I have tried everything including hd degreaser to clean my driveway of old oil leaks. Does anyone know what works well?
Mark

 

You said you'd tried "everything", but since it hasn't worked thought maybe I'd suggest a combination of the degreaser and a high pressure wash.

First mop up the bulk using kaolin clay (kitty litter). Afterwards, if you find the oil soaked deeply into very porous concrete then a good cutting agent poured liberally over the area should dilute it sufficiently to yield good results with pressure washing.

At high pressures one can etch the concrete so be careful...

 

Concreate cleaner works very good (if you have a concreate driveway that is) removes rubber too.

 

I have tried just about every cleaner known to manand nothing works as good as plain old mineral spirits . Just pour it on , let it sit for a couple minutes and rinse it off , but this only works for concrete driveways .

 

After you have cleaned it as best you can with a degreaser goto the hardware store and get a gallon of Muratic Acid. It reacts with concrete and will "etch" your driveway. Don't leave it on too long though before you rinse it off, and AVOID THE FUMES. In my more mischevious days (hehe) we used to write less than kind words on people's driveways with the stuff. :-X23

 

The "kitty litter" dry sweep works great -- the trick is though, you can't just throw it down and sweep it up if you want to get all of it.

Wear an old pair of shoes with rubber soles, step on a section of dry sweep and start twisting your shoe back and forth while bearing down with your weight. This will crush the sweep into a dry, fine powder that will soak up the grease and oil down into the pores of the concrete. Takes a while but works great.

 

I highly advise against using muriatic acid to clean concrete . The guy who owned my house before me use to use it to clean oil spots on the garage floor , now all the concrete is falling apart everywhere he used it .

 

In the shops I used to work in, we found "TIDE" and a push-broom worked pretty good, combined with a high pressure nozzle on a garden hose.

Anything that didn't take out was a project for a pressure washer.

This makes for a two part system - regular cleaning to keep it halfway nice, and a weekend "Blast-A-Thon" once every few months to get rid of the stubborn stuff.

 

I sell a product where I work ( Specialty Construction Products )
called concrete cleaner( acid base ). It was once called DO-IT CONCRETE CLEANER.

I have used this product myself and find it great for removing Georgia red mud and tire and rubber marks. I have poured it on warehouse floors that are 20 years old and it makes the floor look like the concrete was just poured.

But it is mho that oil stains deep in concrete are there to stay.

http://scpatl.com/

Ps== I am not selling just this is a great product

 

Imho --> Everyone is somewhat correct here. It is true that oil does get very deep into the concrete and yes muratic acid will help if you don't leave it in too long like the dude who owned the house before greywolf (I believe) owned it did. Yes, tide is a good answer too and the kitty liter and the shoes too. I seem to think I am fairly logical so when it came to cleaning my driveway which is now spotless I think I used a little of all of those things. You have to think about the problem as being just oil, not something mystical or something. First you should do the litter thing to soak up any extra oil on top and in the first couple of layers of the surface. Then wash it down and don't worry about it if you still see stains, we are not done yet. Now comes some tide and get those shoes back on and walk on it too or used a stiff scrub brush or sorts to really work it. Now, let it sit for a couple of hours!!!!! very important!! Then wash it off with a pressure washer and possibly do that step again if you don't notice any real change in the stains. The trick is to let the soap do it's thing by sitting on the stain for a couple of hours, it needs to break it down and that takes a while with detergent. Ok, now you should have almost if not all of it gone and what ever remains is going to have to suffer the wrath of the big guns, mineral spirits or last resort acid. I ended up using the acid on a few stubborn stains and my neighbor was tripping to see my driveway a bubbling away and sizzling after I poured it out on it. It should be used carefully and in a very timely manner to avoid the pitfalls some people get in too by leaving it on too long. The tide works the best though you have to leave it on a long time, liquid tide is the best with about 50 50 soap and water to dilute. Just be patient and let it work on it for a while, your driveway is not doing to clean up in seconds, this is a process that is slow and needs time to happen.

 

Certain laundry soaps also contain bleach, or it may be added to the mix. This is good to deal with rust stains where a metal can may have sat for a long time.

Cleansers also have bleach in them, but be sure they have time to work, and keep it wet while this is all going on. Once it dries, it does no good.


~Wolf

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 02-May-02 AT 05:50 AM (EST)]At my old shop we coverted a old metal scrap yard into a junk yard, Ford and Mopar based, its main building had very old stains in the concrete floor. Being in the towing field we had speedy dry but it only picked up the stuff on top what we found to be the best was more concrete. We just put dry concrete mix onto the spots for a couple of days then swep it up. No scrubbing and it pulled most of the stains up. You wouldn't know it now though with used parts all inside the building.

If you have asphalt driveway be aware asphalt is a petrolum by-product so it will degrade if you try to use Kero or other oil based cleaner on it. I've seen holes formed by leaving gas on it too long.

Justin

 

You can pick up "Super Clean at any parts store. This is a great muli-purpose cleaner. Spray it on the oil stain in the driveway, scrub a little, and rinse. You now have a clean spot in your driveway. Use it under the hood too. Spray it on tires to make them look new. Dilute it to clean interior and glass.

I'm telling you..."Super Clean" is what you are looking for to get stains out of driveways.

Silly rabbit. Jeeps are for chicks!!
"If you're not getting stuck, you're not trying"
76 F100

 

Man, I must be getting paid to promote easy off. But really it does work on concret driveways too. Spary it, go watch a show on tv, pick your toe nails, fiddle with the Ford, or start the honey do list, come back hit it with a garden hose. Reapply if needed. Chances are you wont. Unless you have a tar pit for a driveway.

 

I've had good luck with applying kitty litter, waiting a day, sweeping it up, then applying "simple green" liberally and waiting for a good rain.