To clean cinder block walls, start by vigorously scrubbing the surface with a stiff-bristled brush to remove dirt, grime, and stains. Wet the walls with water and vinegar, and open windows in the basement for air circulation. For mold removal, use hydrogen peroxide, a mild bleaching agent that kills bacteria and spores without mixing. Regular cleaning involves spraying the wall with a pressure washer at 500 psi, applying a TSP and water solution, and removing any white efflorescence using an efflorescence remover like QUIKRETE Efflorescence and Rust Remover. Once cleaned, apply a waterproofing sealer to prevent more stains.
For painted brick walls, create a cleaning mixture in a household bucket with mild dish detergent and warm water, avoiding harsh chemicals like bleach, ammonia, or trisodium phosphate. Lay down a heavy plastic sheet or tarp and scrub with a muriatic acid solution to prep concrete. Use a bucket of water, (cleaner optional), and a stiff brush to scrub the wall gently.
Use a pressurized tank sprayer to apply a detergent solution (degreaser) to a small area and allow about 10 minutes of dwell. Fill a 5-gallon plastic bucket halfway with lukewarm water and scrub the wall with the water using a long-handled nylon bristle brush. First, brush down and dry vacuum all surfaces, removing any obvious loose chunks of mortar.
In summary, cleaning cinder block walls is essential for maintaining a professional and long-lasting finish for interior or exterior spaces. To achieve a deep clean, use a stiff-bristled brush, wet the walls with water and vinegar, and follow the recommended cleaning steps.
📹 How to Remove Efflorescence on Concrete – Old Damp Wall TREATMENT – Twin Plumbing
#rodent #rodentstoppers #rodentremoval Reach out anytime for an estimate: 1-866-252-3241 Email …
What kills black mold on cinder block walls?
Hydrogen peroxide is a non-toxic and non-irritating natural cleaner that can be used to remove mold. Mixing hydrogen peroxide with water creates a solution that can be applied to moldy areas and left to sit for a few minutes before wiping it clean. Bleach, another option, is not recommended as it doesn’t kill mold spores and can be harmful to health. Concrobium, an EPA-registered mold remediation product, is a powder that kills mold spores and prevents their growth. Although it’s expensive and less toxic than bleach, it should be used with care.
Can you use interior paint on cinder block walls?
Cinder blocks can be painted using acrylic-latex paint tinted to your choice, with interior paint for interior cinder blocks and exterior-grade paint for outdoor surfaces. Elastomeric paint is suitable for highly moist surfaces like basement cinder blocks. Apply primer or paint in temperatures between 50-90° F and dry the blocks completely. Use paint strippers in well-ventilated areas with eye and breathing protection and waterproof gloves. Natural paint strippers are caustic, so follow safety precautions.
How to clean cinder block walls with vinegar?
To clean brick surfaces, blend hydrogen peroxide and white vinegar. Apply the mixture to the surface, let it sit, and scrub with a brush before rinsing with water. Bleach is effective for removing mold or mildew. Trisodium phosphate can also be used for house and wall cleaning. Common brick types in the UK include clay bricks and engineering bricks. White vinegar can be used for all brick types.
How to clean concrete walls inside?
Before cleaning concrete walls, ensure surfaces are sealed to prevent harm. Use pH-neutral, alkaline, or bacterial cleaners for gentle cleaning, especially for dogs or animals that have been using the wall as their outhouse. If the paint is to be cleaned, act quickly and don’t let it dry. Use clean cloths to soak up excess paint, followed by a powder-based cleaner and water to scrub the spot clean.
Sandblasting is a harsher method suitable for extreme situations like dead paint spills or graffiti, and should be hired out to a specialized company. It’s not recommended to do this yourself, as it can ruin the sealant on the concrete.
How do you waterproof interior cinder block walls?
