You May Have To Reseal The Driveway After Cleaning It
Your driveway, be it concrete, asphalt, pavers, or another solid non-gravel or non-dirt surface, looks so much better when it's clean. But the cleaning sessions you give it may be contributing to its long-term cosmetic demise. Some cleaning methods can be so hard on the driveway's surface that the top sealing coat becomes damaged. Depending on what you're doing, you may need to reseal the driveway after you're done cleaning it.
Mild Cleaning Usually Isn't a Problem
First, mild cleaning — sweeping with a soft-bristled broom, hosing it down with your garden hose, and so on — usually doesn't do anything to the top sealcoat. Those are very gentle activities that should leave the seal intact. Yes, you could always accidentally pick up a rock with the broom and scratch the sealed surface, but that is a rare thing. So if all you've been doing is sweeping or hosing down, you should be fine there. You may still want to add another sealing layer occasionally just to be sure, but the cleaning itself would not be to blame.
Brushes and Other Abrasives Are Problems
However, when you start to use more abrasive methods of cleaning, then you seriously risk scratching up the top seal. Using scrubbing brushes to remove stains can really mess up the sealing layer; after all, you're trying to scrub material off the top of the driveway material. Using a degreaser or other cleaner to loosen up the stain particles can help, but that brush is still going to contact the surface of the driveway.
Other abrasive cleaners have the same effect. If anything you're doing when cleaning the driveway includes scraping or scrubbing the surface, you are likely removing some of the sealant. You'll need to reseal the area you cleaned once you're done.
Pressure Washing Is Fun but Harsh
If hosing down the driveway won't hurt it, would pressure washing be a good cleaning substitute when you need something stronger than a garden hose? Not really. Pressure washing can be fun and therapeutic; it's like the cleaning version of bubble wrap. However, the jet of water that comes out of a pressure washer hose is strong enough to slice an apple in midair, so you can imagine what it's doing to the very top layer of the driveway. Like an abrasive brush, the water hits the surface hard enough to knock stain particles loose, and that can take sealant with it.
When you've cleaned your driveway to your satisfaction, contact a sealcoating company and have them redo the sealant. That will help preserve the clean look of the driveway and prevent cracking.
