Any luck with oil removal poultice / pastes for deep oil stains on concrete?

JWBris

New member
I'm having trouble removing deep oil stains in concrete. I'm currently using a mix of cooking flour and turps mixed together and then spread out over the stain for 12 hours.
The results are better than what I can do with the hot water pressure washer and heavy degreasers, but I still think it can come up cleaner.
Any help or ideas would be awesome.
I'm down here in Australia, so we basically don't have access to any of the good products like F9 or Dragon Juice either.
 
Try some Tide Powdered Detergent .Let set there for some time and rinse .may have to let it dwell for a couple times .
 
Doesn't anyone in the US have oil spills to deal with, or is this like KFC's 12 secret herbs.....and everyone wants to keep it to themselves?

PM me if you don't want it posted here, and I will respect your secret and not pass it on, if that may be the concerns here.

Cheers
 
The success of removing oil stains, depends on how deep the oil has soaked into the concrete. Hydrocarbon based degreasers, a stiff broom and heat will give you the best results when spot cleaning.
I just never make promises anymore.
Hi Greg Thanks for that.
Yes have started making no promises now as well after being disappointed with some of the old deep oil stains. I use a 9gpm hot water machine, what sort of heat do you find works best? I'm currently running around 80 degrees as I'm having trouble finding ball valves that will work above 80 degrees. My machine will heat to 130 degrees but I have a few weak links in the system that can't handle that sort of heat, so can't crank it over 80 degrees yet. Tried both Pirtec and Enzed, so may have to start looking overseas again.
I will experiment with the hydrocarbon degreaser as well.
Thanks for your help Greg!
 
I have a fairly similar enquiry. A builder tried to remove cement residue from coloured concrete using TURPINTINE of all products. He covered an area in front of garage doors (private) about 800mm wide by 4 metres long and of course the Turp's ran with the slope of the concrete so there is a 500mm wide by a further 2 Metre long flow path.
I am looking at using straight dishwash detergent applied at 100% to the stain and keep it wet for as long as I can by putting it on with a paint roller then after the longest dwell time I can achieve I will pressure wash it off at low to medium pressure.
Biggest problem is the Turp's stain has been there over a month through what has been the hottest weeks so far this summer and I am suspecting it is well leached into the concrete. I have used straight liquid laundry detergent on an oil spill on very old concrete, moments after the oil wash removed with rags etc, with great success. You wouldn't have even known the oil had been spilt.
 
The difficult thing is that you don't have access to the prepared products that we have easy access to.
So, from the old timers files:
First is paint thinner or turpentine. They both have the ability to break down the oils so that they can be power washed up. What will happen is that deep seated oils will then wick up, because, as hard as concrete is, it is also porous. That means that the oil will soak down into the concrete and will come up, once the top layer is removed.
If you have a top line powdered laundry detergent down under, it will likely be very similar to Tide, in that it is designed to attract oil. If you spread it on, after applying the paint thinner or turpentine, the free oils will break down, and wick up to the top, into the tide. It will do it with any oliphilic powder, but the detergent works best, because of its chemical properties. When you have let it rest for a time, according to your best judgement, but at least 24 hours, you can sweep up the detergent, and powerwash as normal, using what ever degreaser you have down there. You might need to repeat the process to get the desired results.

Hope that helps.
 
The difficult thing is that you don't have access to the prepared products that we have easy access to.
So, from the old timers files:
First is paint thinner or turpentine. They both have the ability to break down the oils so that they can be power washed up. What will happen is that deep seated oils will then wick up, because, as hard as concrete is, it is also porous. That means that the oil will soak down into the concrete and will come up, once the top layer is removed.
If you have a top line powdered laundry detergent down under, it will likely be very similar to Tide, in that it is designed to attract oil. If you spread it on, after applying the paint thinner or turpentine, the free oils will break down, and wick up to the top, into the tide. It will do it with any oliphilic powder, but the detergent works best, because of its chemical properties. When you have let it rest for a time, according to your best judgement, but at least 24 hours, you can sweep up the detergent, and powerwash as normal, using what ever degreaser you have down there. You might need to repeat the process to get the desired results.

Hope that helps.
Hi Scott,
That's great. Yes we have no products down here in Australia ready made like you guys have. Also we can't generally ship the liquids by air because of the security issues of liquids on planes! So I can sea freight stuff but it takes months :(
Thanks again for your help Scott.
 
Doesn't anyone in the US have oil spills to deal with, or is this like KFC's 12 secret herbs.....and everyone wants to keep it to themselves?

PM me if you don't want it posted here, and I will respect your secret and not pass it on, if that may be the concerns here.

Cheers

Hi Brett. get yourself some Gaur/Guar thickener. I don't believe it'll work with solvent degreasers, only water based. The ratio is going to be trial & error. you know the size of the stain, I don't. Don't dilute the degreaser, stir in the powder til it starts to thicken, broom it on the surface, & if possible, tape some black plastic over it to stop it drying out.
Let us know how you go.
 
The difficult thing is that you don't have access to the prepared products that we have easy access to.
So, from the old timers files:
First is paint thinner or turpentine. They both have the ability to break down the oils so that they can be power washed up. What will happen is that deep seated oils will then wick up, because, as hard as concrete is, it is also porous. That means that the oil will soak down into the concrete and will come up, once the top layer is removed.
If you have a top line powdered laundry detergent down under, it will likely be very similar to Tide, in that it is designed to attract oil. If you spread it on, after applying the paint thinner or turpentine, the free oils will break down, and wick up to the top, into the tide. It will do it with any oliphilic powder, but the detergent works best, because of its chemical properties. When you have let it rest for a time, according to your best judgement, but at least 24 hours, you can sweep up the detergent, and powerwash as normal, using what ever degreaser you have down there. You might need to repeat the process to get the desired results.

Hope that helps.

Like, about as good advice you will get.
 
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