Brintons Patio Magic

Plus:- No scrubbing.
Minus:- Fishy stink. Doesn't work if your patio is REALLY bad. .

I'm doing the garden up at the moment. I go through phases of doing up the garden, it looks all nice for a while so I take my eye off the ball and before I know it, the weeds have taken over and it looks a complete mess again.

Anyway, I'm currently busy growing fruit, veg, herbs and so forth aswell as re-painting the fence panels and shed, putting slate chips hither and thither and then I realized how skanky the patio slabs and little border walls were looking. Some were their original creamy stone colour and others were various shades of green to grayish-black. In the past I've set to with hot water, disinfectant and a stiff broom…..and got covered in nasty flick-back so when I saw a bottle of Patio Magic for sale in Wilkinsons for £7.99 for a 2.5litre size bottle, I read the blurb and decided this was the nice, easy way out of a nasty, sweaty job.

You need:-

A watering can with rose attachment or one of those garden sprayer thingies.
Water.

You can get all technical on me and have a proper measuring jug as you need to mix 1 part of Patio Magic to 4 parts water or you can throw caution to the gardening wind and simply wing it like a swanky chef and try and count the glugs " 1 mississippi, 2 mississippi" style.

After locating my watering can and checking inside for toads, frogs, spiders and so on (I once had a Nasty Childhood Incident involving a watering can and a massive toad), I prepared my cocktail and staggered out into the garden. I decided to test the worst areas rather than doing everything at once. The liquid which was a medium blue in the bottle, once mixed with water was a reactive neon blue and I began to worry about what on earth was going to happen, especially as I swore I could hear a slight fizzing sound when it contacted with the slabs….

I then decided to use the rest of the watering can contents on the driveway - thus making myself look a complete twonk in the process ("George, quick, call the Police. The poor mental girl is watering her driveway").

The pack says that animals and children need not be kept away from treated surfaces **once they are dry**. Now, being owned by two cats this is easier said than done. Have you ever tried telling a cat "No" or "Stay" because quite honestly, it doesn't work. Despite wet paws nothing un-toward has happened to either moglet so providing your mog (or dog or child) doesn't get absolutely saturated then lick themselves clean, things should be ok - although if you do have a child that licks itself clean I would be slightly concerned and suggest a visit to the Doctors ASAP.

About 20minutes later, I was putting a bag of rubbish out and wondered where the heck the smell of rotting fish was coming from. I knew there was nothing like that in my bin and was looking around for a brought-home-by-a-cat fish-head then it dawned on me…..it was the Patio Magic. The fact that the cat from over the road was rolling around in my driveway in absolute eyes-glazed ecstasy, wiping his face on everything should have been another clue. If you own a black cat called Sam who loves to jump from house roof to roof, then I apologise to you now for him going back home stinking like fury.

~ The Results ~
The pack says not to apply if rain is forecast in the next 5-6 hours and to allow 3 days for the stuff to do it's "Magic". It also may not work to full capacity on the first attempt and you may also get rust-type streaks on brickwork but this will come off with either water or a 2nd application.

Apparently you can see it working (I presume only if watching paint dry doesn't do it for you…….)

1 day later - Still grotty but at least no fish smell.
2 days later - Come on, come on!!
3 days later - For the love of God, do something…oh, I see a teeny lighter patch.

So, off I go again and do a second application.

1 day later - A bit lighter.
2 days later - A few random lighter patches on the driveway and patio brickwork.
3 days later - The heavens opened so I couldn't tell.
4th day - A whumping orange 'rust' patch on the BBQ brickwork, no other lightening effects.

Keeping in mind Third Time Lucky, I decide that I'm going to give it one last try so I repeat the whole shebang again.

1 day later - No change.
2 days later - Still no change.
3 days later - Ok, you're annoying me now……

~ Recommended? ~

For me it'd have to be a big fat no - but maybe this was because my stonework was really awful. I imagine if you have a new patio or driveway, one application once a year would do the job for you.

Shop around, Wilko's has this for £7.99 yet in other DIY stores I've seen the same size bottle for £9.99 upwards.

For me, Patio Magic really wasn't that Magic after all so Paul Daniels can sleep easy in his bed at night. Which is probably more than can be said for Debbie McGee…….

Patio Magic is made by Brinton Products.
Read more at www.brintoproducts.co.uk

INCIDENTALLY Ciao have put up a different pack image to the one I supplied, I'm attaching the correct image for you.