# Removing oil spots from concrete.



## superseal (Feb 4, 2009)

Like the title says...at my own home and I'm fixing up the old attached 1 car masonry garage and the previous worked on and owner parked his cars in here the whole 50+ years he lived here...I know this because I grew up next door and knew him well. I also know his old cars leaked oil pretty regularly and by the time I took ownership, it had baked in as much as an auto repair shop. 

Through the years I've just used the garage for storage for the business and threw indoor/outdoor carpet over the floor to cover it up. 

Recently, I decided to build some basic shelving in there, I want to paint the walls and floor, change out the garage door etc... in order to clean things up. 

Anyhow I thought about busting it up and replacing it as it was so bad...then decided I would at least try and clean it the best I could and see where that took me. We all know oil, especially caked in oil is tough to remove, even surface grinding isn't enough in itself. We also know that most cleaners are chemical based and of the nasty variety that stink to high hell and make a serious mess. 

My research continued and the consensus matched my own thoughts that I'd never get it all up when I came upon a old fella in a garage forum who stated he'd never met an oil stain he couldn't remove with basic TSP and hot water. I thought, chit, that seems easy enough and I have some TSP out in the other garage so it won't even cost me a dime to try. 

Well, three applications of hot water/TSP/Dawn dish soap and quite frankly couldn't believe my eyes...all the oil is gone, and I mean gone. Absolutely unbelievable results from a product I always have in stock, yet rarely seem to use. The areas shown were crusted with oil so thick I had to scrape loose what I could before attempting to clean. They're still a little wet as well but you can see how well it worked. I'm still going to pressure wash and etch it on my next opportunity along with cleaning the walls to prepare for paint. Probably do block filler and an acrylic finish on the walls and epoxy on the floor.


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## Seven-Delta-FortyOne (Mar 5, 2011)

Never would have guessed that. :thumbsup:

Do you have any before pics?


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## superseal (Feb 4, 2009)

Seven-Delta-FortyOne said:


> Never would have guessed that. :thumbsup:
> 
> Do you have any before pics?


I don't...mainly because I was convinced it wouldn't even touch it. 

I will say the grooves in the floor were flush with oil sediment and the surface was absolute black, smooth and paint like. 

I just went back out to look and dropped a bead of water on the surface and it absorbed readily...just what I'm looking for.


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## greg24k (May 19, 2007)

That stuff is the best. 1st time I used it, I was doing a job for a customer, and my power steering line had a leak in it. When I saw that huge stain on the driveway it blew my top and TSP sure did its magic.


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## fjn (Aug 17, 2011)

Thanks guys for the tip. Never know when you need to use it.:thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## Tscarborough (Feb 25, 2006)

Even easier is to make a poultice of TSP and bleach, apply and cover with plastic and let it sit for a day or too. All gone, and it takes much less water to do.


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## superseal (Feb 4, 2009)

I ground down half the floor using a diamond cup and sawed out some cracks...time for stitches!

I secured the patches with Em-Cryl 600 and 9000psi high strength flowable grout. Eventually this floor is getting a 2 part polyamine epoxy, aka, Armorseal 8100.


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## 91782 (Sep 6, 2012)

a fancy schmantzy repair there bub !


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## superseal (Feb 4, 2009)

Why spank you very much!


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## onmywayup (Aug 18, 2012)

I just did a commercial warehouse locker room.... Put that Armorseal 8100 on the floor. Worked out great. Nice product. Went farther than I would have expected from the can, too.


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## fjn (Aug 17, 2011)

Another great S.S. repair ! :thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## superseal (Feb 4, 2009)

So roughly 20 staples up front and 27 in the back...Also found some hollow spots in the back which consumed huge amounts of liquid grout to fill. I got a feeling it was just a chitty tamp job on the sub base and she settled over the 75 years she's been down. Once I ran out of three full bags of rapid set, I made my own brew of beach sand, portland and some cement dust gathered by the dust deputy. whipped it up in 5 gal buckets all the way to the top and used seven of them...I poured it in with the wifes iced tea jug :blink:

Holy chit, I should have just repalced the slab :laughing:

Can you see where the staples are?


