Winter in the Twin Cities can be brutal for roads, parking lots and all concrete paved areas. Subzero temperatures, constant snow, salt, mud and snow plows wreak havoc on these surfaces. The maintenance of your commercial properties prompts plans of winterizing during autumn, but spring might be an even more crucial time to give your garage spaces and ramps some attention.
Pressure Washing in the Spring
By the end of winter, your commercial parking garage has taken a beating while accumulating detritus and debris. Professional pressure washing is a terrific way to eradicate this kind of grime. Spring is the best time to schedule pressure washing services for several reasons:
- Winter accumulation and unsightly presentation – Minnesota winters can create a very long cold season with little opportunity to clean your parking garage. Sweeping will remove some of the material from concrete surfaces, but winter slush brought in by wet cars freezes and can’t be swept up. Leaves and contaminants can also freeze onto the pavement, remaining until a good thaw comes. Spring is the first chance you have to remove this, so the longstanding residue can leave a stained and sticky surface after the loose material is swept away.
- Impress patrons – Once the snow is gone, the grass greens up, landscaping begins, and patrons enjoy being outdoors, except for any parking garage which is still dirty, stained and salty. Your patrons wear nice shoes and clothes to work and value a clean walkway from their car to the exit. They also don’t want to track ground residue into their cars, which has likely been cleaned for spring as well. Having a spotless parking garage could make your facility stand out in a patron’s long-term parking garage choices.
- Residue damage – Even though your commercial parking garage is under a roof in most areas, cold snow water doesn’t evaporate quickly and collects in depressions, minute cracks and fractures in the concrete. This allows contaminants like oil, car fluids, and salt to collect and create damage problems. The resulting sticky residue is somewhat acidic, so it can destroy the pavement surface to create cracks and holes, exposing the steel rebar, and risking costly rust damage.
- Algae – As the temperatures raise in your parking garage, algae will grow in wet areas. Slimy surfaces develop quickly, leading to micro-cracks. These tiny blemishes catch more debris and again, lead to bigger cracks. You never want to allow your concrete surfaces to house algae of any kind, regardless of how tiny the amount. Sweeping and hosing down do not address this problem like professional pressure washing.
- Save money – Leaving winter residue and algae through the summertime risks greater damage to your parking garage and ramps. Removing it early on and making smaller early repairs prevents more costly repairs later in the season.
Twin City Sweeping will not only remove debris from your commercial parking garage and ramps, but we will use patented power washing technology and hot water to effectively remove stains, discoloration and contaminants safely and affordably. We also provide a variety of regular maintenance and pavement painting services, such as parking lot striping or stall numbering. When we tackle your problem areas, we use non-toxic and eco-friendly pretreatment and run rotary cleaners before using state-of-the-art pressure washing technology to rinse your surfaces down. We don’t use subcontractors, either—when you call Twin City Sweeping, you get Twin City Sweeping. Give us a call at 612-499-2680 for all your interior and exterior commercial pavement surfaces, or submit our form online for a free estimate. We serve the Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Metro and the surrounding suburbs.