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Looking to rid yourself of pesky bird poop? Almost everyone has this problem. To remove bird poop from concrete, first scrape off any excess with a putty knife and then use a scrubbing brush and warm water mixed with dish detergent to clean the area. If scraping the bird poop is difficult, white vinegar or baking soda mixed with warm water will soften it and break it down.
Concrete is porous, which means cleaning it can be a bit of a pain. This is especially true when the cleaning involves removing gifts left by our feathered friends, but putting off this chore will only make it more difficult. Birds defecate and urinate at the same time, which means their droppings contain large amounts of uric acid that can eat away at concrete. Bird poop is also alive with bacteria and can spread diseases including potentially fatal respiratory conditions like histoplasmosis, so removing it is not a job that should be ignored.
Steps to Clean Bird Poop Off of Concrete
All you will need to remove bird droppings from a concrete sidewalk, driveway or patio is a spray bottle, a scrubbing brush, some dish detergent and a hosepipe. You may also want to grab some baking soda, white vinegar or WD-40 if you are dealing with a large amount of bird poop. Before you begin, it may be a good idea to check the local weather report. If the forecast indicates that heavy rain is likely, you could sit back and let Mother Nature do some of the heavy lifting for you.
Use a Scraper to Remove Dried Poop
Before you start cleaning, you should try to scrape off as much of the bird poop as you can. Use an implement that is flat and flexible like a putty knife or wall scraper and avoid tools like chisels or screwdrivers that could damage your concrete. If the bird poop has been on your concrete for a while and stubbornly resists your efforts to scrape it off, you should soak it first to soften it up and break it down. You could use plain water to do this, but water mixed with baking soda or white vinegar will work much better.
Use a Hose to Remove Remaining Debris
If you own a power washer, you may be tempted to use it to remove the bird poop you have just scraped off your concrete. This would be a mistake as what you want to do is shepherd the bird poop to the gutter rather than disperse it over a wide area. Use a garden hose instead. If you need a little more pressure, just use your thumb to impede the water flow. If you don’t have a hosepipe, you can make do with a bucket or large bowl.
Water & Baking Soda Method
Sodium bicarbonate is the active ingredient in baking soda, and it is great at breaking down dried bird poop. Put four tablespoons of baking soda into a large spray bottle and then fill up the bottle with hot or warm water. Mix the solution well and then spray each bird poop stain several times. It will take a little time for the baking soda to do its work, so wait at least five minutes before rinsing the area down with a hosepipe. Once this is done, you can clean off any remaining traces of bird poop with a bowl of warm water mixed with dish detergent and a stiff scrubbing brush. A toothbrush will do in a pinch, but something a little larger will make the job a lot easier.
Water & Vinegar Method
If you do not have any baking soda, you can use white vinegar instead. White vinegar is not as strong as baking soda, so you should fill your spray bottle with an equal amount of white vinegar and hot or warm water. You should also let the vinegar soak into the remaining bird poop for about 30 minutes before hosing the area down.
Other options for breaking down bird poop include seltzer and WD-40. People have been using WD-40 to remove bird droppings from cars for years, but the versatile product works just as well on concrete. WD-40 is engineered to remove rust and grease, and it will break down even large deposits of bird poop in less than a minute.
Using Commercial Cleaners
Commercial cleaning products may not be the best choice for removing bird poop from concrete because they are extremely powerful and could cause discoloration. There are commercial products available that are specifically designed for cleaning concrete, but they do not work much better than baking soda, vinegar or WD-40 for getting rid of bird poop. If you do decide to use a commercial grade product, it is probably a good idea to test it on a small area first.
Leave the Messy Stuff to Nashville Concrete Contractors
If spending the afternoon removing bird poop from your driveway or patio does not sound like fun, you could always leave the job to the professionals at Nashville Concrete Contractors. Our customers always come first, and we never start a job that we can’t finish.