Table of Contents
The short answer
Pressure washing is the right tool for hard ground: concrete, interlocking blocks and outdoor tiles that have gone grey under tyres, feet and a year of dust. It lifts the film that a broom and a hose leave behind. It does not remove oil on its own, and it is the wrong tool for a long list of things that stand round a driveway: soft stone, paint, render, wood, window seals, car bodywork, AC units and anything electrical.
Three things decide how a wash turns out. Oil is absorbed and degreased before the water touches it, and an old stain is expected to fade to a shadow, not to vanish. The sand between paving blocks is kept in place by the way the lance is held, and topped up afterwards. And the pressure is chosen for the surface, which means the first job is knowing what the surface is.
IHR Dream Cleaning's pressure washing service covers driveways, parking areas, outdoor walkways and outdoor tiles for villas and compounds. A standard villa driveway typically takes one to two hours. There is no list price. The job is quoted by surface area, staining and access, from photos or a free inspection, before anyone comes.
What pressure washing does well
Sweeping moves what is loose. A hose moves what is loose and wet. Neither shifts the dirt that has been pressed into the texture of the paving: fine dust wetted by dew and irrigation and dried by the sun, rubber and road film from tyres, the dark growth that takes hold in damp shade. A pressure washer drives a thin, fast sheet of water into that texture and lifts the dirt out of it. On sound concrete and block paving the difference shows as soon as the surface dries.
- The grey film on driveways, parking bays and paths that makes paving look older than it is.
- The crust left when wind-blown dust has been wetted and dried several times.
- Green and black growth on shaded paving, once it has been treated.
- Bird droppings, leaf marks and the sticky fall from date palms and other trees, while they are reasonably fresh.
- Mud and silt after rain or a burst pipe.
- The dirt line along kerbs and steps and at the foot of a boundary wall.
What it does not do
Water under pressure cleans by force. It does nothing chemical. A stain that has soaked in, or reacted with the surface, needs treating first, and some do not come out at all. The white bloom in the table is efflorescence, the same salt that appears on walls and is described in facade cleaning, pressure washing or repainting compared.
| Mark | Pressure alone | What it needs |
|---|---|---|
| Engine oil and grease | Spreads it or drives it deeper | Absorbing and degreasing first |
| Tyre marks | Lightens them | Degreaser and a stiff brush first |
| Rust from furniture, lawn feed or irrigation | No effect | A rust treatment the surface tolerates |
| White sprinkler scale | Little effect | A scale treatment the surface tolerates |
| Paint and cement splashes | Little effect; forcing it scars the paving | Careful scraping or a specialist remover |
| White bloom on newish blocks | Goes, then returns as it dries | Dry brushing and time |
| Faded, worn blocks | None | Nothing: it is wear, not dirt |
First, know what the ground is made of
The machine that cleans a concrete slab will scar a sandstone path. Before any wash a technician looks at the material and at its condition, and you can do the same when you take the photos.
| Surface | How it takes a wash | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Interlocking concrete blocks | Well, with a wide spray held at an angle | Sand washed out of the joints; rocking blocks |
| Cast or stamped concrete | Well | A coloured or sealed top coat that can lift |
| Exposed-aggregate concrete | Well, at moderate pressure | Loose stones |
| Outdoor ceramic and porcelain tiles | The tile well, the grout less so | Cracked, hollow or loose tiles; crumbling grout |
| Granite and other hard stone | Usually well | The mortar joints |
| Sandstone, limestone and travertine | Low pressure only | A face that flakes; filled holes; acid cleaners |
| Marble | Not a pressure-washing surface | Lost polish and etching |
| Asphalt | Gently | Loose surface stones; patches softened by oil |
| Timber and composite decking | Low pressure along the grain, or by hand | Raised grain and stripes |
| Artificial grass | A hose and a stiff brush | Infill washed away |
Condition matters as much as material
A sound surface in any of the harder materials takes a wash. A tired one may not. Look for blocks that rock underfoot, tiles that sound hollow when tapped, grout that crumbles under a key, a top coat that is already peeling and cracks with weeds in them. Mention each one when you book. Our service page asks for known damage and loose tiles to be flagged beforehand so that the pressure is adjusted, and a wash planned round a weak patch does far less harm than one that discovers it.
Smooth, indoor-style tiles on a covered terrace rarely need a pressure washer at all. They are swept and mopped like a floor, which belongs to an ordinary hourly visit: two hours by one cleaner is AED 65 with your own products, and every visit length is on the price list.
Oil stains: absorb, degrease, then wash
Oil is the reason most driveways are washed, and it is the stain pressure washing handles worst by itself. Oil does not mix with water. A jet aimed at a fresh patch pushes some of it across the surface and the rest further in. Concrete and block paving are full of fine pores, and summer heat thins the oil and helps it travel down. So the method is to take out as much as possible dry, break down what is left with a degreaser, and only then wash.