Concrete blocks are commonly used for foundations and outbuildings due to their uniform size, ease of stacking, and hardness. However, they are more permeable to water and water vapor than poured concrete, making them particularly vulnerable. To protect them from water intrusion, it is essential to use the best block wall waterproofing products. Concrete blocks and cinder blocks are particularly vulnerable due to their larger pores, making them semi-permeable.
The permeability of concrete is 3. 2 perms per inch of thickness, while an 8- to 10-inch-thick poured concrete wall is about 0. 4 to 0. 3 perms. Once moisture intrudes into a block, it makes the pores even larger, reinforcing the cycle of damage to the structure. To waterproof concrete blocks, apply a coating directly on the bare wall, use a breathable/permeable barrier, use a weather-resistant elastomeric layer, repair cracks and fill voids first, and install an air and moisture barrier.
Can you use bleach on cinder block?
Bleach, with its ionic structure, prevents chlorine from penetrating porous materials like cinder block. However, 90% of bleach is water, which can easily penetrate the porous surface and meet mold spores inside. Therefore, it is not recommended to use bleach to clean cinder block foundations as it will not only kill all mold but also feed deeper-rooted mold, worsening the problem.
If you’re considering buying a home in Dubois County, Sell 4 Free Welsh Realty offers a unique home search platform. The site is directly connected to the local MLS and updated with new homes every hour. Signing up for New Listing alerts allows you to stay updated on the newest homes for sale and receive price change alerts, allowing you to beat other buyers to the hottest deals.
Popular Jasper Indiana home searches include homes for sale in Evansville, Southern Indiana, Santa Claus Indiana Cabins, Newburgh, Dubois County, Jasper, Huntingburg, Ferdinand Indiana Homes, Farms for sale in Indiana, and Santa Claus Indiana Homes.
How do you clean concrete dust indoors?
A vinegar mixture, made by mixing equal parts of vinegar and water, is effective for cleaning concrete dust. However, it can damage tiles and should be tested on a surplus tile first. Acids on marble and other calciferous natural stones should be cautious. HG offers solutions for safer, easier, and less time-consuming concrete dust removal, including products for marble, calciferous natural stone, concrete, and epoxy tiles containing natural stone. For marble or marble composite tiles, HG natural stone cement grout film removerr (HG product 31) is recommended.
Is bleach or vinegar better for cleaning concrete?
Vinegar and baking soda are natural cleaners for concrete, as they are less toxic to plants than bleach or detergent. To clean concrete, mix equal parts water and vinegar or water and baking soda with liquid dish detergent. Spray the mixture on the surface and let it sit for 30 minutes before rinsing. Concrete cleaners and degreasers are typically made from concentrated alkaline soap, which loosens up oil for easy cleanup but does not break down long-stained concrete.
This solution is most effective on porous concrete. Both methods can be effective for cleaning concrete patios or sidewalks, but vinegar and baking soda are recommended for those concerned about plant life.
Can mold grow inside cinder blocks?
Mold growth can be observed on hard surfaces such as concrete, blocks, and cement, including poured concrete. It is of the utmost importance to seek the services of a professional mold remediation specialist who is based in the local area. Rainbow Restoration® provides dependable services for the removal, remediation, and prevention of mold. To schedule an appointment, please contact us via telephone at 724-6269 or via our online appointment request form.
How do you clean dirty indoor concrete?
In order to clean polished or stamped floors, it is recommended to use a mop and water mixed with a mild detergent. It is advised to avoid the use of ammonia, bleach, or highly acidic substances. Effective cleaning agents include Castile soap, liquid dish detergent, stone cleaners, and mild floor cleaners.
What is the best way to clean cinder block walls?
A cleaning solution for a retaining wall can be readily prepared by combining a small quantity of dishwashing liquid with two gallons of warm water. This solution will effectively eradicate any accumulated mold and dislodge any dirt.
📹 Efflorescence Tips and Tricks
Http://go.askthebuilder.com/NewsletterSignup founder Tim Carter describes efflorescence, what causes it and how to remove it.
