Best way to clean concrete bird bath

What you must know about concrete resin bird baths is that the rough surface can very, so your cleaning technique can change depending on your own needs.

Best way to clean concrete bird bath is to begin by filling up the bowl in hot soapy water, while allowing it to soak for 10 minutes. You'd then take an hard bristle brush to scrub it thoroughly to remove any goop, bird poop and of course algae. Rinse soap with clean fresh water then disinfect if required.

No need to make it too difficult when finding the best way to clean concrete bird baths, as it follows a few simple steps.

And this would apply to bird baths made in any material, including metal or plastic.

Begin by removing any debris floating on the old water then empty it, to allow you too scoop out underwater grime that usually occurs in a bird bath over time.

Once all the yucky stuff is poured out into a trash bag you can begin the cleaning process.

First you'd squirt dish soap into the bird bath bowl, carefully followed up with boiling hot water filled up to the very top - to at least soak the rim where birds often perch.

What you may have in your personally bird bath setup can be a solar powered bird bath fountain feature, pebbles lining the base, or rocks; remove it all to wash them all on their own in a bucket - all while avoid the grimy bird bath cleaning routine. Concrete bird baths come in all shades of gray, and as wild birds can be attracted to a stone bird bath, do keep it clean as a way to attract birds to this stand out bath.

Back to cleaning the bird bath with a focus on the bowl, whip at your hard bristle brush to give the bowl a scrub as it remains soaking in the hot soapy water.

Empty it out and repeat the process again to be sure its thoroughly cleaned; if you are absolutely sure its cleaned, you can move onto the next step.

Now let's be sure no signs of soap residue can bleed into the clean water where it might of got caught up in the rough texture of a concrete bird bath.

Rinse out the bowl with clean fresh hot water, then fill up the bowl with water again to be sure there's no visible signs of bubbles, caused by soap residue.

Finally, you can move onto soaking the bird bath in a part 1 to 4 white vinegar cleaning solution, while I recommend you avoid using bleach to disinfect the concrete bird bath.

Fill bird bath bowl in soapy water

To begin cleaning a concrete bird bath of any texture you'd need to find a way to soak it in safe as can be regular dish soap, which is what you'll clean a concrete bird bath with.

Now we can't submerge the whole bird bath underwater although what we can do is focus on the area that is most in contact with wild birds, so any possible disease will remain on the outer rim.

Bird bath bowls that hold the water is what you need to clean as best as you can, with the opportunity to scrub the rim where there's no contact with the water.

Before you do soak the bird bath bowl you must try and remove as much of the nasty, unpleasant grunge out of the water bowl as possible. One thing you don't want to be doing while washing the bird bath bowl, is tackling this thick, smelly substance.

Providing you've done the best job you can in removing all this smelly stuff out of the bowl, if there's any of it that is - then let's fill up this bird bowl to the top with boiling hot water.

At this point you'd need to create a bubble bath with use of safe yet tough dish soap along with a cup or two full of white vinegar - which can be used as a disinfectant. I'd personally save this bird bath sanitization until the end.

With the boiling hot water is soaking away in the bird bath bowl for up to ten minutes, now you'd need to scrub the base with a long handled hard bristle brush.

It must be long handled so the brush can submerge deep into the bird bath bowl without risk of burning your hands.

Scrub as hard and thoroughly as you can with the brush to get in every crack and cranny, then empty the dirty water to repeat the process until the soapy water is clear of grime.

Scrub with hard bristle brush

Unfortunately even with a well kept concrete bird bath I don't believe you can clean a bird bath without scrubbing, although a plastic or metal bird bath could get away with it.

Hard bristle brush is what you need providing this brush is reserved for use on cleaning wild bird products only, such as their bird bath.

It will be a long handled brush as to clean the bird bath bowl while its soaking in boiling hot soapy water. With this you'd want to avoid coming into contact with water so hot, yet avoid touching the nasty old bird bath water.

Don't be concerned about scrubbing off any protected seal on a bird bath, as concrete bird baths are not sealed from the get go - although you can seal a concrete bird bath if your wanted to.

