# New concrete driveway stained



## crumb (Dec 20, 2011)

So our home is new and the front concrete driveway was poured in December. They placed tarps over it to keep it from freezing and when they removed it there were designs stained into the concrete wherever the tarp had touched the drying concrete. Months later the ugly designs are still there. Is there a way to remove these stains?


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## Bondo (Dec 8, 2007)

Ayuh,... Give it time, 'n it'll wear off...


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## crumb (Dec 20, 2011)

Here is a picture of it:


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## crumb (Dec 20, 2011)

How much time is something like this supposed to take? It has been a couple months. Are we talking a year?


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## Bondo (Dec 8, 2007)

crumb said:


> How much time is something like this supposed to take? It has been a couple months. *Are we talking a year?*


Ayuh,.... Possibly, or less....

it took 28 days to cure....


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## stadry (Jun 20, 2009)

if its any consolation, most hgwys have the same trouble in areas,,, it will wear off as tires abrade the paste,,, we had the same problem last year - rain came in,,, we went back & pressure washed the paste which opened the surface & removed the stains,,, h/o was happy but i wouldn't have done it on my own d/w


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## juryduty (Mar 10, 2008)

Second the pressure washing. This exact kind of thing happened to my neighbor, although it was more the result of a sloppy concrete coloring job. Two years later it is just now starting to weather off. I was pressure washing my driveway over the summer and noticed it can actually take off a thin layer of concrete if you use a 10-degree hoze nozzle, which should help the problem.


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## stadry (Jun 20, 2009)

that ' thin layer ' of concrete is actually the paste ( cream ) that's brought to the top by finish troweling,,, we prefer using a turbo nozzle - its faster & easier to blend the resultant surface :yes: 10* is touchy for many to use


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## analogmusicman (Feb 4, 2008)

don't know. I had a concrete driveway poured 7 years ago, the tarps that were put on seem to have stained it and the stains are still there. of course,the contractor was gone right after he got his money.

tnx,


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## Creteexpert (Apr 23, 2010)

Some of the white staining you are seeing is efflorescence. This is basically dried salts (calcium carbonate) that naturally rises up through the concrete along with moisture vapor. Since none of the moisture was allowed to evaporate into the air, any salts or minerals the moisture carried to the surface was deposited on the surface of the concrete. 

Some of the darker areas are from the wrinkles in the tarps not allowing the concrete surface to cure evenly. The different rate of evaporation between the part of the tarps that laid flat on the concrete and the parts that were wrinkled causes this. These can take a year of two to fade.

Pressure washing and scrubbing the surface will help remove the efflorescence and should fade the effect you are seeing now. I would prepare to live with this for a while though. If you feel, after a year, the blotchy-ness hasn't subsided, you could acid-stain the concrete which would give the concrete some color and a mottled look, then apply a good concrete sealer. I know this isn't what you had in mind, but is a possible solution to hide the shadowing you see now.


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## jomama45 (Nov 13, 2008)

I agree with the others that it will take a long time for the stains to completely disappear. I use poly "Visqeen" as the last resort when covering concrete, and pull it off as soon as possibly, as this is fairly common when covering concrete with plastic, especially when the concrete has chloride-based accelerant.


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