sealing heating oil smell from basement

[Ukraine Train]

My house used to use heating oil but has been converted to gas. The oil tank has been removed and I'd like to turn that room into a workshop but it still has a fairly strong oil smell. Is there something I can use to seal the surfaces to block the smell? The floor is bare concrete and walls are concrete block. I think scrubbing it down will only have a limited effect since it's soaked in over a few decades.

 

[walrus]

My house used to use heating oil but has been converted to gas. The oil tank has been removed and I'd like to turn that room into a workshop but it still has a fairly strong oil smell. Is there something I can use to seal the surfaces to block the smell? The floor is bare concrete and walls are concrete block. I think scrubbing it down will only have a limited effect since it's soaked in over a few decades.

Sounds like there was a spill at one time or another.? Generally having a tank and oil furnace won't smell that bad unless there was a leak at some point. I've seen houses torn down because of leaks as it could never be cleaned up without doing it.

 

[ToolmanGary]

Maybe start with steam cleaning the concrete, like said above there must have been a spill and it's in the concrete.
When I bought my house I had to deal with fuel oil heat for the first winter then I switched to gas and I didn't have any smell residue

 

[Ukraine Train]

Luckily the smell just stays in that room. It's not terrible; I'm mostly concerned about passing out in there after a couple hours. I'm not sure how much it's off-gassing still. Steam cleaning is a good idea. I'll start with that.

 

[kelpaso1]

Could try sprinkling baking soda all over the floor and letting it sit for a couple weeks

 

[SteveCh]

My wife's brother has a home with a basement oil heater, or he did, as he changed over to natural gas three years ago. The basement definitely had a strong fuel oil odor from various little leaks over a long time. The house was built in 1922, don't know when the oil furnace was installed but I would expect at least pre-WWII. Once the workers drained and removed the oil tank and old furnace, they spread some cat litter around. The smell of the oil hung around for about six months, though it diminished slowly. Now, there is only the slightest hint of an odor. It has been that way for at least two years. No cleaners or solvents or etc. were applied.

So, time may be what is needed, perhaps along with some sort of cleaner. I had figured the smell would linger there forever, but I was wrong.

 

[The Cobbler]

the odour is in the wood joists and floor as well.
I would coat the floor with an oil based paint, seal the walls and joists with kilz.
or
in time the smell will diminish

 

[Miller72]

the odour is in the wood joists and floor as well.
I would coat the floor with an oil based paint, seal the walls and joists with kilz.
or
in time the smell will diminish

I agree with the cobbler. I was an oil Heating​ tech here in the Northeast.
I recommend kitty litter, crushed into the floor with your feet, let it saturate and replace. Do that till you are satisfied then paint floor and walls with kilz water/odor sealer...$40/50 a gallon, then kilz stain remover sealer the joists and subfloor above, maybe $25 a gallon.

Miller CT

 

[6768rogues]

Sometimes a "bake out" or "burn out" works. That is where you put a heater in the room and heat it up as much as you can, occasionally venting the room. Heat sometimes accelerates the aeration of the stuff causing the smell.

 

[ssdave]

If there's any apparent places that have oil stains on the concrete floor, spread kitty litter over it, crush it with your shoes, and then put an infrared heat lamp on it (careful to not shine it on a wall or something similarly combustible). Leave it on for a few hours, that should help drive out the oil in that spot and adsorb it on the clay in the kitty liter. Move the heat lamp and repeat on all the oil stained spots.

You can bake the whole room as suggested before to accomplish the same on the walls and floor joists. You can also run an ozone generator in the room to oxidize the smell.

After you have done these things, you can seal with Kilz and contain much of the remainder.

You can also wash down with soap and water and get some of the residual from the surfaces.