leaf stain concrete cleaning
Tannins from leaves and oaks
Leaves left on concrete and wood leave brown prints. They are not oil, and they are not always a one-rinse fix.
Tannins are the brown compounds in leaves and bark. Wet leaves sitting on concrete, a fence, or a deck print that brown into the surface. It is organic, so a soft wash often lightens it, and on a sealed, sound surface it may lift cleanly. On raw, open wood or old concrete it can hang on.
The prevention is boring: blow the leaves off before they sit wet for a week. We are not a weekly lawn crew. We can clean the stain that already happened. We will not pretend a wash replaces blowing the deck.
Do not confuse a tannin print with rust. Leaf prints follow the shape of a leaf. Rust follows a sprinkler or a piece of metal. The chemistry is different, and we do not spend your rust treatment on a leaf.
The service this belongs to is Fence washing.
In the towns we actually drive to
Oaks drop tannins into gutters and onto pale concrete. The print looks like a shadow of the leaf because it is.
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