Have you just had a resin driveway installed and you’re not sure how best to care for it? Here’s everything you need to know about keeping a resin bound surface clean and well-maintained.
Regular cleaning for your resin bound driveway
A resin bound surface needs to be cleaned regularly, just like any other surface! If your resin driveway isn’t cleaned regularly you’ll find that it is much harder to maintain.
To keep on top of your resin bound driveway’s maintenance, you should clean it regularly by doing the following:
Sweeping your resin surface
Using a stiff brush, you should regularly sweep your resin bound driveway. You can use it to remove debris and dirt on the resin driveway, keeping your resin surface tidy.
You should sweep your resin bound driveway at least once every couple of weeks. This will stop you from having to do deep cleaning as often.
Pressure washing your resin driveway
Resin Crew say that in addition to regularly sweeping the resin bound driveway, you will also need to jet wash or pressure wash your resin driveway on a regular basis. However, you need to make sure that you do not use a jet wash system with boiling water, as jet washing at too high a temperature can damage the resin driveway.
With the jet washing, you should use a jet wash system with a pressure of less than 150 bar. If you jet wash with a stronger system than that, you will find that jet washing may damage resin bound driveways. You will also need to hold your jet wash nozzle 20cm away from the surface of the resin bound paving and spray from the top to bottom. You should do so using a sweeping motion.
If you don’t have a jet washer, you can hose down resin bound surfaces instead. On a resin bound driveway, this shouldn’t cause puddles or flooding, as the water should be able to pass through the resin driveway.
Removing tough marks and stains from a resin bound surface
Sometimes, your resin driveway will require more than just a regular clean. When that happens, you will need to spot treat the stains and tough marks.
Removing chewing gum
Chewing gum is one of the most annoying things to remove from anything that it gets stuck to, and resin driveways are no exception. If you want to remove chewing gum from your resin driveways you can do so using freeze spray.
Simply spray the freezing spray onto the gum and then scrape the frozen gum away with a plastic scraper.
Removing tyre marks
To remove tyre marks from the resin bound paving you will need to use white spirit and an emulsifier to wash and wipe down the driveway surface. Then use a fan assisted pressure washer to spray the tyre marks away carefully, making sure not to hold it too close to the resin bound driveway. You should act fairly quickly after you notice tyre marks as this will make it easier to remove them.
Removing oil and fuel spillages
It’s hard to avoid getting oil or fuel spillage on resin bound driveways, as it is with any driveway surface. When it does happen, like with tyre marks, it is important to deal with it fast. The people over at Triple Clean Gang say that to remove oil or fuel marks you should wash the oil spills off of the resin bound driveway using soapy water, and then use a pressure washer to gently clean the surface.
You may need a degreasing agent to help remove the oil in larger oil spills. If you plan to use a degreasing agent, though, it is important to test it on a smaller area first to make sure that it doesn’t damage the surface.
Removing snow and ice
To remove snow and ice you should make sure to use a plastic shovel so that you do not accidentally damage the surface.
How to maintain your resin bound surface
As well as cleaning the resin paving with a stiff broom, you will also need to try hard to maintain it as part of your home maintenance. To do so, you should:
Avoid heavy objects
Resin bound driveways are meant for cars, and they’re great for that. But for anything more than light vehicle traffic, you should use wooden planks to protect the surface of the resin drive.
Cut back plants and shrubs
To prevent moss growth and weed growth you should cut back plants and bushes to keep the resin bound driveway surface free from growth and plant debris. If necessary even use some weed killer.
Clean regularly
You should also make sure that, on a weekly and monthly basis, you try to keep on top of the cleaning. You should do all of the cleaning listed above in order to prevent you from having to work on getting the original surface restored.
Tips for cleaning resin driveways
- Mild household detergent can be great at removing oil
- Metal objects can damage the surface
- Avoid using bleach solution on the resin driveway
- Stubborn stains may need treating multiple times
- Sweeping leaf debris away will likely need doing more during the autumn months
- Never use excessive pressure on the surface otherwise you will risk damaging it
- Detritus materials should be removed before you begin to pressure wash
