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Grease/oil buildup removal

reivertom

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Joined
Jun 11, 2015
Messages
70
Location
Eastern Kentucky
Hello folks,
What is the best way to remove old oil and grease grunge from garage floors? my garage has the normal dark grungy spots from 60 years of cars dripping on the floor under the engine compartment. It has been there long before I came around and it is tough stuff.:confused:
 
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theoldwizard1

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Joined
Feb 22, 2011
Messages
43,243
Location
SE MI
You probably can not get it perfectly clean, but I use Greased Lightning or Drive Up, straight. Pour it on the stain. Brush it in with a push broom. Let dry over night. Hose it off.

Let dry and then repeat. It might take 3 or even 4 treatments.
 

larry_g

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Joined
Apr 28, 2007
Messages
16,892
Location
oregon
To remove heavy grease like that I take solvent and pour it on the area and scrub it with a stiff brush till the dirt/grease is a liquid mess. Then cover the area with floor dry and let it set for a day or overnight and then pick up the floor dry.

lg
no neat sig line
 
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reivertom

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 11, 2015
Messages
70
Location
Eastern Kentucky
Thanks for all the info everybody. I think even with the best products, I'll need a big ole can of elbow grease to go along with it......Some of the grease has been on there for 60 years.
 

CGT80

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Joined
Aug 29, 2014
Messages
865
Location
IE, SoCal, USA
Spray it down with an industrial alkaline cleaner and then use a surfacing machine, attached to a 20hp 3500psi 5.5gpm pressure washer that has a boiler set to 200 degrees, and recovery equipment to **** up the mess. The surfacing machine works like a lawnmower, but the blade is a pipe that has spray nozzles on it.

That is the best way, without using something abrasive. It is pretty quick and much easier than scrubbing by hand. I used to do it as a pro. We cleaned concrete, tile, and buildings for Dodger stadium, la staples center, Nokia theater, many restaurants and also cleaned floors for pro epoxy guys. We did a garage that was used to tear down engines for rebuilds and it really made a huge difference. The cleaner would etch anodized aluminum within a couple minutes and it would burn your skin in a couple minutes as well. Once diluted, it was safe for food areas. Find a company that does the same and get a quote, if you want it done well and easily. The price may not be bad for how well it turns out.

You could rent a pressure washer, but a wand is very slow, and most pumps are not made to run hot water. Our pumps pushed cold water into the boiler, so the pump was always cool, unless they were left on bypass for too long and they heated up the 300 gallon tanks that they ran from. A floor scrubber would be better than scrubbing with a brush.

My dad and I scrubbed a 2 car garage by hand, but it was not so bad that the grease was caked on. It was pretty dang dirty, and we did a good enough job that the rustoleum epoxy is still sticking to the concrete.
 
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TheEquineFencer

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Joined
Jan 15, 2009
Messages
9,278
Location
Farmville, NC 27828
There's a lot of ways to do it. A shop I rented a long time ago was built in 1963 and was never cleaned until I did it about 15 years ago. Solvent, something like varsol works good scrub it some, let it soak and then use oil dry to get it up before you go at it with something like Muriatic acid and a pressure washer. FWIW, you can take a steel 55 gallon drum and plumb it fora 'holding tank" for a wet/dry shop vac. Let the vac **** out of one of the bungs and then plumb the other bung to you hose to **** up the nasty, greasy water. A hot water washer does pretty good too. I also rented a "scrubber" for use on the pressure washer. With at least a 4000 PSI washer, even cold it does pretty good. The acid will take your breath away, literally, wear a respirator.
 

lukedwag

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Joined
Aug 5, 2007
Messages
202
I would second the hot water pressure washer for ease. We make big messes with our heavy equipment repairs and nothing works better then hot water and purple power.
 

Armorpoxy

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Joined
Aug 18, 2013
Messages
3,735
Location
NJ
Oil will soak into concrete since its porous and is almost impossible to fully remove not matter what you do. Even grinding often leaves residue. Make sure to prime those areas first with our Oil Stop Primer which is designed to adhere to oily areas, otherwise you can have a failure.
 
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