Gum Shadows - Ron Marshal Posts

Ron Musgraves

Ron Musgraves

Exterior Restoration Specialist
Staff member
I have a challenge for board members and myself. We have selected a place we can work on these stains some call gum shadows. We are going to try several chemicals too see if we can eradicate the stains.

The first test was regular hot water no chemicals. Here it is????? The next one will be and acid based chemical and then a caustic based.

If you have a chemical you think might work please let us know in this post.

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Gum has not been removed

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Gum has been removed with hot water & pressure only.

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Close up showing the gum shadows
 
Chewing gum stains

Ron,
I think we may have come up with a product that will take the gum stain rings out. We have tested it on oil in concrete and it has sucessfully taken the oil out as well as the HAZE left by the carbon black from burnt oil. The carbon black becomes part of the concrete and acts like a dye. Before, it has been impossible to lift out. We have tested it for three weeks and it has performed as we hoped. We don't have a name or a price for it yet but it will be finalized very shortly. I'll keep you informed.
Ron
 
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Ron & Ron,

What happens when you scrub in some mineral spirits? Don't know if it would help the shadow or not, but if you are testing stuff anyhow, why not?

Ron Strickland,

Had a call from a landscaping contractor who dripped a ton of chainsaw oil all over a brand new $ 18,000. brick paver patio. We tried everything we could think of and nothing would take the oil residue out of the bricks. The oil seemed to wick deep into the concrete.

Would like some info if your new product can take oil out of concrete. Might work for the pavers too. Please E-mail me when your product is ready/priced, or I'll keep watching here for the update.
 
We might try that one down the road. i was looking for conventional cleaners that we all use. Practicality is what I’m going for now. Thanks for the suggestion and we will try it after we have covered a few others.

My experience with mineral spirits is that it stains the rest of the area to look like the gum shadows.
 
Hey all you pressure washers out there, my name is Tim and we are trying different chemicals to make an effect on gum shadows. We would surely be thankful for your help in identifying and documenting the results of our findings with respect to chemical we are sent.

THANKS TIM
 
Shawn,
If you have a digital camara take a picture of the stain on that guys new brick driveway and post it here on this bb. Then ask Ron Strickland or anyone else who markets chemicals to see if they would give you a free sample so you can try it on these bricks. If so then take a digital picture of the end results and once again post it here so we can all learn from your experience.

That is the beauty of these bb's. Give it a thought.

John
 
On that patio you might try som DR60 by Dominion restoration in Richmond, VA ( http://www.domrest.com/) I have used it and it will make new concrete look almost new. On oil it might take a cople of times to do the trick.
 
guys, we are product testing. the gum shadows are what we are interested in. the concrete its self is very clean. we are trying to remove the gum stains with a production typr of chemical.

i personally think that this will never come off. i have a challenge going on and if any suppliers want to put there chemicals to the test lets see them.
 
Ron, what ever happened to the study??????
 
Ron, have a PHD chemist friend/contact----maybe I could get him to work on it-----We can send man to the moon, we CAN get rid of gum shadows.............

Thanks for all you do.
 
Gum Stains .. I usually use caustic soda mixed pretty strong I let it sit for about 10 minutes on the stains and then cover the still wet area with baking soda.. then wait a few minutes and the wash with HOT HOT HOT Water... This usually works.. I think caustic is the answer for any grease removal...
 
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