- On a fresh spill, cover it at once with something absorbent. Cat litter, sawdust or dry sand all work. Tread it in, leave it for several hours, then sweep it up and put it in the bin. Do not hose it.
- Wet the stain and work a degreaser made for paving into it with a stiff brush. Leave it for as long as the label says, and do not let it dry out on the surface.
- Brush again, then rinse. Two or three short rounds usually do more than one long one.
- Wash the whole area afterwards, not only the patch, or the cleaned spot shows as a pale island.
- Judge it dry. Wet paving hides oil.
Why an old stain leaves a shadow
A stain that has sat through a summer or two has gone deep, and the lighter part of the oil has baked off and left the dark residue behind. Degreasing lifts what is near the surface. Each round takes a little more, and the usual result is a pale grey shadow where there was a black patch. Our service page says the same: very old or deeply set stains may lighten a great deal without disappearing completely. It is better to hear that before the visit than after it.
A shadow can also darken again a week or two after a wash. Oil that was deep in the pores creeps back up as the paving dries and warms. A second degreasing deals with it, provided the car has stopped dripping.
When a shadow matters there are two further options. A poultice is a paste spread over the stain and left to dry, so that it draws oil up out of the pores, and it sometimes lifts what brushing could not. And on block paving the stained blocks can be lifted and replaced by a paving contractor, which is the one certain cure. Neither is part of a standard wash.
What not to put on an oil stain
The wrong product makes a stain larger or adds a second kind of damage.
- Petrol, thinners and other solvents. They are a fire risk, they carry the oil wider and deeper, and they dissolve the binder in asphalt.
- Acid cleaners. They do nothing to oil, and they etch concrete, limestone and marble.
- Bleach. It does not dissolve oil either, and it must never be mixed with a degreaser or any other cleaner. Bleach with an acid or with ammonia gives off a toxic gas.
- A wire brush on blocks or stone. It scratches, and the bristles it sheds leave rust specks.
Stop the drip
A car that marks the same bay every night will stain clean paving again within the week. A drip tray under the engine is cheap, and the leak itself is a job for a garage. Have that sorted before paying to have the stain treated.
Tyre marks and the other common stains
The black arcs where a car turns are rubber and road film worked into warm paving. A degreaser and a stiff brush ahead of the wash take most of them out, and the rest fade. Rust rings under metal furniture and planters, orange specks from lawn feed and the white scale left by sprinklers each need a treatment chosen for the surface. The products that dissolve rust and scale are acids, and acid marks limestone, marble and some concrete finishes. Dates and other fruit dropped by trees leave brown marks that fade with washing and sunlight if they are dealt with soon, and set if they are left for a season.
Sand: the joints in block paving, and the sand the wind brings
The sand that holds block paving together
Interlocking blocks are not stuck down. They sit on a bed of sand, and the narrow joints between them are packed with more sand. That joint sand is what locks each block against its neighbours, so that the weight of a car is shared across many blocks and not carried by one. Take the sand out and the blocks begin to rock, their edges chip, water runs down the open joints and washes out the bedding, and a dip forms where the wheels run. Open joints also invite weeds and ants.
A jet pointed straight down a joint empties it in seconds. A careful operator does three things to prevent that.
- Uses a wide fan of water on block paving, not a pencil jet or a rotating nozzle.
- Holds the lance at a shallow angle and sweeps it diagonally across the joints, so that the water skims the surface.
- Keeps moving. Lingering on one spot digs out the joint and leaves a pale scar on the block.
Topping up the joints afterwards
Some sand is lost even so. Once the paving has dried completely, dry jointing sand is brushed across it until the joints are full again, and the surplus is swept off. It has to be done dry. Damp sand bridges over the top of a joint and leaves it hollow underneath.
Re-sanding is not listed on our pressure washing page. If your driveway is interlock, ask about it when you book, so that it is clear beforehand who tops up the joints and when.
The sand the wind brings
After a windy day there may be a layer of loose sand over the whole yard and drifts in the corners. That is a job for a broom and a shovel before it is a job for water. Washing a thick layer of sand turns it to slurry, carries it to the drain and blocks it. Sweep it up dry, bag it, and wash what is left. On the desert edge this is the routine after every storm, and the order for the whole house is in cleaning a villa after a sandstorm.
