Tomorrow I’m going to etch a slab with muriatic acid solution. The owner asked me if the runoff into the soil is an issue or not. The first foot or so around the edge was cut away by the excavator, and will get filled with soil and planted with grass.
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Lay out some garden lime to neutralize it.
Jeff
No. Muriatic acid reactics quite eagerly with most everything, so it will soon be 'neutralized' by combining with the rest of the world around it.
David,
The muriatic acid (hydrochloric) reacts with the aggregate (calcium carbonate) in the surface of the concrete quite vigorously which produces carbon dioxide gas and calcium salts which you rinse away
HCL + CaCO2 = CO2 + CaCl2
The reaction will consume all the acid in contact with the concrete, any excess that goes to soil will have little effect on the soil. Likewise as you flush the concrete surface any acid remnants will be diluted.
And as suggested...lime will also react and consume HCl, but may create foaming that may end up on your etched concrete edges.
..............Iron Helix