So the previous owners of my house put hydraulic cement along the edges of the wall in the garage and it looks pretty ugly. Is there any way to remove it? I've seen these Portland Cement dissolving sprays online, would that work? Or would it damage the concrete slab? Thanks


If the area sweats DO NOT remove the hydraulic cement the hydraulic cement is holding some water back removing it may create a spring in your garage, if you don’t like they it looks get some 2 part epoxy paint and seal the area prior to it sweating. This has worked for me on several homes that had damp/wet floors.


Anything that dissolves concrete is pretty dubious to put on concrete that you want to preserve, it's probably just a strong acid and has no brains about what you want it to dissolve and what you want it to leave alone.

Try a wide, flat masonry chisel at a low angle. The bond between the two different bits of masonry is probably not that great. Any bits that are stubbornly stuck you can go back over with a silicon carbide grinding block unless you are one of those folks who prefers to save almost no time using a $100 electric tool (grinder) to do what a $9 hand tool will do just about as fast, and with less mess and noise.

Or, wait a year and see if you suddenly understand the "ugly" choice. People are forever moving in, undoing things they don't "get", and then finding that there was actually a reason for them. Perhaps you've been there for years, but that's not clear from your question.

  • Thanks for the answer! I'll try chiseling around and see if I can pry most of it loose. I mentioned ugliness because when it gets around springtime/wet weather, the concrete seems to condense (sweat) on the spots that have the hydraulic cement on it and make it darker (and nowhere on the regular concrete). Is this dangerous, or is this something I should be able to live with? This is in the garage btw so the aesthetics aren't that big a deal. – mark May 17 at 16:08
  • So this is just isolated spots, not a ridge all around the walls forming a gutter/canal? You may find that there are more active leaks when you remove the cement - I doubt it was put there for the purpose of causing leaks. But perhaps you can do a better job fixing them on the next round, if that proves to be the case. – Ecnerwal May 17 at 17:26

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