Best Concrete Cleaner

[Old Henry]

After Old Henry had a major "accident" on the driveway Monday I didn't get to cleaning up his mess until a few days later. By then the black oil had soaked well into the driveway and stained it good. I tried my usual blacktop and concrete cleaner from Ace Hardware that works great on the painted floor of my garage but it hardly touched the stain on my driveway. We have a major social function in G'Raj Mahal tomorrow so I wanted to get that stain off. Ran into Behr brand concrete degreaser and cleaner yesterday at home depot and tried it. It did amazingly well in removing almost all traces of the stain.

Here's what the stain looked like after Old Henry's "accident":



Here's what I first tried:



Here's what really worked:



Here's how the stain looked after the Behr cleaner. I left the stain on the road to show how bad it was on the driveway that we cleaned. The cleaner didn't work as well on the old rougher sidewalk next to the road nor on the asphalt as it did on my smoother driveway.

[Lazy Jake]

Good for the driveway - what was the problem with Old Henry?

[V8COOPMAN]

The neighbors and environmental types should understand that reasoning. DD

[Pete]

Later when you have time, put some "Grease Sweep" (trade name) or kitty litter, same stuff, about an inch deep all over the stain. Wet it with cleaning solvent. Let sit till the solvent evaporates. Re-apply solvent and swish the kitty liter around a bit. Keep doing this till the stain is gone. It may take a couple days but when you are done the concrete will be bleached white like new.

[Old Henry]

Originally Posted by Lazy Jake

Good for the driveway - what was the problem with Old Henry?

I had just removed my transmission to repair it then put it back in. I had just put the car on the ground, had pushed it out onto the driveway to clean up the garage, then was going to take it for a test drive. I started it up, backed out, and saw the oil pool and path. Pulled back in and shut it off. I had just filled the transmission and thought may I hadn't screwed the drain plug in good and the transmission oil was leaking out. I climbed under and tightened that but the oil hadn't come from there. It was engine oil that had come out in great quantity. I opened the hood and found the culprit.



What had happened was, when I jacked the engine up to remove and replace the transmission, the plastic tube coming out of the brass fitting to my mechanical oil pressure gauge hit the gas pedal rod, bent, and cracked open. That's where all of the oil dumped out. Amazing how much came out so quickly through such a small opening - at least a quart or more.

[Old Henry]

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Originally Posted by Pete

Later when you have time, put some "Grease Sweep" (trade name) or kitty litter, same stuff, about an inch deep all over the stain. Wet it with cleaning solvent. Let sit till the solvent evaporates. Re-apply solvent and swish the kitty liter around a bit. Keep doing this till the stain is gone. It may take a couple days but when you are done the concrete will be bleached white like new.

An even quicker way, if you want the concrete bleached white, is to wet it then spray muriatic acid on it. That bleaches off everything, particularly rust stains. But, you'd need to do it to the whole driveway, otherwise you have this "white stain" where it was etched. I do all my concrete that way every few years to "freshen it up" and make it all look brand new, even my concrete porch front and sides.

[51 MERC-CT]

So much for preserving 'patina'

[Fordors]

My father in law was known for being thrifty, not that there's anything wrong with that. Anyway a niece of his came over with a beater and it leaked black oil on his new concrete driveway. Old dad went into the basement and came up with some light colored grout powder he had from a remodeling project. I think he wiped up what was still wet, applied the grout and it lifted the stain by the next morning. Worked great on that still fresh stain.

[Marv]

Henry Pete is correct. I always pour the solvent directly to the oil on the cement and then cover with the kitty litter. It sucks the oil right out of the cement, and makes it like new.

[Fordestes]

I have often used Mach 4 absorbant for hydraulic spills on the streets and highways, I also use a mixture of white vinegar ammonia and baking soda
mixed in water, The recipe is on the back of the ammonia bottle,I cleaned up a shop floor a while back and used the mach 4 to take up the moisture
and my phone begin ringing with a person wanting to know what I used to get the stained floor so clean, the mixture is reasonably cheap and the ammonia is not as strong smelling as one would think, we used white portland cement on oil spills for years and it seemed to work ok, but was not as fast as the others.

[cmbrucew]

Your favorite solvent, brush it in well, and cover with diatomaceous earth, or soda ash.
Good for oil stain brightening.
Bruce

[ford38v8]

After cleaning my driveway in spots, those spots were more horrible looking because they were totally bleached out. A power washer then took care of the entire driveway, including spots i hadn't even tried to remove. Keep sweeping with the fan nozzle or you'll damage the concrete.

[V8COOPMAN]

Alan.......I didn't think there was any water left in Cal to run thru a pressure washer. DD

I know, NOT funny!

[Rand]

What about a gasoline soaked rag =/
Randy

[cmbrucew]

Randy
The environment section raked me over the coals for using gas to clean driveway.
Works good.
Bruce

[325w]

Originally Posted by cmbrucew

Your favorite solvent, brush it in well, and cover with diatomaceous earth, or soda ash.
Good for oil stain brightening.
Bruce

What is diatomaceous earth. We got red dirt. Black dirt and sand around here.

[Graeme / New Zealand]

Hey Old Henry. why don't you lay a new drive? ( it's got cracks in it anyway)

Gb

[Old Henry]

Originally Posted by 325w

What is diatomaceous earth.

Diatomaceous earth is a naturally occurring, soft, siliceous sedimentary rock that is easily crumbled into a fine white to off-white powder. Diatomaceous earth consists of fossilized remains of diatoms, a type of hard-shelled algae. It is used as the absorbtion ingredient in oil absorbers such as:



That's what I use in the garage to absorb a fresh oil spill. Doesn't do anything for a dried and soaked in oil stain though.

Diatomaceous earth is also used for filtration, mild abrasive in products including metal polishes and toothpaste, mechanical insecticide, matting agent for coatings, reinforcing filler in plastics and rubber, anti-block in plastic films, porous support for chemical catalysts, cat litter, activator in blood clotting studies, a stabilizing component of dynamite, and a thermal insulator.

[geoford41]

I would suggest a replacement to that plastic tube for your oil pressure gage. I would use a braided line(ss/PTFE) but that may not be correct appearing or try a soft copper tube that will be much more heat resistant
geoford41

[Tony, NY]

http://www.actcleaners.com/

[ford38v8]

Gotta hand it to old henry. I'd forgotten that diatom earth is the only 100% safe insecticide for use against bedbugs. Method is not poison, but rather, by deprivation of water. Mummified bedbugs, anybody?

[49 Spinner]

With your skills, you could just Photoshop the before and after pict, ha