White foot prints on new (poured yesterday) concrete deck, will they come off or is it ruined?
Question:We just had a new concrete deck put around our pool yesterday AM, the dogs walked all over it last night and left little white foot prints all over it, i thought it was just mud until i went to wash it off today, the foot prints are still on there... Will this eventually fade Or is it ruined?
Answers:
If the concrete was poured in the morning and not walked on until the night, the concrete should be fine. Concrete usually sets up well enough to walk on in about 5 hours. What kind of finish is on the concrete? And can you feel the imprint of the foot in the concrete, or is it just a discoloration? If it is an imprint, it is there to stay, if it's a discoloration, it could be dyed, stained, or painted over to match the rest of the concrete.
Let it sit for 7 days and then pressure wash it. If it doesn't come off, I don't think it will.
If they are prints on the surface they can be scrubbed off. More likely they are dents in the concrete and will be there for decades. Maybe they did not see your sign telling everybody to keep off the fresh concrete.
Check with the company that put in the deck. Maybe they can rub them off by rubbing-down the top surface. Concrete takes weeks to achieve full strength so they may have an answer about what they can do quickly based on past experience.
Try a Muriatic acid rinse. You can find it at the hardware store in the concrete/masonry section. Follow the instruction carefully including the safety instructions.
it will not fade because it is molded into the concrete.
Eventually the footprints will flake off or you can scrape at it for a long time. Either way the deck will not be ruined.
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