Long handled bristle brush can therefore make sure your hands never get wet in the process.

With that in mind a brush of any kind can create splashing if scrubbing rigorously, thus it would be a good idea to go gently at first until you can be sure this dirty water doesn't splash back into your face.

Made in concrete bird baths are made in a resin that is sold as stone or even cement bird baths - the surface can therefore have a smooth texture to a rough surface with holes and crevices.

Be sure you scrub these crevices as its where the water grunge ends up lodged in, in which can quickly turn clean bird bath water into an off color within 24 hours.

How to keep a concrete bird bath clean is to be sure you don't skimp on the hard work, which does include putting plenty of elbow grease into your scrubbing.

Rinse in clean water

Now that the long ten minute or so soak in boiling hot water is completed, along with a thorough scrub with use of a hard bristle brush, now its time to remove the soap.

Of course go ahead and empty the bird bath bowl down a public drain if there's not one available on your property. And do the same again if you must fill up the bird bath bowl a second or third time if the bird bath water is really that nasty.

With what is the cleanest the bird bath bowl can be, we must be sure there's no soap residue in the bowl, which can turn the clean bird water bubbly.

Small amount of soapy water can be dangerous to birds thus its imperative its fully removed.

In doing so you can first use the power of a hose pipe or better still a pressure washer with use of clean water only.

If this isn't an option to you simply fill up the bird bath bowl again in hot clean water while scrubbing it with a clean brush this time - to be sure soap is lifted out of any crevices.

Empty what would hopefully be clean water and repeat the process again to be sure.

Non stain disinfectant

At this point along the journey of cleaning your bird bath the best way your know how, is the opportunity to disinfect it if its needed.

Always clean and maintained bird baths still need a disinfectant once in a while, yet it can benefit you, and the birds - in the long run it will remove any invisible signs of algae or staining created by common bird bath water grime.

Concrete bird baths are safe to use with disinfect yet a strong solution can actually stain the stone surface, thus its imperative you use a weak homemade disinfectant.

What you will use to disinfect a concrete bird bath is a non toxic simple white vinegar that is safe for humans; it uses a part 1 vinegar to part 4 hot water.

In an clean and empty bird bath bowl you can pour in this solution while using a clean hard bristle brush to scrub the bird bath bowl for the last time.

To avoid any possible odor or smell emitting out of the bird bath, you should rinse out the bird bath bowl or rim that has come into contact with the vinegar cleaning solution.

To use this vinegar cleaning solution is how to clean a bird bath without bleach, with even a weakened bleach cleaning solution can cause staining. With that in mind bleach can bleed into the clean water which would be ingested by birds later on.

Conclusion

Best way to clean a concrete bird bath is to first remove any nasty, smelly underwater grime that usually develops in these conditions.

Spoon out the grunge while tipping the bird bath on its side to be sure most of the slimy stuff can simply pour into a trash bag - all done without you coming into contact with it with your hands or bare skin.

Clean the spoon or what you used to remove this nasty stuff as it would be used again for every time the bird bath is cleaned; which I believe once or twice a week would be a good habit to get into.

Now lets get going, fill the bird bath bowl to the top with boiling hot water mixed in with non toxic, safe to use dish soap.

Allow the soapy water to soak for up to 10 minutes then begin the process of scrubbing the bowl while it still full of water.

You'll require a long handled, hard bristle brush to scrub concrete texture - yet the long handle can be submerged in a deep filled bird bath bowl - while you avoid burning your hands in the cleaning process.

All this can be done just the once if you clean and maintain your bird bath regularly, although you may need to repeat the process again if its an unkempt bird bath full of grime.

Once you can be sure the bird bath water will be clean as the bowl is filled up again, let's rinse out any possible signs of leftover soap residue.

Simply fill the bowl in clean boiling hot water this time and if there's no signs of bubbles, the bird bath is ready to be put out for backyard birds again.

One last thing, what you can do at this time is to use a part 1/4 white vinegar to hot water homemade disinfectant - to kill off any bacteria this cleaning routine would of avoided up until now.

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