramatic and it is what people notice. The useful part is the traction. Algae on damp concrete is genuinely slippery, and most of the Okatie properties we work on have a sloped approach, steps, or a walkway down toward the water where a fall would matter.
If there are specific areas that go slick, point them out when we arrive. They often need a little more dwell time than the rest of the slab and it is worth doing while we are there.
Twice a year suits most, and shaded drives under heavy canopy sometimes want more. The autumn clean, once the leaves and needles have finished dropping, is the one that does the most good.
Usually not, though they go deeper here than on an open lot because the leaf litter sits wet for longer under canopy. If a stain has been building for several years it may lighten a great deal rather than disappear completely, and we would rather say so before we start.
It should. That slickness is algae growing in the surface of the concrete, and removing it restores the traction. Point out the worst spots when we arrive, because they usually want a little more dwell time.
No. Pavers get a lower pressure and a different technique for exactly that reason. It is worth mentioning if your paver drive runs down toward the water, because we will also think about where the runoff goes rather than just sending it downhill.
Yes. On Okatie properties the path down toward the water or the dock is often the most slippery concrete on the lot and the piece most worth doing, so mention it even if it is not what you called about.
Low-pressure cleaning for siding, stucco and Hardie.
Debris clearing, downspout flushing and gutter brightening.
The things that actually move a quote up or down.
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