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General => General Forum => Topic started by: trish2 on May 02, 2011, 01:46:45 AM

Title: How do you get oil & grease stains out of concrete?
Post by: trish2 on May 02, 2011, 01:46:45 AM
Hello All:
Need some help.  Some tenants just moved out of a rental and left behind lots of oil and grease stains on the garage floor.  Guess one of their cars had a pretty bad oil leak.  Prior to their 'deposit', the concrete was in pristine condition and husband would like it back that way again.

Any ideas?

Thanks
Title: Re: How do you get oil & grease stains out of concrete?
Post by: rick91351 on May 02, 2011, 02:41:29 AM
Have had good luck with Tide Laundry Detergent, full strength.   
Title: Re: How do you get oil & grease stains out of concrete?
Post by: rwanders on May 02, 2011, 01:07:41 PM
There are also several commercial degreasers made for this purpose----you can find them at your local big box supplier; ie Home Depot or Lowe's and similar.

What ever you use, the most critical aid will be patience----repeated applications, a stiff brush and elbow grease will be required.  When finished, you might consider coating the floor with one of the two-part epoxy finishes----they are very good at repelling oil & grease spills and make a garage floor very easy to keep clean and new looking. Worth the effort and expense.
Title: Re: How do you get oil & grease stains out of concrete?
Post by: glenn kangiser on May 02, 2011, 02:11:21 PM
In the 76 station I worked at in '69  we used stoddard solvent to soak it up and draw it out and rice hull ash to dry it up, turned it white.

Now... ??? maybe paint thinner and kitty litter..... or the stuff rw is talking about .. just offering options.
Title: Re: How do you get oil & grease stains out of concrete?
Post by: ScottA on May 02, 2011, 02:13:36 PM
I've used the laundry soap trick and it does work. You'll need to make it into a paste if using powder and scrub it really good.
Title: Re: How do you get oil & grease stains out of concrete?
Post by: waggin on May 02, 2011, 04:17:41 PM
I'll second/third what rick91351 and ScottA said.  When I worked at a service station, we did the nightime cleanup of the service bays with powdered Tide detergent.  Might not do the whole trick of restoring them to pristine, but it sure cleans the mess up.
Title: Re: How do you get oil & grease stains out of concrete?
Post by: firefox on May 03, 2011, 06:30:19 PM
Not sure if this will work for massive oil stains over an extended period,
but sprinkling copious amounts of baby powder will help to suck
up the oil out of concrete and to a limited amount out of wood
depending on type of wood.
I have three trucks and one of them was leaking oil, and this helped with the problem.
Bruce
Title: Re: How do you get oil & grease stains out of concrete?
Post by: MountainDon on May 03, 2011, 07:38:57 PM
Quote from: firefox on May 03, 2011, 06:30:19 PM
.....but sprinkling copious amounts of baby powder .....
I have three trucks and one of them was leaking oil, and this helped with the problem.
Bruce

Let's see; do I have this right?  Sprinkling baby powder in the oil in the truck that leaked oil, solved the leak?

Gotta try that!   ;) ;) ;)
Title: Re: How do you get oil & grease stains out of concrete?
Post by: ScottA on May 03, 2011, 08:13:18 PM
Baby powder will also help with fleas.
Title: Re: How do you get oil & grease stains out of concrete?
Post by: waggin on May 04, 2011, 01:19:23 AM
I hate it when my truck gets fleas...now I'll know what to do.   ;D
Title: Re: How do you get oil & grease stains out of concrete?
Post by: rick91351 on May 04, 2011, 08:33:42 AM
Quote from: MountainDon on May 03, 2011, 07:38:57 PM
Let's see; do I have this right?  Sprinkling baby powder in the oil in the truck that leaked oil, solved the leak?

Gotta try that!   ;) ;) ;)

Where were you guys during the Gulf Oil Spill?   
Title: Re: How do you get oil & grease stains out of concrete?
Post by: firefox on May 04, 2011, 05:14:23 PM
I forgot to mention. Sprinkle the baby powder on the truck
BEFORE you put on the diaper.
Bruce
PS: I was skepticle about this when my buddy who owns an auto repair shop told me about it. You would be surprised just how
much this stuff sucks up.