After completing your DIY project that used concrete, you will most likely have some concrete on your clothing. Whether the concrete is wet or dry, you can get the concrete out of clothes on your own.
You can use a stiff bristle brush, a spatula or an old credit card, sandpaper, lemon juice, wash in the washing machine, and vinegar to get concrete out of clothes. To remove cement dust from clothes, you can use a lint roller.
This article explains different ways that you can use order to remove concrete and cement stains from your clothes. I strongly recommend that you read the article in detail to review the different options available and eventually use the method you are comfortable with.
What Is A Concrete Stain?
Before we look at removing concrete stains from clothes, let’s just briefly review what a concrete stain is so that we understand the task at hand.
A concrete stain on clothes is a type of discoloration which could be differentiated from the cloth surface that it rests on.
Unlike other stains, concrete stains can be tremendously stiff and challenging to get out of clothes since concrete solidifies within a short period making it very hard.
When you are working on a construction site using concrete or visiting the site when concrete is being used, there is a high chance that concrete will splatter and leave concrete particles on your clothing.
Even though wet cement and concrete are different, most of the methods used to remove concrete stains from clothes can also be used to remove cement stains and dust from clothes.
1. Using Old Credit Card or Blunt Spatula
If you haven’t discarded your old credit card, it can come in handy when you want to remove concrete from your pair of jeans. However, you can also use a spoon, blunt spatula, or blunt object.
This method will be ideal when removing wet concrete stains. You will use an old credit card or a blunt object to lift the damp concrete from your fabric. When removing wet concrete, make sure that you don’t rub the stain since if you rub it, the stain will be rooted inside the fibers of the fabric, making it hard to remove the stain.
Once you have lifted the wet concrete from your clothing, wash the clothes in a washing machine as you usually do. However, if you prefer to handwash the clothes, you can handwash them with warm water.
2. Using A Stiff Brush
To remove small concrete splatters on your clothes, you can use a stiff brush and brush away concrete from the clothes. Make sure that you don’t wet the fabric with the cement since if you soak the cement, you are likely to spread cement to other parts of the fabric.
Using the stiff brush, brush away all the concrete from the fabric. After that, wash the fabric in the washing machine as you usually do. To ensure cement is thoroughly cleaned from clothes, don’t put a lot of clothes on the washing machine so that the tossing and agitation of the fabric will remove all the concrete on your clothes and leave the clothes spotlessly clean.
3. Using A Sandpaper
When using sandpaper to remove concrete from clothes, ensure you use fine sandpaper. Gently sand the concrete stain to disturb it and eventually wear it out. Be extra careful so that you don’t sand the fibers of your clothing since this can leave your clothes with holes.
Once you have sanded the concrete stain, wash your clothes with a washing machine. Do not overload the washing machine since the water, detergent, and agitation will be needed to ensure that concrete is thoroughly washed off.
4. Using Lemon Juice
As you might already know, lemon juice is a natural stain remover that can remove most stains. If you wonder how lemon can remove concrete and cement stains, here is the explanation.
Lemons are rich in citric acid. When the citric acid comes into contact with the concrete stain, it will break down the concrete, thus making it hard for the concrete to hold on to the fabric.
Put lemon juice on a basin and then rub the lemon juice over the concrete stain. Allow the lemon juice to rest on the concrete stain for a minute or two, then rinse the fabric. Next, load your fabric in the washing machine and wash as you do in a regular wash.
Note that lemon juice is a natural bleach and can cause color loss or make your fabric lose; thus, if you are unsure how your fabric will react, test lemon juice on a small area before applying the juice to the entire concrete stain.
4. Using Vinegar
Vinegar can remove various stains and particles such as fiberglass from clothes. This is because the acid contained in vinegar adds a chemical charge to the concrete molecule resulting in the concrete being removed.
Pour vinegar directly onto the concrete and let the vinegar soak up the stain. Alternatively, you can run vinegar on the concrete and leave it for some time so that it soaks the concrete.
After that, wash your clothes in a washing machine using a normal washing cycle.
6. Using Lint Roller
To remove concrete and cement dust from your fabric, you can use a lint roller. If you don’t have a lint roller, you can improvise one by rolling a double-sided tape on a can of a mineral water bottle.
Place your cloth with concrete on a flat surface. You will then roll the lint roller down the area with concrete or cement dust until the lint roller picks up the dust. You should then wash the clothes with your machine to wash all the cement or concrete in your fabric.
7. Using A Washing Machine
If the concrete splatter is wet and has not dried, you can throw your clothes into the washing machine and wash the clothes in a regular wash. However, take note that this method will only work if the concrete spatters is not a lot and is not dry.
If the concrete on your clothes is a lot and has dried out, you should use any of the six methods discussed above.
Take note that the methods suggested are only meant for people who don’t work on cement and concrete regularly. If you regularly work with concrete and cement, the methods proposed to remove concrete out of clothes might not work for you. That is because concrete and cement tend to stick to fabric and are also cement resistant.
Moreover, the concrete splatter on your clothes will be in different areas, making it almost impossible to remove the concrete. In such a case, you should wear an overall that you can discard and replace once in a while.
Conclusions
You don’t have to discard your clothes simply because they have concrete. I have discussed seven methods to remove concrete from your clothes. It’s now upon you to use one of the methods to clean concrete from your clothes.
