Restaurant exterior and patio cleaning in Austin
Insured · Written cleaning scope · One point of contact · 5.0 stars from 12 Google reviews · Austin, TX
Restaurant patio washing removes grease, not just dirt. Kitchen exhaust drops an oily film onto patios, entries and dumpster pads that a cold-water rinse spreads instead of lifting, so the work runs after close with hot water and a degreaser given dwell time — and the concrete is dry before you open.
An office forecourt gets dust and biological growth. A restaurant patio gets an oily aerosol from the kitchen exhaust settling over everything downwind of the discharge, plus spilled drink, dropped food, sunscreen and gum. Oil does not rinse; cold water pushes it outward into a wider grey halo and drives it deeper into the pores of the concrete. Lifting it needs heat, a surfactant that will hold the oil in suspension, and enough dwell time for the surface to release it. That is the whole difference between a patio that looks washed and one that looks clean.
Most exterior washing can take the day it needs. A restaurant patio cannot. The usable window sits between last cover and first prep, and it has a hard edge on both ends: too early and you are washing around guests, too late and the patio is still wet when the host stand opens. A patio still wet at eleven is a failed job, not a finished one.
What that actually changes on site: furniture comes off the deck and goes back before the crew leaves, the surface gets moved to dry rather than left to air-dry, and we do not start a patio the night a front is coming through. It is the same after-hours discipline as after-hours bar and restaurant cleaning, and if you already have us inside overnight, the patio is scheduled on the same visit rather than as a second mobilization.
Front-of-house is what guests notice, but complaints, odor and pests almost always start behind the building — the dumpster pad, the grease alley, and the few feet of approach where staff carry things out. That ground takes the heaviest, most concentrated load in the whole property and it is the part most often left off a wash scope because nobody eats there.
It runs on its own interval, usually a shorter one than the dining patio, and it is worth quoting separately so it does not get cut from the scope when a schedule tightens. Interior kitchen degreasing is a different job on a different cadence — that lives on commercial kitchen degreasing.
Grease-laden wash water is not rainwater, and a restaurant is the case regulators care about most. It should not be sent to a storm drain, and the obligation does not sit only with the contractor — it follows the property too. Containment, recovery and the drain question are covered in full on commercial pressure washing. On your patio it comes down to one conversation at the walkthrough: where the water can go, and what we do if the honest answer is nowhere good.
The same wash-water rules apply to delivery vans and box trucks parked behind the restaurant. We handle those under commercial fleet pressure washing in Austin.
“Patio” in Austin covers at least six different materials, and they do not respond to the same treatment. Two of them are actively damaged by the equipment most people picture when they hear pressure washing, and one of them will not come back at all. Before anyone quotes a number, the first question is what you are standing on — because on half of these surfaces the honest answer is that the pressure comes down and the chemistry and dwell time do the work.
| Patio surface | How it takes exhaust grease | What actually works | What wrecks it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broom-finish concrete | Oil soaks into open pores; the texture holds it in the low ridges | Hot water, degreaser, real dwell, surface cleaner for evenness | Little — this is the forgiving one. Wanding it freehand leaves stripes that show up in raking light. |
| Stained or sealed concrete | Grease mostly sits on the sealer rather than in the slab | Lower pressure, degreaser matched to the sealer, no aggressive dwell | Heat and pressure strip sealer, and on stained concrete the color is often in the sealer. Once it is off, washing cannot put it back — that is a re-seal, not a clean. |
| Pavers with sand joints | Grease on the paver faces, organic growth in the joints | Controlled pressure, cleaning across joints rather than into them | Blowing the joint sand out. The pavers then move under foot traffic and furniture, and re-sanding is a separate job someone has to pay for. |
| Decomposed granite | Absorbs oil straight in; there is no surface to lift it off | Honestly, not washing — heavily contaminated DG is raked out and topped up, and we will say so | A pressure wand cuts ruts and pushes the fines into whatever drains next. Common on Austin patios and routinely quoted as if it were concrete. |
| Wood or composite decking | Oil penetrates the grain; composite holds it in the surface texture | Low pressure with the grain, cleaner and dwell rather than force | Raising the grain on wood and permanently furring composite. The damage often does not show until it dries. |
| Artificial turf | Grease binds to the blades; the infill traps food and odor | Low-pressure rinse and an enzyme treatment for odor, not a wash | Pressure washes the infill out and flattens the fibers. The turf then reads as worn, and re-infilling is a turf contractor’s job. |
| Saltillo, quarry tile and stone pavers | Porous body and grout lines take grease unevenly | Chemistry-led cleaning, low pressure, grout treated separately | Pressure blows out grout and spalls soft tile faces. Natural-stone surrounds are their own subject — see limestone cleaning. |
The practical consequence: a quote that prices your patio as one number without naming the surface is guessing. A mixed patio — concrete dining area, DG under the trees, turf in the corner, wood on the raised deck — is four jobs sharing a footprint, and pricing it as one is how a wash ends up doing damage that costs more than the wash. Fabric elements such as umbrella canopies, awnings and shade sails drop out of pressure washing altogether; that method is covered on soft washing.
Exhaust grease is not spread evenly and it does not respect the patio boundary. It leaves the fan, catches the prevailing wind, and lands downwind — which means the heaviest deposit is frequently on one end of the patio, one face of a railing, the cars in a few particular parking spaces, or a neighboring roof, while the far corner of the same patio is only dirty. Scope the patio as one uniform surface and you overpay to degrease clean ground and underpay for the section that actually needs two passes.
