cleaner to remove oil stains from concrete?

[Sawatzky]

This has nothing to do with wood, but I did not know where to post it. Is there some kind of chemical or cleaner I can buy that removes oil stains from concrete?

[MilDoc]

What concrete? Garage? Driveway? How old are the stains? Fresh? Real old & set?

Concrete that has been steel troweled smooth is pretty resistant to permanent stains. Rough is harder.

If fresh on any concrete, I use kitty litter ground in with my shoe then swept up, and do this several times. Then a regular scrub brush (not wire) - wet the area & the surrounding concrete, squirt on liquid dish detergent, and scrub hard to form a lot of foam but don't dilute it too much. Rinse well.

I haven't had much success with the older stains in the garage left by the prior owner. The best cleaning, and not complete, I found with Swab, a concrete cleaner from Gunk. I never tried things recommended by others - kerosene (too flammable), muriatic acid (yikes! & can dissolve cement).

Any one else have better success with really old stains?

[iceman61]

1st - kitty litter ground in several times.

2nd - Dawn dish washing liquid, water & a deck scrub brush. Dawn is what they use to clean up after crude oil spills.

3rd - If this is on outside concrete, you can follow up with bleach & a deck scrub brush. be sure to wear old shoes & old clothes for this step. Do this step on a warm sunny day.

4th - if the bleach doesn't get the stain up enough, you can also use a concrete etch solution. This can be found next to the epoxy paint that stores sell to prep the concrete prior to painting concrete floors.

A deck brush is the best I've found to scrub concrete with. It has short stiff nylon bristles that do a great job srubbing without harming the surface.

Good Luck!

[SARGE..g-47]

If it's a driveway and it's old, I agree that it won't be easy. I lightly bleach my driveway about every year and pressure wash as I have many trees that secrete acid stains and a few oil spots. Even the bleach won't take some out from what I have found.

Also agree kitty litter ( I use mechanics sand-gravel I get at any automotive store by the 50 lb. bag) when you get fresh oil stains to take away the slip and slide factor.

[gmack5]

Getting Concrete Clean

In my experience, a product that contains "TSP" (Tri-Sodium-Phospate) should be a good one to use, just be careful and be sure you WEAR RUBBER GLOVES! That stuff is really "Active" and will burn your bare skin.

I used to sell the stuff to Gas Stations and Automotive Garages. It was called "Concrete Floor Cleaner" Sold thru Amway, now called Quxtar.

[eliasbboy]

I work in a family construction company, and we do floor coatings and commercial waterproofing. We recently started using a spray can material that will pretty much take the butt off a cat if you wanted. I can't remember the name off hand, but I'll grab it at the office in the morning and let you know.

Oil Dry, of course, is always a great way to start. I had a 5 gal. can of cooking oil leak in my garage and the Oil Dry cleaned up everything, even removing oil from the leg of a cherry low boy table I was putting together.

Good luck, and I'll be sure to grab the name for you tomorrow.

[cabinetman]

This is going to sound way too simple. For fresh oil spills, the powdery sawdust, like from a TS or BS or floor/bench sander works real well. I keep bags of it and sprinkle a little pile on top of it and broom it around, pick up with broom and dustpan.

Depending, on the spill, a heavy solution of powdered Tide in water brushed around on the stain may remove. Another one I've tried is Shout, and just shout the heck out of it.
.

[AuroraEva]

Whenever I look for cleaning products, I look for ones that are non toxic, so when I was looking for an oil stain remover, I picked up Oil Gone Easy Home & Driveway S-200. I came to know that it uses Bioremediation to clean up oil stains and it’s completely biodegradable. It worked pretty well on my concrete floor as well. It’s a cool product.
For additional information visit the site : Oil Gone Easy

[Black wallnut]

Pervious post was approved in spite of our anti-spam policy in an effort to help the OP. Seems to be relevent and possiibly even ligit.

[drillman88]

I have used muratic acid but only as a last resort. That is some nasty stuff. We have a cleaner around here called purple stuff or purple power that does a good job on anything thats not really old. I pour it on sweep it in with a broom then mop up or pressure wash depending on the loction.It is easy to work with too no harsh fumes or vapors.
I am curious if anyone has tried any of the oxy cleaners on concrete with any success.

[tjr]

I've used generic powdered oxy bleach (Awesome brand from Dollar Tree) to remove black fungus/green algae gunk from part of our brick patio. Doubt it would do much on oil stains, tho. For fresh oil stains, as other have suggested I sop up with oil dri, then scrub in some Dawn or Simple Green and let stand for a while before rinsing. My father-in-law used to sop up with dry portland cement instead of oil dri, worked pretty much the same.

If it's clean oil, hot summer sun will do a pretty good job in a few weeks and it's priced right.

[docrowan]

We recently started using a spray can material that will pretty much take the butt off a cat if you wanted.

Eliasbboy - you almost owed me a new t-shirt. I'll have to remember that one.

[gjat]

I have tried every concrete / oil cleaner that is sold in Lowes, HomeDepot, and Pep Boys. I've tried Dawn, brake cleaner, gas, lacquer thinner, mineral spirts, and pressure washing. I've tried stuff wet, dry, rinse immediately, covered and let sit, and anything else people suggested other than nuclear waste. The best you can expect is it just getting a bit lighter and looking better than most of your neighbors.

[thrytis]

I tried a lot of stuff (oil dry, TSP, lacquer thiner, carburetor cleaner, dish soap, grease lightning, acid based rust away, purple concrete cleaner, simple green and probably some others) when trying to prep my floor for epoxy, and muriatic acid was the most effective at removing old oil stains. I had read that it wasn't for cleaning so i wasn't expecting it, but it worked pretty well on my stains. It does etch (dissolve) the concrete so it wouldn't be for every situation. Of all the other stuff i tried, simple green was the next most effective. If it is an old stain, you probably are going to lighten it up at best.