Surfaces round a driveway that should not be blasted
Most pressure-washing damage happens at the edges of the job, where the paving meets something softer. A careful team works out those edges before the machine starts. There it lowers the pressure, changes to a brush or leaves the surface alone.
| Surface | What a close jet does | What suits it |
|---|---|---|
| Natural stone and marble | Opens the pores, lifts flakes, dulls a polish | Low pressure or hand washing, neutral cleaner |
| Painted walls, kerbs and floor markings | Strips the paint in patches | A gentle wash, or a planned repaint |
| Rendered walls | Cuts lines and drives water into cracks | A low-pressure wall wash |
| Timber doors, gates and pergolas | Raises the grain and leaves stripes | A damp cloth or a soft brush |
| Windows, glass doors and their seals | Forces water past the seals; tears insect screens | Washing by hand |
| Loose or crumbling grout | Empties the joint | Regrouting first, then a gentle wash |
| Cars and motorbikes | Throws grit at the paint; lifts lacquer at stone chips | Moving them off the plot |
| AC outdoor units | Flattens the cooling fins and wets the electrics | Leaving them to an AC technician |
| Lights, sockets, gate motors, intercoms | Drives water past seals made for rain | Keeping the jet away; wiping by hand |
House walls are a separate job
Boundary walls of bare block or sound masonry are commonly washed along with the paving. The painted and rendered walls of the house are not more driveway. They are cleaned with a low-pressure wash, and our facade cleaning covers the walls that can be reached safely at ground level and low height. The two services are often booked for the same visit.
Other things to keep the jet off
A few more things sit at ground level and suffer from a careless pass.
- Planted beds, and the bark or gravel on them, which a jet scatters across clean paving.
- Drip lines and sprinkler heads.
- The soft sealant in expansion joints and under door thresholds.
- The edge of a pool. Dirty water and degreaser should run away from it, not into it.
- Tiled roof terraces. A jet strips grout and sealant, and the waterproof layer under the tiles is what keeps the rooms below dry.
Where the water goes
A wash moves a surprising amount of dirt, and all of it leaves in the water. Decide where that water will go before starting. Pressure washing needs three things on site: an outdoor tap, a power point, and a drain or a gravel area that can take the run-off.
- Sweep first. Every shovel of sand and leaves that goes in the bin is one that does not go down the drain.
- Work towards the drain, and away from the house, the pool and the front door.
- Rinse degreaser towards the drain with plenty of water, and keep it off the lawn and the beds.
- Shut the windows and doors on that side of the house, and move doormats and shoes.
- Lift the grating afterwards and clear the silt from the gully or the channel, or the next rain finds it blocked.
What standing water tells you
A puddle that will not drain marks a low spot or a blocked outlet, which is why our service ends with a check for proper drainage as well as even cleaning. A yard drain that was already slow should be cleared before the wash, not discovered during it.
The fine spray also settles on ground-floor glass, and because the tap water here is very hard it dries into white spots. Glass is cleaned after the paving, never before.
Water on roads and shared areas
Communities and the municipality have their own rules about water and wash-off running onto roads and shared areas. We do not list them here. Ask your community management if you are unsure, and plan the wash so that the water stays on your plot and goes to your own drain.
Noise, timing and drying
Pressure washers are loud, and the noise carries along a row of villas. Choose a time that is fair to the neighbours, and if your community sets hours for noisy work, keep to them. Our visits run from 8 AM – 8 PM, every day.
Heat matters as much as the clock. On paving too hot to stand on, a degreaser dries before it has worked and leaves a mark of its own, and the rinse water flashes off and leaves the dirt behind in streaks. The cooler months are the season for this work. In warmer weather the early morning or the late afternoon gives a better result than midday, and the shaded side of the plot is done while it is still in shade.
Afterwards the surface is wet and, for a while, slippery. Keep feet and tyres off it until it has dried. How long that takes depends on the weather and the material, so plan to leave the cars on the street. Paving looks its brightest only when it is fully dry, and that is the moment to judge the result.
Safety: treat the jet as a blade
This section is for anyone using a machine at home, and for everyone else on the plot while one is running.
- The jet cuts skin. At close range it can also force water and dirt under the skin through a wound that looks small. That is an injection injury, and it needs a hospital the same day, however minor it looks.
- Wear closed, sturdy shoes, never sandals, and eye protection. Feet and hands are what get hurt.
- Never point the lance at a person, a pet or your own foot, and never test the spray on a hand.
- Hold the lance with both hands. It kicks back when the trigger is pulled, which is why it is never used from a ladder, a wall or a chair.
- Grit flies. Keep children and pets indoors and everyone else well back.
- Water and electricity are side by side. Use a socket on a circuit with a working earth-leakage trip, keep the plug and any extension lead off the wet ground, and never spray a socket, a light or the machine itself.
- Run a petrol machine only in the open air. Its exhaust is poisonous in a garage or an enclosed yard.
- Wet paving with degreaser on it is slippery. Walk slowly.
A home machine or a booked visit
A small electric pressure washer is enough to rinse a sound concrete path or a few square metres of blocks, and for that it is a reasonable weekend job if the safety points above are kept.
