Oil Spill clean up

[Robmoo]

I had a bottle of lamp oil sitting on a shelf near the door from the garage to the house. Naturally that Murphy knocked it over spilling it. I covered it with laundry detergent for clean up, but whenever we get high humidity it seems to come back and collect condesation. The DW isn't happy with the laundry detergent tracked into the house, but without it the spot is so slick that someone is going to fall. Any suggestion for getting this out of the concrete and cleaned up for good?

Thank you!

Rob

 

[Matt]

Degreaser and pressure washer would be my suggestion. Maybe after the degreaser, hit it again with simple green and the pressure washer again.

 

[Blckshdw]

A few years ago I had some oil drip in the car port of a place I was renting that I needed to clean up. Bought some Pour 'n Restore from Lowe's, it worked out pretty well for me, here's a review thread I put up back then.

https://gmtnation.com/forums/threads/product-review-pour-n-restore-oil-stain-remover.12653/

 

[Reprise]

Kitty litter also works. The clay kind. Cover spot fairly generously, use shoe or other to ground into the spot, leave for a day or two. Works as well as oil-dri, cheaper, and readily available. Idea is to get it absorbed before it all soaks into the porous concrete.

For the remaining spot...muriatic acid, a stiff (or wire) brush, gloves & some elbow grease will get most of it, but if anyone has a better solution, I'm interested in hearing about it!

 

[Robmoo]

I thought about a torch, but didn't want to risk burning the house down. I tried a heat gun and it did dry out the concrete, but it came back.

I hit the spill with the detergent within a couple of minutes of the spill.

Anyone know why the area of the oil spill would collect so much condensation?

 

[mrrsm]

If you use a Torch to heat up concrete... it can Spall outwards and crack out large chunks... sometimes very energetically. Carlton ( @Blckshdw) once famously said:

"If You Don't Have Pictures... It Did NOT Happen..."

So shoot some images of what you are dealing with and post them back here so everyone will know precisely how to help you... I like Cheap Dry Clay Kitty Litter like @Reprise suggested. Dump it down... Put on your Dancing Shoes to grind the stuff into the floor and listen to K.C. and The Sunshine Band's "Get Down Tonight" and the stuff will come right out of the concrete pores.

 

[Robmoo]

The area is still damp, but the heat gun seemed to help a lot. I'll hit it with the heat gun one more time and if that doesn't solve the issue I'll lay down some kitty litter. I may buy a bag just to have on hand for spills. It sounds like the clay will absorb spills more quickly and thoroughly than the laundry soap powered.

I'd use the clay now, but something tells me the DF wouldn't like it much better than the laundry detergent.

 

[brianlibby791]

Brake clean works fine for me.

 

[Drec]

I have a friend that uses Portland Cement.

 

[Mounce]

"collects" condensation because the oiled area won't absorb the condensation where as the rest of the concrete readily absorbs it like there was never any condensate.