If one were to do this in a block foundation. Is it safe to do on the inside of the basement. Would stopping the moisture from traveling through to the interior of the basement help the longevity of the block interior surface at risk of the moisture being trapped within the block and exterior of the home? My basement is only 3 feet set underground and the rest is above ground but I want to clean treat and paint my block foundation and finish the basement. I won’t be covering the block with studs or rock
Would the recommendations work on “boundary walls” or “garden walls” where the neighbor is overwatering and/or their sprinkler is close to the wall and water is seeping through and causing wall erosion over time? Would your tips helps with the wall erosion over time if we do it on our side of the concrete fence? Look forward to hearing from you. Thank you.
Hello, thank you for the information, my house has a sever case of efflorescence which has taken over the walls of the master bedroom and a few small spots in other rooms on the house. Would you recommend treating both the internal and external walls or just the internal? The house is in a tropical country and where it is located gets a lot of rain Again, thanks for your help
A couple of questions for you -what’s the purpose of the acid/chorine routine? And any recommended product there? -Are concrete and cement effectively interchangeable in terms of approach to diagnosing, cleaning, prepping, and recoating? -is the SureCoat elastomeric coating effectively the same thing as drylock?
Hello Tim, I have the white build-up on rough-faced brickwork beneath DPC. However, as glorious as ‘just brush it away’ sounds, this stuff just ain’t going to shift. As an engineer I had already determined that it was effervescence but even a steel brush has little effect. Is there any chemical or acid that will react and remove it. I am about to re-point the York stone patio and shall form a radius to the joint of patio and wall ‘cos it does take a lot of water. Will waterproofing with silicone help. Anyway, thanks for article and most pleasant countenance. x limey m.
My house was built in 1860 the inside of my mud room is brick and it is deteriorating I don’t want to use a chemical in there. The previous owners must have just painted over it because it is now coming out in big chunks along with the paint . I have high bubbles of the white power everywhere. How can I blend this safety and repaint this? Please Help Me
Thanks for the explanation. I have lived in Florida for 6 years and have concrete driveway which is painted grey. There is a low spot about 1 sq. ft. where the paint has failed, so it is bare concrete and water puddles there. Just a few months ago, these white growths started appearing for the first time, and I could swear that it was a living organism of sorts getting started. It behaves like you described. I’ve tried all kinds of mold/mildew removers which work for a day or two, then it is back with a vengeance….relieved to know that it probably not alive and is harmless.
I have been dealing with soil moisture seepage through a foundation of a 1943 home, for a couple of months now. I am so glad that I did not get out the bucket and brushes and add more moisture. I am running a fan and a dehumidifier 24 hours and the moisture collection is lessening. Thank you for this article.
Cant figure out If I have white mold or efflorescence. Its coming through the stone hearth below my chimney, Where the laminate floor butts up against the stone. There is more inside the firelace area (Chimey is unused and IS damp with possible leakage) I really want it to be efflorescence and NOT effin’ mold !!!! How do I tell the diff ? Help
Thank god for people like you that take their time and educate others in this fashion. You literally just calmed me down from a panic attack. My basement flooded last week and I am just now starting to see this white substance on my cement floor and cement walls. Instantly thought it was a form of mold that was white in color. After perusal your article, I can safely say it is not mold and efflorescence instead. Thank you good sir
Thanks, Tim! We just spent thousands pavers for the patio/pool deck. Looked great for the first 2-3 weeks and then the haze came. I asked about it, assuming it was concrete dust from the pool remodel but all this finger pointing started happening. Everybody is trying to figure it out and fix my issue (or make me go away – lol). Your explanation makes perfect sense. So thank you! One question though…we have this beautiful new pool and paver patio and I’d hate to have to wait a year to naturally make this go away. Should we endure the cloudy look? Or best the wait a year then clean and seal? I’m finding efflorescence cleaners online, but questioning if we should do that and seal now – or wait it out. Let me know your thoughts, I’d appreciate it. Thanks!