Three things are harder at home. A lance cleans in stripes, and an even finish over a whole driveway takes practice, which is why professionals often use a flat, hooded surface cleaner that covers the ground evenly. Oil needs the degreasing stage, patience and somewhere for the run-off to go. And a mixed yard, with stone steps, a painted wall and a timber gate round the blocks, needs someone who knows when to take the pressure down and when to put the lance away.
If the surface is old, mixed or stained, or the paving is interlock that has never been re-sanded, send photos and ask before you buy a machine.
What a visit involves, and what to send
Our published process has five stages.
- You tell us which areas need washing, such as the driveway, the paths and the parking area, and roughly how big they are.
- The technician checks the material and the kind of staining, because different surfaces and stains need different pressure and a different approach.
- Oil stains and ground-in grime are pre-treated where needed and given time to work.
- The whole area is washed at a pressure suited to the surface.
- The area is checked with you for even cleaning and drainage, and debris pushed onto neighbouring surfaces is rinsed off before the job is signed off.
What to send for a price
The price depends on the area, the staining and the access, so those are what the photos should show.
- A wide photo of each area with a car or a person in it for scale, and its rough length and width.
- A close photo of the surface, so that the material can be identified.
- A photo of each oil stain, and how long it has been there if you know.
- Anything loose, cracked, painted or delicate, and any electrics near the ground.
- Where the outdoor tap, the power point and the drain are.
- The gate the team should use and where a vehicle can park.
Before the team arrives
Move cars, outdoor furniture, planters, toys and doormats off the area, and leave the cars on the street until the surface has dried. Point out the stains that matter most to you at the start, so that they are treated first and have the longest time to work.
Time and price
Our service page gives one to two hours for a standard villa driveway. Larger areas, such as a compound parking area or several paths, are confirmed once the total is known, and heavy staining adds time for the pre-treatment to work. Shared compound parking is a common booking.
Once the price is confirmed you pay by card from My bookings on this website. Jobs of AED 1,000 or more take a 30% advance by the same link. Every price includes VAT.
Pressure washing is often booked alongside facade cleaning or a villa deep clean. If the garden, the walls and the glass are being done as well, the paving comes after the garden and the walls and before the glass. The whole sequence is in the villa outdoor season checklist.
How often, and keeping it clean between washes
Driveways, courtyards and boundary walls are usually washed once or twice a year, and more often where sand, oil spots or bird droppings build up. A few habits stretch the interval.
- Sweep every week. Dust that is swept away dry never becomes the grey film.
- Blot a fresh oil drip on the day it appears.
- Rinse off bird droppings and fallen fruit promptly.
- Stand pots and planters on feet and move them now and then. The damp ring under a pot is where growth and stains begin.
- Turn back sprinklers that spray the paving. Daily wetting leaves white scale in the sun and green growth in the shade.
- Pull weeds from the joints while they are small, and top up the joint sand where it has sunk.
- Clear the drain grating before the cooler months, when the rare heavy rain arrives.
Common questions
Will pressure washing damage my interlock or tiles?
Not if the pressure and the spray are matched to the surface and the joints are respected. The risks are known ones: sand washed out between blocks, grout washed out between tiles, and an old or cracked tile lifting. Tell us about loose or damaged pieces before the visit so that the pressure is adjusted round them.
How soon can I park on the driveway?
When it is dry. That depends on the weather and the surface, so we do not give a fixed number of hours. Keep feet and tyres off it for a short time after the wash, and for longer if the joint sand is to be topped up, because that is done on dry paving.
Should the paving be sealed afterwards?
Sealing is a separate job from washing, and it is not listed on our service page. In general terms a sealer makes paving easier to keep clean and slows the next oil stain. It has to go onto a surface that is perfectly clean and completely dry, it can darken the colour, and some sealers make a surface slippery when wet. Ask a paving specialist, and test a corner nobody sees first.
Can the boundary wall and the house walls be done on the same visit?
Boundary walls are commonly washed with the driveway. House walls are quoted as facade cleaning, at a lower pressure, and only where they can be reached safely from the ground or a step ladder. A lance is never used from a ladder. Ask for both when you book and they can be planned together. Where the reach stops is explained in what a cleaning team can safely reach.
Can an apartment balcony be pressure washed?
As a rule, no. The water has nowhere to go except over the edge or into a small drain shared with the flats below, and the spray lands on the neighbours. A balcony is swept, vacuumed and mopped, as set out in how to clean an apartment balcony.
Does the team need my water and electricity?
Yes. Pressure washing needs an outdoor tap and a power point on site, and a drain or a gravel area for the run-off. If the yard has no outdoor socket, or the tap is a long way from the driveway, say so when you book.
Booking a wash
Photograph the area, note the material and the stains, and check that a tap, a socket and a drain are within reach. If a car is dripping, deal with that first.
Our pressure washing page lists what is included. Book online, send the photos to info@ihrdreamcleaning.com, and we confirm the surface, the method and the price before the visit. We work every day from 8 AM – 8 PM.
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