At the walkthrough this is a five-minute job: find the discharge, note which way the film is drifting, and check the surfaces at the edge of the pattern for the faint grey that says the deposit reaches further than anyone assumed. It commonly explains complaints that look unrelated to the patio — a guest whose car picked up a film, or the neighbor whose furniture is tacky.
It is also a diagnostic. If the film returns unusually fast after a proper degrease, the problem is upstream, not underfoot: capture at the hood, fan performance, or filters that are past due. Cleaning more often treats the symptom. That is a conversation with your hood contractor — hood, duct and exhaust work is certified NFPA 96 territory we refer out — and the interior cadence question behind it is answered on how often a restaurant kitchen should be deep cleaned.
Restaurants regularly pay to wash ground they do not control, and occasionally get asked not to wash ground they do. Three cases come up constantly in Austin and each is worth two minutes with your lease before the first invoice:
Downtown patios that sit on the public sidewalk operate under a City permit, and the surface is public right-of-way. That does not stop you cleaning it — keeping it clean is generally part of holding the permit — but it does raise the run-off question sharply, because the drain is right there and it is a storm drain.
Where several tenants open onto one courtyard, the grease is usually coming from one kitchen. If the wash is being scoped and paid for by whoever complains loudest, that is worth surfacing early; it is a landlord conversation, and it is easier before an invoice exists than after.
Many leases put exterior common-area cleaning in CAM charges on a set schedule. Before adding a patio wash, check whether the landlord already washes that ground and how often. Sometimes the honest answer is that you need us for the kitchen-exit pad and not for the front walk.
Whatever the front-of-house answer, the dumpster pad, grease alley and kitchen-exit approach are almost always the tenant’s problem in practice, whoever holds title. That is also the ground carrying the heaviest load — which is why it is quoted separately here rather than folded into a patio number.
None of the above is legal advice, and we are not reading your lease for you. It is simply the check that stops a wash being scoped against the wrong boundary, and it is faster to do once at the start than to unpick later.
We walk the patio, entries and kitchen-exit pads and note surfaces, how much grease is actually in them, water access, drainage, and what furniture has to move.
A written quote for a single visit or a recurring interval, with the back-of-house pad priced separately so it does not get cut when a schedule tightens.
Hot water and degreaser with real dwell time, furniture off and back on, surface dried rather than left to air-dry. Finished before prep.
Before and after on every visit, so you can see what the degrease actually moved and keep it on file.
No hood, duct or exhaust cleaning — that is certified NFPA 96 work, referred to certified partners. We wash what the exhaust lands on, not the exhaust.
There is no per-square-foot price on this site. Patio washing is quoted in writing after a walkthrough, because grease load, furniture, drainage and window length drive it.
Restaurant cleaning, soft washing for fabric and awnings, and recurring commercial cleaning.
Grease is the job. Kitchen exhaust drops an oily film onto the patio, entry and back approach, and cold water pushes that around instead of lifting it. Patio washing uses hot water, a degreaser and dwell time so the oil releases from the pores of the concrete rather than being spread into a wider grey halo.
It matters more than the equipment does. Broom-finish concrete is forgiving. Stained or sealed concrete can lose its color if the sealer is stripped. Pavers lose joint sand. Decomposed granite cuts into ruts and is raked and topped up rather than washed. Wood raises grain, composite furs, and artificial turf loses its infill. A quote that does not name the surface is guessing.
Because it lands downwind of the exhaust discharge rather than falling evenly. The heaviest deposit is usually one end of the patio, one face of a railing, or a few parking spaces — and the far corner may only be dirty. Scoping the whole patio at one intensity overpays on the clean half and underpays on the half needing two passes.
It depends on covers, how close the patio sits to the exhaust discharge, and whether it is shaded. Rather than sell you a schedule up front, we set the interval after the first wash shows how fast the film comes back on your specific patio. The back-of-house pad almost always needs it more often than the dining patio.
Probably not. A film returning unusually fast after a proper degrease points upstream — capture at the hood, fan performance, or filters past due — and washing more often is treating the symptom. That is a conversation with your hood contractor. Hood, duct and exhaust cleaning is certified NFPA 96 work and we refer it out.
No, because it is scheduled around your service, not through it. The work runs after last cover and finishes before prep, and the surface has to be dry before you open — a patio still wet at eleven is a failed job, not a finished one. Furniture is moved, washed and put back.
Yes, and they should be. Tables, chairs and railings get moved and washed rather than worked around, so you do not end up with clean concrete and greasy chair frames. Umbrella canopies, awnings and shade sails are fabric and get the low-pressure soft-wash treatment instead of a pressure wand.
That is usually the part that actually causes problems — odor, pests and complaints start at the pad and the grease alley long before the dining patio looks bad. It is hot water and degreaser on a shorter cycle than the front of house, and it is worth scheduling on its own interval.
It changes the run-off question more than the cleaning. Right-of-way seating operates under a City permit and the drain is usually a storm drain a few feet away, so containment and recovery have to be settled at the walkthrough. It is also worth checking your lease before you pay to wash shared courtyard ground, or ground your landlord may already wash under CAM charges.
No. Hood, duct and exhaust cleaning is a certified NFPA 96 trade and we refer it to certified partners. We wash what the exhaust lands on, not the exhaust itself — and if the film is coming back unusually fast, that is worth telling your hood contractor about.
There is no published per-square-foot rate on this site. Patio washing is quoted in writing after a walkthrough, because the price is driven by what the surface actually is, how much grease is in it, what furniture has to be moved, where the water can drain, and how tight the overnight window is.
Tell us the space, schedule, and standard. We follow up with a clear cleaning plan.
pressure washing Austin · restaurant cleaning · after-hours bar & restaurant cleaning · kitchen degreasing · soft washing · commercial cleaning
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