Cleaning Coated Concrete Deck (Red Clay Stains)

[BrianSD]

I apologize if this is covered somewhere else already, but if it is, I couldn't find it.

We have an concrete pool deck surrounding our in-ground Gunite pool. We recently had the deck coating replaced because the old coating was very long in the tooth (also the entire pool area took a hit from a 100+ foot tree last fall, but that is another story). Anyway, the local pool company stripped the old coating off (don't know what brand, but something like Kool Deck) and installed a new Sundeck coating. It looked great for about 6 weeks until the fence crew came to do their thing (remember that tree I mentioned?). After the fence crew was done, the nice clean light grey deck was red from them walking all over the place with Georgia red clay on their boots.

The fence guys tried scrubbing with just water, but didn't get too far. We've tried Oxy-Clean, diluted bleach, a pressure washer, diluted muriatic acid, etc. and there are still stains (though not as noticeable as before). Does anyone here have any suggestions for removing red clay stains? I'm afraid to hit it with really strong stuff because the pool guys spilled some muriatic acid on it when they were acid washing the pool and it changed the color. I don't want to damage the coating just to clean it.

On another note, should this have even happened? The fence guy says they've never had this happen before. They've just wash it off with a hose. The pool company doesn't really offer much help other than to quote $1300 to come out and re-paint it. My wife talked to someone at the manufacturer who was helpful and suggested the muriatic acid (which didn't really work). When she called back to tell them that the acid didn't do it, she got someone else who basically said "stains aren't covered by our warranty".

Thanks in advance

 

[Richard320]

The red is probably from Iron. Try mashing up some Vitamin C and spread a paste of it somewhere for ten minutes or so and see what happens.

 

[VinceL]

Living in North Carolina, I know the issues of dreaded red clay stains. Our pool deck and some sidewalks approaching the pool area are just brushed concrete. We were told that the concrete was very susceptible to getting red clay stains until the concrete fully cured. The workers on the pool after the concrete was poured (fence installers, etc.) were pretty careful to put cardboard where they had to step on the concrete. But, we did get some red clay stains. We also had a number of red clay paw prints from critters roaming through the yard when the ground was wet.

The best thing we have found to remove red clay stains from clothing, carpet, window frames on the house, and the concrete is Krud Kutter's Red Clay Stain Remover. There are many varieties of Krud Kutter. The one made specifically for red clay has worked well for us.

We've had our pool for a few years now, and now the red clay stains pretty well wash off the concrete after heavy rain. For stubborn stains, I use a pressure washer.