One of the more common things that a driver asks is how to remove tire marks from concrete. A driveway with tire marks is a frustrating sight to see, as it looks like it has not been cleaned in ages. Well, to solve this issue, the first thing that anyone should know is the reason behind it-which is plastizer migration. Tire marks are left on concrete because plastizers are polymer compounds, which, when added to plastic, rubber, and/or glue, makes the tire flexible. Secondly, one should know that the rubber that car wheels are contain plastizers in order to improve their traction abilities. So, after long hours of driving, one can expect for the tires to have already heated up. This causes the plastizers to soften as well as to leach its materials out of the tire and directly to the concrete pavement. So, in reality, it is almost always impossible to avoid tire marks, especially if people park their cars at the same spot regularly.
The funny thing, however, is that better quality tires have higher quantity of plastizers and the probability of leaving tire marks is higher with these wheels. So, the first remedy that anyone can avail is to change car tires. If a tire’s quality is lower, it is harder because of less plastizers, which results in less marking.
For people who cannot switch tires, they can probably consider using another type of sealer instead of the one currently used. Hot tire marks occurs also because of acrylic sealers, which means that if the cross linking is greater, the denser the coating of the sealer will be. In the end, this makes the sealer more resistant to the damages of a hot tire marking. Sealers with higher solids such as cross-linked polyurethane or even epoxy sealer will greatly reduce the presence of markings; and, by changing sealers, an individual is able to strike a balance between durability as well as density in order to seal driveways or garage floors.
Lastly, in order to get rid of hot tire marking discoloration, a car owner should clean the surface of the concrete marked with car tire marks with a degreaser. It will depend on the level of discoloration and will take a lot of effort, but nobody has to be frustrated on how to remove tire marks from concrete.