Anybody know of some magic fairy dust that will remove oil from concrete? Oil-Dri and kitty litter have made a sizable dent in it, but I'd like to get as much of it off as possible. I'm not above a scrub brush and dish soap either.
Anybody know of some magic fairy dust that will remove oil from concrete? Oil-Dri and kitty litter have made a sizable dent in it, but I'd like to get as much of it off as possible. I'm not above a scrub brush and dish soap either.
I always found that kittylitter and LOTS of grinding into the concrete will remove 99% of all stains. you just have to keep at it
Hot water, dish wash fluid and a scrub. Heat makes the oil rise out of the substrate. Then a good hard rain, then simple green/scrub. That works for me. Also had mixed success with Purple Power?? sp. with a scrub and then a good long soaking.
m
I grind the kitty litter into the stain with a brick. Works pretty good. Then a little gasoline (no smoking!) and more kitty litter.More grinding and it looks pretty good.
Jackhammer?
Brake-clean if you get to it fast enough, otherwise I'm with the kitty litter grinders.
I use brake cleaner.
WD-40.
I tend to just park over the top of my oil stains.
But the prevailing opinion seems to be kitty litter, so I reckon I'll give that a shot next time.
Don't forget the kitty litter dance! Doesn't work well if you don't dance on it.
Not all kitty litters are the same. You're looking for bentonite clay, that's usually the clumping type of litter. Others tend not to work nearly as well.
Why has nobody mentioned the pressure washer?
Steam cleaner or presure washer is the best way followed by a brush with concreate (muritic) acid and rinse well the landloard will never see it.
44
44Dwarf wrote: Steam cleaner or presure washer is the best way followed by a brush with concreate (muritic) acid and rinse well the landloard will never see it. 44
Oh, the landlord has seen it...she's my fiance.
Oven cleaner works for me. Just regular grease-killing oven cleaner from the grocery store.
One thing about kitty litter - just leave it in place for a while. It'll suck up a lot more if you just spread it around and leave it.
Clumping kitty litter is bentonite? Interesting. My local mountain bike area has a lot of bentonite. You do NOT want to get on to that stuff when it's wet...
We had a buddy puke all the fluid out of his transmission on our drive way. For this and any other oil mess just put some "quickcrete" / concrete powder over it. Work it in with your shoe. Maybe reapply once. Our driveway is now spotless!
Amway's concrete cleaner is the best non-pressure washer/steam cleaner option I've found.
I always thought that kitty litter was Fullers earth.
Erp! According to Wiki Its Fuller's earth in the States and Bentonite across the pond.
Nothing works like good old battery acid. Just don't get caught by the enviro-nazis.
I prefer C4...
powdered laundry soap. get it on there as soon as you can, and grind it in. When you wash it off, the suds hide the oil sheen...
I always preferred pool acid, AKA muriatic acid or hydrochloric acid. Dangerous fumes, really nasty stuff, but it really works. Hose it of really well. Works well with rusty corroded metal as well.
Raze wrote: Kerosene... or eximo
I just bough some Eximo last week. My son came over to the house to change his oil and at the end of the operation there was about a gallon of used oil all over my driveway (he backed over the oil container that he left behind his car to go drop off).
We tried kitty litter. Then we used some HF degreaser. Then the next day I put some simple green on it. I wore out my bristle brush grinding all of this stuff into the concrete. The stain was a lot better, no longer black, but still very much visible. After 4 or 5 days the Eximo arrived and I sprinkied some on the stain and ground it in. There is no sign of the stain any longer. It hasn't rained since then, I want to see what happens when it rains. The eximo claims to be full of oil eating microbes. I bought the 3 lb bottle and that will last longer than the 1 year shelf life.
My driveway is sloped and runoff goes into a storm drain, then down the street into a creek. I didn't want to use muriatic acid or gasoline for that reason.
44Dwarf wrote: Steam cleaner or presure washer is the best way followed by a brush with concreate (muritic) acid and rinse well the landloard will never see it.
Muritic acid is a good idea. I used that stuff when I did some flagstone repair. It's no joke. Use gooood gloves and watch out for fumes. Even in an open area it's nasty stuff. But it sure does a heck of a job.
You'll need to log in to post.
