Clean Concrete Floor With Muriatic Acid

Hose the surface in order to remove any tough particles.

Clean concrete floor with muriatic acid.

If the acid comes in contact with skin wash it away with large amounts of water. Muriatic acid is the strongest acid available to the public. If you re just removing mineral deposits efflorescence use a much weaker mix 10 1 or 16 1 for muriatic acid. You roughen such a floor by etching it with muriatic acid.

With proper use it removes stains when other cleaners fail. Muriatic acid is a strong acid cleaner used on masonry surfaces to clean stains. It also reduces the surface alkalinity of the concrete that can cause some paints to adhere poorly. These solutions are for etching the concrete.

A smooth concrete floor must be roughened before paint will stick to it. Step 1 clean the surface. For cleaning a concrete floor the equipment used should have a pressure rating of 3 000 psi minimum and a flow rate of at least 4 gallons per minute both the pressure and flow rate are needed to clean a concrete floor at an acceptable rate. Muriatic acid acts like liquid sandpaper by roughening the surface of the concrete.

In order to achieve the perfect finished project you must first clean the floor which you plan to acid wash. Mix 3 to 4 parts water with 1 part acid or follow label instructions for a 10 concentration 15 for hard smooth concrete. For many years it was a standard method of concrete preparation used by nearly all industrial commercial and institutional floor coating installers depending on the floor size and system to be installed. Acid etching is the process of applying hydrochloric muriatic or buffered phosphoric acid to a slab then rinsing it off with water.

Muriatic acid can work wonders on filthy concrete and it can also be very useful in cleaning excess smears of dried mortar and grout or when attempting to alleviate tough rust stains. Muriatic acid should never be used indoors and has to be thoroughly neutralized before disposal. Oxalic citric and muriatic acid are commonly used to clean concrete and masonry. It is excellent for cleaning away rust stains and efflorescence but must be used with extreme caution.