If you work with concrete for your job, or just doing jobs around the house, it can be hard to remove dried concrete from your hands.
I personally end up with everything on my clothes and my hands.
Obviously the first line of defense is to wear protective gloves and goggles, but if you already have it on your hands, then try this process:
Even though you may wear gloves, you still end up with concrete residue, and this is hard on your skin, irritating eczema, drying your skin, making your skin red and more.
Vinegar Neutralizes!
Before you scrub your hands raw, try this method:
1. Rinse right away with cool water (preferably outside so as not to clog your house drains with concrete residue!) to get off the chunks and thicker patches rubbing your hands ever so lightly to help lift them. Do not scrub.
2. Use a PH neutral soap and gently wash your hands and rinse. (If you don't have any of this ph neutral soap continue to the vinegar step, you want to neutralize the damaging effects of the cement right away)
3. Pour white vinegar liberally over your hands or have someone else do this, and gently rub your hands together, the vinegar will help to neutralize any cement residue left on your hands. Rinse with cool water.4. Repeat the Vinegar step again and then rinse.
5. Gently pat with a towel but mostly let them air dry so as not to irritate them further. Do not use any creams until you know all the cement is off your hands or it will trap the residue on your skin and cause irritation.
Removing Dried Concrete from Clothes
If it has not already dried rock hard, you can rinse your clothes under the outside tap (don't do this indoors or it will clog your sink drains) with cool water to get off most of the chunks and a scrub brush.
If it has dried, take a scrub brush and under cool water scrub off gently any chunks.
Soak in this combination:
- 1 x tablespoon table salt
- 1 x cup of white vinegar
- cool water
Once you have removed the chunks and any thickness with a brush, you can now soak the cement stained clothes in a bucket with the above ingredients, this will help to loosen the stain.
Once all obvious concrete or cement stains are gone from the clothes, then you can launder as usual.
