Suggestions for the best SAFE way to remove the old, dried up gunk of leaked transmission and engine oil from the concrete garage floor?
I already scruffed a bunch of clean cat litter on it and swept that up which got the worst of the gunk. But there is some residual stuff I’d like to thoroughly clean up.
Before I start playing with volatile cleaning agents I want to know I’m not about to use something that produces a bad chemical reaction.
Marnet
Now that you still have some of that cat litter, get some Naphtha from the hardware or paint store.
Pour some Naphtha on the spot and add the cat litter on top and repeat a few times. You want the Naphtha to soak in and then soak into the cat litter.
This may not get it all but it should help.In the garage I worked at we did the following:
1: Wet floor with garden hose
2: Pour liquid detergent on oil spots (Tide or whatever)
3: Use floorbrush to scrub Tide into stains
4: Splash gasoline on stubborn stains and rescrub.
5: Rinse
The gasoline risk is minimized because it’s used on a wet floor. It worked well.
Joe Mario
[b]Soak the area with brake parts cleaner. Let it sit on the stain for about five minutes and resoak the area. Apply the kitty litter over the soaked area and let it sit for ten munites. Sweep up the kitty liter and dispose. Repeat as required to remove the stains.
Tester[/b]
Before you try naphtha, check its ignition point. Brake cleaner should be safer.
“Any of several highly volatile, flammable liquid mixtures of hydrocarbons distilled from petroleum, coal tar, and natural gas and used as fuel, as solvents, and in making various chemicals.”
From Answers.com.
Gray concrete paint on the entire floor. When it gets ugly, scrape it off and repaint the spot. If you have the time. I’m repainting my floor now. No matter what you do, it will never be perfect.