Thanks! I’ve typed this advice hundreds of times here on YouTube in the comments. Whenever you watch a article of mine and have questions, it’s always a good idea to wander off to my AsktheBuilder website – the dot com one. Why? Because invariably I’ve written MANY columns about the topic. This is true for efflorescence. Go read what I’ve written and you’ll discover your answers! Be SURE to subscribe to my FREE weekly newsletter while you’re there to get even more tips!
Tim thanks for explaining. I now understand that its my neighbors side of my cinder block retaining wall that’s causing a moisture problem on my side every few years. I keep painting it and it just chips away in chunks a year later. If I can’t fix my neighbors side wall can I put stone or something on the wall that will adhere and hide it better. I bet you’re gonna say…plant bushes
My block wall wall next to the basement steps has lots of white crystaline Efflorescence. And it looks like the block is breaking down, as the crumbled grey material falls to the floor. Now that wall is on one side of the garage but no one has parked in that side of the garage for decades, and the garage floor is only rarely wet. The efflorescence is confined to a “patch” about 3′ wide x 2′ tall, about 3′ above the basement wall. I hzve no idea where the water is coming from, in fact it is the other walls that leak water because the yard slopes down towards the house. But no such drainage issue where the affected wall is. There are no water pipes either. I’m wondering if I should drill some holes to let the water out.
Brand new pavers, right off the pallet, all of them have efflorescence. The date of the pallet is from 2021 so they sat in the stone yard for a year. You are saying don’t use water to clean. The stone yard told me to use water to clean. I am bummed, because from the get go, the brownish pavers are all coated with white. How can I remove this white residue without using harsh chemicals?
the moisture by cracks are likely moisture migration through the crack from ground moisture . just like you mentioned water proofing a wall… new slabs should have vapor barrier plastic underneath. i put it under 4″ of gravel when possible so rebar dont ruin it and the blead water has a temporary place to sit as concrete cures and hardens. saves headaches when coating concrete and preventing efflorescence issues.
a common cause of efflorescence in paving is people laying it on the wrong substrate. some pavers will use dolamite as its cheap and packs down hard but it contains a lot of salt which comes up into the pavers via capillary action every winter. Its best to use a good gravel (quartz for example) and then a clean sand thats low in salts. only using dolamite is cheap and lazy.
Efflorescence is common down here in the southwest part of the U.S……. you will see these salt deposits forming on stucco homes which is the most common type of home here in New Mexico…. especially homes that are built very close to the street where rain water gets splashed onto the exterior walls. Thanks for the Tips Tim!
We just put in an inground pool and payed tens of thousands for beautiful stamped and stained concrete around it. They built a hot tub alongside the pool that is covered with beautiful stone. When it rains, water runs down the stone and drains off of the concrete. I believe the salt or lime is coming off of those stones and rinsing down the concrete in 2 water trails, leaving efflorescence stains. It does not brush away. In fact, the only thing that removed it was a lime cleaner but it’s acidic on the concrete and is starting to wear off my concrete color and sealant. Again, it’s not my concrete that is producing efflorescence but the trail of water from the stacked stones (hot tub surround) draining off onto the concrete. Any ideas? I feel that it’s too late to seal the stacked and mortared stones.
Thank you I painted my concrete floor in a commercial space for a salon I am in the process of opening. I went back the next day and the efflorescence was in several places. I didn’t know what it was or what to do. I wiped it off with a wet mop, smh but now I know to just sweep it away. Thank you for your article.
I cannot give this a thumbs up even though, I want to. The efflorescence that I’ve seen in my neighborhood, as well as one of my customers, is that; it is damaging the concrete floor surface. One is within a garage the other is a covered carport. The garage floor was painted and that lasted only a couple months before the paint peeled up in numerous places. Both units have extreme damage to the top surface of the concrete. However, I have enough information now that I feel confident to fix both of them.
