Driveway cleaningin Pompano Beach, FL.

Pompano's OASIS reuse customers may water any day of the week outside 10am to 4pm, and many irrigation clocks run most mornings. A head that throws water on the edge of the drive does it far more often than a drinking-water system on the county's two-day schedule would, and the reclaimed water carries some nitrogen and phosphorus.

The result is a green or black fan along the edge of the concrete lined up with each head, and it comes back quickly after a plain rinse. The wash kills it, the post-treatment slows it, and turning the heads so they water the grass and not the drive stops most of it. On reuse water, that small adjustment matters more than on any other kind of irrigation.

Cresthaven dates to 1956, and many of its bungalows were expanded later, so a single lot can have a drive poured sixty years ago next to a newer slab or apron from an addition. The old concrete is worn and open, the new is smooth, and they clean differently.

The old sections get a gentler pass with more chemistry and a longer pre-treatment. Joints between old and new are finished by hand. The clean will make the whole drive even and clean, but it will not make the old section match the new one, because the surface that has worn away cannot be put back. Michael tells you that before he starts. Sidewalks and the swale are included if you want them.

On canal lots in Garden Isles and Harbor Village, the concrete behind the house often runs to the seawall cap: a pool deck, a walk to the dock, a patio. Salt settles on it, dries into a crust, and holds a grey film of algae and dirt that makes the surface slick when wet.

It is cleaned with the surface cleaner where it fits and the wand at low pressure along the seawall edge, with the rinse steered away from the water. Stamped or colored concrete gets a lighter touch because the color is in the top layer. If the seawall itself is cracked or spalling, that is pointed out, since it is a marine contractor's job, not a cleaner's.