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## fjn (Aug 17, 2011)

As usual,another great S.S. repair to the rescue ! :thumbsup::thumbsup:


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## fjn (Aug 17, 2011)

Hey S.S.,make up one of theses and leave your bosses' tools alone !:laughing:


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## superseal (Feb 4, 2009)

fjn said:


> Hey S.S.,make up one of theses and leave your bosses' tools alone !:laughing:
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=df3M9y7HCHA


Except I'm pouring down a 3/4" hole faster than I can fill up the jug!...by the 5 gal bucket to boot :laughing:


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## Seven-Delta-FortyOne (Mar 5, 2011)

So after all is said and done, was it quicker and/or cheaper to do the repair, or would you have just removed the slab and repoured?


Great looking repair, though. :thumbsup:


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## Fouthgeneration (Jan 7, 2014)

SS thanks for the schooling, I never would have considered "stone" cramps as crack spread stoppers... Going to try it on a 40 year old farm shop floor

Would you go stainless cramps in a salty garage floor? for a few extra years? The Ancients would never use iron ties in any upscale masonry work, they'll always rust pop eventually.

Like the mini-me CMU grout funnel....

Some one needs to make a bottom gate valve kit for buckets for soupy grouting, similar to a "IMER' brand wash tub vertical shaft paddle mixer....


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## superseal (Feb 4, 2009)

Seven-Delta-FortyOne said:


> So after all is said and done, was it quicker and/or cheaper to do the repair, or would you have just removed the slab and repoured?
> 
> 
> Great looking repair, though. :thumbsup:


If I had to pay myself for this work, replacement would have been the wise choice I'm afraid to admit


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## superseal (Feb 4, 2009)

Fouthgeneration said:


> SS thanks for the schooling, I never would have considered "stone" cramps as crack spread stoppers... Going to try it on a 40 year old farm shop floor
> 
> Would you go stainless cramps in a salty garage floor? for a few extra years? The Ancients would never use iron ties in any upscale masonry work, they'll always rust pop eventually.
> 
> ...


I hear you with the iron and rust...thankfully the slab is fairly dry and not subject to weather. Stainless is always a choice and newer technologies like helical and carbon fiber splines make quicker work of this. In your salty environment, non ferrous would be recommended.


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## fjn (Aug 17, 2011)

Fouthgeneration said:


> SS thanks for the schooling, I never would have considered "stone" cramps as crack spread stoppers... Going to try it on a 40 year old farm shop floor
> 
> Would you go stainless cramps in a salty garage floor? for a few extra years? The Ancients would never use iron ties in any upscale masonry work, they'll always rust pop eventually.
> 
> ...



Another possibility,there are claims out there that state cold galvanizing compound applied to re bar is just as effective as HDG. With that thought,one could buy a spray can and apply several coats to the bars after bending and prior to installation.

I have coated more than a few replacement lintels with it. While fiber glass bar would be the first choice,the down side,it can't be field bent.

Most web discussions claim fiber bars cost between 25-50 % more than steel. By me, mid-west,we are lucky to have a Menard's ,they recently started stocking fiber bars.....at about .80 cheaper than comparative sized steel.:thumbup: At twice the strength of steel and 1/7 the weight,that is all I use now if possible.


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## superseal (Feb 4, 2009)

Fred...I bought a can of rustoleum cold galvy and for some reason decided not to use it after shining them up on the bench grinder/wire wheel to descale some rust...probably should of I know. 

Busy at work means not much time on the garage...I did however get some shelves up and walls and ceiling painted...17 gals to date. The masonry CMU's sucked up most as expected and required 3 coats to close up the surface and get a true hue.

Today I removed cover paper from the floor, jockied chit up on the shelves and was able to grind out my rear floor repairs I did awhile back...and let me tell you that stuff is truly 9000psi at this stage, a considerable difference in grinding the following day I will say. 

Another thing I noticed is what appears to be the creep of small amounts of oil still coming up to the surface, not everywhere, mainly were it was worse (center back section) Think i'll wash again with TSP and hit it with the pressure washer before final etch. I want to still drag a chain over the slab in search of hollows and if I find more I'll get them grouted solid before I do the epoxy.


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## superseal (Feb 4, 2009)

Little update - long, cold, busy winter and this floor got put on hold until the lazy owner decided to get off his arse and get it finished.

Armorseal 8100 2 cts./ Armorseal 1K 2cts. Decided on doing 100% broadcast of the chip which took about 20lbs of flake.

Looks much nicer in person...


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## Dirtywhiteboy (Oct 15, 2010)

Looks great!! I would have never thought that TSP would have removed the oil like that,, oh and the hot water.


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## superseal (Feb 4, 2009)

After 3 coats Armorseal 1K clear urethane enamel...super happy with this!


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