Heavy/Large Oil Stains With Cold Water

I know, I know..."only way to get rid of oil stains is with hot water." With that said, all my business to date has been residential, which 95% of the time cold water is fine. So for now, investing in a hot water skid isn't really justifiable.

I have a resident looking to sell her home. Her driveway is littered with spilled paint and oil stains. The paint and the small oil spots I can handle. However, there's one heavy, large oil stain. It's probably 2 ft x 8 ft.

If you were stuck having to clean this with cold water, how would you go about doing it? Heavy SH/surfactant mixture with a long dwell time, brushing, and surface cleaner?

I know I won't be able to get it all up with cold water. The good news is that the home owner doesn't expect it to be "like new" she just wants it better than what it is now. I'm hoping to surpass her expectations.

Worth a look....

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Your best bet would be EBC if you can't get hot water

Yeah, and unfortunately, I don't think I can get EBC here on time without paying for express shipping which would end up costing me nearly as much as the job.

Dave B said:

Yeah, and unfortunately, I don't think I can get EBC here on time without paying for express shipping which would end up costing me nearly as much as the job.

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When do you need it Dave?

This afternoon.

This might be a little late, but purple power with sodium hydroxide works good. They sell it at Auto Zone.
Apply, agitate and repeat if you have to.

A-PLUS said:

This might be a little late, but purple power with sodium hydroxide works good. They sell it at Auto Zone.
Apply, agitate and repeat if you have to.

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+1000, Sodium hydroxide gets the job done.

Ralph Q said:

+1000, Sodium hydroxide gets the job done.

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This is what I used. Below are the before and after pics.

You will see shadowing. I have tried everything to get oil out of concrete and the best I can do, leaves some shadowing. Did the customer like the job?

Yeah, they were pleased. I had told them before hand there may be a shadow. It looked 100x better than it did. I even got a $10 tip! That was a first.

Nice work, Dave.

Got my wd25 kit from Russ. I'll let you know how it works. It has sodium hydroxide in it so it's got to work good.