How to Remove Chewing Gum from Concrete

Jake6655

New Member
You can now start to remove the gum using an old putty knife. You should saw at the chewing gum until it starts to come loose, and then you can get rid of it fairly easily. You may need to repeat the first step a few times in order to allow the putty knife to get rid of all of it. If you are unlucky, you may find that the gum snaps off leaving you with a small piece of itself left on the concrete.

Step 1 - Dry up the Gum
Harden the wad of gum by either using a couple of ice cubes from the freezer or an aerosol freezing agent. This will hold the gum together helping to lift the gum in one or two strokes. The freezing agent can be purchased from most home improvement stores.

Step 2 - Scrape the Top
Use a sharp putty knife to scrape and chip away at the gum after it has become hard. You may have to repeat step 1 a couple of times to be successful. The majority of the gum should now be removed.

Step 3 - Wipe up the Rest
Spray any remaining gum with WD-40. Allow the lubricant to soak into the gum and the surrounding concrete area. After two or three minutes, use the putty knife to lift off the leftover gum.

Step 4 - Clean off the Concrete
In order to remove any gum which may be stuck in the tiny pores of your concrete, you should take a small pot of vinegar, and cover the area where the concrete was. You can then dissolve the gum by scrubbing it with a toothbrush. Leave for about 5 minutes, and then scrub over again using some water.

Use a high-pressure power washer to finish the job.
 

Streetdoc432

New Member
Tip learned from experience... Hot pressure washer works best, use a plastic scraper, the steel ones will leave small metal scrapings in the concrete pores & leave rust stains over time.
 

Doug Rucker

PWN ADMIN TEAM -
Staff member
Tip learned from experience... Hot pressure washer works best, use a plastic scraper, the steel ones will leave small metal scrapings in the concrete pores & leave rust stains over time.

Took the words right out of my mouth, and have MANY plastic ones on hand as they won't last long. Hot Water Pressure Washer is the best way to go.
 

New Look

Registerd User
Took the words right out of my mouth, and have MANY plastic ones on hand as they won't last long. Hot Water Pressure Washer is the best way to go.

Hot water and a 15 degree is what works for us. Cant see my old self bending over and scrapping up gum with a plastic knife.
 

Christopher

New Member
I have tried using a scraper years ago, the customers would not want to see the bill for a companies' time for scraping gum one piece at a time, they want the gum gone in one or two trips so to get rid of gum that fast you need to use a professional steam machine or Hot Water Pressure Washer.

I have done some projects where it seemed like I was removing bucket loads of gum per day for many days until the gum was all removed from the school sidewalks and from shopping center sidewalks.

One unique thing about removing gum with a hot water pressure washer is that as you are removing the gum, you can start to smell the gum like when it was new so you know what flavors some of them were and it almost makes you want to chew gum. hahahahaha

When you are working on new accounts that have not been cleaned in a long time, you need to remember that time is money and you need to get all the gum cleaned up as quickly as possible so the job gets done in a timely manner but also to keep profitable at the same time.
 

Christopher

New Member
I have a gum removal job that is almost that bad.

The district manager says that once the store is clean, he is going to have the people that work there use scrapers to keep the area clean of gum. I really don't see that happening but it is nice of him to dream.

I offered monthly cleaning services but he wanted quarterly cleaning services and on a place that bad, I told him that it will be just about as bad as it is now so it will be like cleaning it now so there would not be a discount, I gave him a discount right now for the initial cleaning hoping for the monthly cleaning I told him, which is true. I know if I would have put the regular price they would have not had it cleaned right, it would be all carved up from zero degree nozzles and turbo nozzles instead of using hot water to remove the gum.
 

New Look

Registerd User
I have a gum removal job that is almost that bad.

The district manager says that once the store is clean, he is going to have the people that work there use scrapers to keep the area clean of gum. I really don't see that happening but it is nice of him to dream.

I offered monthly cleaning services but he wanted quarterly cleaning services and on a place that bad, I told him that it will be just about as bad as it is now so it will be like cleaning it now so there would not be a discount, I gave him a discount right now for the initial cleaning hoping for the monthly cleaning I told him, which is true. I know if I would have put the regular price they would have not had it cleaned right, it would be all carved up from zero degree nozzles and turbo nozzles instead of using hot water to remove the gum.

I hear ya Chris.

We do this location every month now.....about 4800+ sq. ft.
 

Clean County

New Member
Crank the burners up and watch the gum fly off. We'll crank the burners up to around 200 degrees and use either a yellow 15 degree tip or a green 25degree tip.

Scraping any gum with knives etc. Is right up there with cleaning a whole house with a sponge. Those dinosaurs should all be extinct by now with every big box stores selling Powerwashers to any hunched over granny who wants one:)
 

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