Cleaning oil off concrete

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Wasnt sure where to post this, but i was wondering if its somehow possible to clean an oil stain off of cement? after the spill happened i immediately took care of it with the cat litter style oil absorbent, which did a great job. but im now left with a huge black spot on what was a perfect looking slab of concrete.

Any suggestions?
 
I have used Tide powder and elbow grease with a stiff broom on mine. Got the Tide idea from Juan Montoya and the jet dryer. Followed that up with simple green and a pressure washer.
 
Depending upon how long it has been sitting I have to working on the spots over several days. First I use a strong soap like TSP or laundry detergent. Let it sit for an hour and reapply several times. Clean it up then let it dry. Then I use WD40 several times. Then I hit it with a my strong pressure cleaner.
I have not found anything easier, unfortunately. The sooner you start the process the better.
 
Simple Green. Straight. Pour it on, let it sit, scrub. Let it sit, scrub, hose it off. Repeat. Then let the sun do it's magic. The sun and nature will break down the remaining hydrocarbons. By summer, you won't know you had a little accident.
 
Originally Posted By: Jakegday
Wasnt sure where to post this, but i was wondering if its somehow possible to clean an oil stain off of cement? after the spill happened i immediately took care of it with the cat litter style oil absorbent, which did a great job. but im now left with a huge black spot on what was a perfect looking slab of concrete.

Any suggestions?


Simple, spread oil to the rest of the concrete.

Voila, no spot.
 
If you want it done fast, lacquer thinner. Pour it on and suck it up with a dry cotton towel. You gotta work fast though because that stuff evaporates quickly.
 
Originally Posted By: Jakegday
Wasnt sure where to post this, but i was wondering if its somehow possible to clean an oil stain off of cement? after the spill happened i immediately took care of it with the cat litter style oil absorbent, which did a great job. but im now left with a huge black spot on what was a perfect looking slab of concrete.

Any suggestions?

Is it indoors or out?

This approach works but it works better outdoors where the weather can work its magic:

- pour liquid detergent sufficient to cover the stain - if you have some trisodium phophate you can sprinkle some of that on as well

- cover the detergent with cat litter sufficient to totally obscure the detergent

- let sit basically forever

I have had it pull really nasty black oil stains right out of concrete.
 
A trick i discovered is to cover the wet/damp solvent with a sheet of aluminum foil to keep it from evaporating. ive found powdered chemicals work best when heaped in a pile, then are slightly damped and allowed to sit...for literally days...without allowing the pile of powder to completely dry. changing the powder out for a fresh pile helps.

the best luck ive had removing oil from concrete is something from a company called 'diedrich' that markets that sort of thing. i cant remember the exact name of the product but a search through their catalog shouldnt be too hard to find since they dont have too many products to look through.
 
Steam cleaner. Tought to me by an old real estate broker when I was an appraiser. The steam brings the oil to the surface and breaks it up better than any chemical I've ever tried. Said he used it to clean driveways in houses he had for sale. works great.
 
hose down stain with brake cleaner (non-chlorinated seems to work best) and let sit for a few seconds, give a second hose down and immediately cover with oildry. Stomp, mash, dance on the kitty litter for a minute or two and sweep up. I've been able to get just about any oil stain out of concrete by doing this, even really dirty diesel oil out of exterior concrete.

Fastest way I've found yet and its worked every time for me.
 
Product that is made by Techniseal. Can order it thru Ewing Irrigation. It is a fluid paste that you apply to the oil stain, you let it dry and then you just sweep it up. I had an incident with 2 gallons of used 15w-40 motor oil
 
I've been doing this lately.
1) Depending how new or wet the spill is, do any absorptive step first.
2) Put the kettle on.
3) Get a few buckets of water on site. Have Purple Power/Simple Green in a small spray bottle. Likely other cleaners would work as well.
4) Pour the water "downhill" of the stain. This prevents oil/soap runoff from restraining good concrete.
5) Dribble the boiling water onto the stain. You're raising its temperature so the chemistry works better.
6) Spray (don't freely pour) your selected solvent onto the stain. I learned Purple Power/Simple Green work well.
7) After a minute, flush it with the bucketed water. You'll see the outer edges of the flowing water have a brown color. That's the oil floating away. The wetted concrete will shun the rinsing stain.
8) Repeat.

This sounds like a lot but it's not.
I've been pleasantly surprised at how well this works. Kira
 
I found cat litter, followed by straight Simple Green and power washing to work best.
 
Originally Posted By: Nukeman7
This is available at ACE Hardware stores, some Lowe's locations and on Amazon.

Pour-n-Restore

Best stuff I have ever used to remove oil stains from concrete.


I have used this product as well - with outstanding results.
 
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