Can these salt things form between window panes? I have a window with dried white stuff all over the inside of the panes. It has never changed appearance in 5 years. I didn’t think it was mold because I always thought mold was black and mold grows. This has stayed the exact same way in five years. Could this be what you are describing? Thanks much
Thanks so much for this article Tim. I live in the Caribbean and saw the paint puff up and flake off. I then scraped off the paint, exposing the concrete wall in the room…a few days later, there was a white fuzz🤷🏾♀️🤯. I tried bleach and vinegar and nothing moved it… Thanks for letting me know to just brush it off. I was losing my mind over this. Thought that it was harmful to us.
Please Please Please, any and all help would be very helpful. So I have an old home and the walls were re pointed and look amazing. But…. the actual rocks are “malting”. What can I use to preserve these rocks and eliminate the dust, without taking froom the beautiful look of the stone walls? This is my basement which is utilized as a beautiful room… Please help!!
I have white mold like patches on my indoor terracotta tiles. These appeared after a heavy continuous downpour when the floor became damp. I completely dried the floor. Dusted and brushed the fine white dust . I used damp cloth to clean. Brushed with a combo of turpentine+coconut oil with cocopeet as adviced by diff websites in restoring terracotta floors. I don’t have prof equipment. Used hands to buff. The problem remains. My hands are aching. 😭🤕 Can you help? Oh I forgot to mention, I live in south India climate 12 to 24 degrees. Tks. Sudha
So what do we do when our hotel has a pool with a rustic look? We have an old world style finish and stain. The efflorescence never turns into salt we can sweep. Its always a wet deck and is in the concrete. This stuff never seems to go away. And we have no retaining walls. Just the earth under the pool and deck.
thank you so much’ actually i have tried the internal water proofing step but didn’t last very long, the salt came back after few years, trouble though the wall that has salt on it is a firewall next to my neighbor’s house. so i guess i’ll just brush it off for now and hope it will go away in time. thanks for the tip and hope to learn more from you in the future. God bless.
Thanks for the informative article. I find the efflorescence, as you showed, where cracks are in my garage floors. I tried sealing the cracks with concrete caulk sealer & I then used a concrete waterproof sealer on the whole floor, but the efflorescence came back. Since some cracks are fine, do you think it would help if I got a grinding tool to open the cracks to where I can properly fill them all? Would it help to reseal the floor with sealer? I feel the floor needs it because it would lessen the deterioration of the floor from winter salt deposits from my car.
What should I do if the efflorescence is underneath the carpeting in rooms in my house? We’re starting to notice lumps of it in other rooms underneath the carpeting. In one of the rooms we’ve taken up the carpeting and swept it away, but it always comes back within a month especially after a Houston downpour.
Hi, I have fiber cement siding and this efflorescence is building up on them. When I wipe over with a dry cloth it knocks some of it off but does not clean it completely leaving a noticeable white marks on my brown home. Any advice for cleaning? CLR was suggested to me but I am a bit worried about using that.
I’ve been sick for quite some time. Years. This spring, I noticed a thickness in the air. My mouth tasted like dirt. I kept getting dizzy and I’ve been losing my hearing since last summer. My sinuses & ears feel full. With that air thickness, I started having breathing difficulties. Then I noticed a white talcum powder-like feel on everything. It feels soft, even on my skin. It has cross contaminated to my car. An environmentalist wants $1,300 to run tests & do an inspection. I googled today & found “efflorescence.” I really don’t have $1,300. There has to be another way. I just feel like running from my home. White powder is all over all of my contents in my entire home. Your thoughts and advice on what to do, who to contact please. I’m contemplating selling because of this.
Thanks so much for this info! I just had new pavers put down – right before all the snow and ice last month. I think I made the mistake of sprinkling some snow melt down, as now I see this efflorescence in the area that I sprinkled. Do you recommend a particular type of salts (or should I not sprinkle anything) to melt ice?