Muriatic Acid Cleaning Concrete Floors

Research what cleaning products react with the kind of acid you ll be using and plan ahead.

Muriatic acid cleaning concrete floors.

A smooth concrete floor must be roughened before paint will stick to it. It also reduces the surface alkalinity of the concrete that can cause some paints to adhere poorly. Muriatic acid is the strongest acid available to the public. Muriatic acid should never be used indoors and has to be thoroughly neutralized before disposal.

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. If you re just removing mineral deposits efflorescence use a much weaker mix 10 1 or 16 1 for muriatic acid. If the acid comes in contact with skin wash it away with large amounts of water. Muriatic acid acts like liquid sandpaper by roughening the surface of the concrete.

For many years it has been the standard cleaning method to prepare concrete for coatings installations to remove stains of any type from concrete and to remove concrete slurry or efflorescence from bricks. Muriatic acid is a strong acid cleaner used on masonry surfaces to clean stains. The most common acids used to clean concrete and bricks are hydrochloric acid muriatic or phosphoric acid. Acid etching is the process of applying hydrochloric muriatic or buffered phosphoric acid to a slab then rinsing it off with water.

It is excellent for cleaning away rust stains and efflorescence but must be used with extreme caution. These solutions are for etching the concrete. Even if you rinse the floor with water the cleaning products you use may leave residues that will react with the acid in dangerous ways. With proper use it removes stains when other cleaners fail.

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. You roughen such a floor by etching it with muriatic acid. Step 2 create a barrier. Pour dry dishwasher detergent or a concrete cleaning agent on the stain.

Let the detergent sit for 45 minutes then pour boiling water on the area and vigorously scrub the stained section with the broom.