Thunder Rock sits west of Ten Mile toward Black Cat with compact Lennar plans of 1,217 to 1,874 square feet on 0.12 to 0.13 acre lots and two-car attached garages. That makes the flatwork here about as small as it gets in Kuna, with one consequence people do not expect.
Pressure washing prices at $0.20 per square foot of actual area, and a two-car apron with a short front walk on a 0.12 acre lot is a small number. That changes the decision: rather than a once-every-few-years project, flatwork here is cheap enough to keep on a regular rhythm, which matters because concrete that never gets badly soiled never develops the ground-in grey cast that takes real work to reverse. Keeping ahead of it is less expensive than catching up to it.
On lots this tight the sprinkler heads sit only feet from walls and walks, so a great deal of untreated Boise-Kuna canal water lands directly on the flatwork rather than on the lawn. That water carries dissolved iron, which oxidises on the concrete into orange-brown rust staining, and suspended mineral, which leaves a pale crust. Rust is a chemical stain inside the slab rather than dirt on it, so it needs a rust-specific treatment with dwell time. Pressure alone cleans the dirt off the stain and leaves the stain.
Homes on the outer rows back onto working ground toward Black Cat, and coarse agricultural soil driven and walked across concrete acts as an abrasive, grinding fine particulate deep into the pore structure. That is what produces a permanently grey-looking driveway rather than a visibly dirty one. It does come out with a proper surface clean, which reaches into the pores, but a rinse will not touch it.
We use a rotating surface cleaner on open flatwork because a wand leaves faint striping wherever distance, angle or speed varies, and on a small apron that striping is proportionally very visible. A surface cleaner fixes nozzle height and spacing and overlaps its own path for an even result. The wand is used for edges, steps and the tight corners by the garage where the machine cannot reach.
Pressure washing at $0.20 per square foot is for concrete and hard flatwork, where high pressure is the correct tool. Siding is house washing at $0.18 per square foot as a soft wash, because high pressure on vinyl lap drives water upward behind the laps into the wall assembly where it has no route out, which becomes a problem you discover a year later. We quote them separately and use the right tool on each.
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Yes, and it is cheap enough to keep on a rhythm rather than treat as an occasional project. Concrete that never gets badly soiled never develops the ground-in grey cast that takes real work to reverse, so keeping ahead of it costs less than catching up.
Because on 0.12 acre lots the heads sit only feet from walks and walls, so a lot of untreated canal water lands on the flatwork rather than the lawn. It carries dissolved iron, which oxidises into orange-brown rust, and suspended mineral, which leaves a pale crust.
Usually a great deal of them, with a rust-specific treatment given dwell time before rinsing. Rust is a chemical stain inside the slab rather than dirt on top, so pressure alone just cleans the dirt off the stain and leaves it visible.
Coarse field soil acting as an abrasive. If you back onto the ground toward Black Cat, that soil gets driven and walked across the concrete and grinds fine particulate deep into the pores. A proper surface clean reaches into them; a rinse will not.
Not with a surface cleaner, which fixes nozzle height and spacing and overlaps its passes for an even result. Striping comes from wand washing, and on a small apron that striping would be proportionally very visible, which is exactly why we do not do it that way.
No. High pressure on vinyl lap drives water behind the laps into the wall assembly where it has no route out, and that surfaces as a problem a year later. Siding is a soft wash at $0.18 per square foot, quoted as a separate line from the $0.20 flatwork.
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