90gt
Active member
my brothers car as been leaking oil(a drop or two here and there) but it soaked in to the pavingstone bricks on my driveway of the house. does anyone know the best way to get the oil stains out, if even possible?
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how to remove oil from paving stones?
- Thread starter 90gt
- Start date
Edger
Well-known member
Get some clay kitty litter and grind it into each spot with your boot. Soak with a strong solvent like paint thinner, or turpentine. Soak again when they look almost dry. You want to try and keep the area immediately around each oil stain wet. Don't light a match.
The idea is to pull up most of the oil into the kitty litter as the solvent evaporates. Depending on the depth and size of the stains this might take a couple of hours. Sweep or vacuum off the kitty litter when dry, sprinkle the area with water and use a laundry powder to make a wet paste that you lightly agitate in with a fine bristle broom head (house broom with fine nylon bristles).
Agitate again with a little more water after 15 - 30 mins and wash off with a garden hose. If after it dries it looks like another repeat will do more then go for it again.
If you pressure wash it the stains will reduce in intensity quite noticeably, but the clean part of the pavers will dramatically lighten too which will make the oil stain just as visible in contrast.
If the stains did not remove properly which is more normal than the possibility of them becoming perfectly clean, the sun and weather over two or three months should make them almost invisible. The point is to get most of the wet oilyness out plus most of the dirt stuck to the stain and not clean the pavers too much in the process.
Most degreasers are just strong detergents and do not get down past the surface, some of them are oil based with an emulsifier that leave oily streaks when they are washed off. Dripping engine oil has black carbon in it most times which gets soaked into the pavers with the oil so the stain can be deep which is why degreasers usually disappoint.
My experience comes from years of testing different chemicals and techniques because I used to be a water jet cleaning contractor and I was called many times to remove oil stains which was usually impossible to do to the customer's satisfaction. I used water pressure jets, emulsifiers, alkaline degreasers, so-called green colloidal products, caustic based products, kerosene, turpentine, thinners and other similar products, acids including hydrochloric, phosphoric, sulphuric and hydroflouric in special solutions without much more success than the above diy method.
There may be some great new products out there, but I doubt it. I tried many new, wonder products for removing oil stains and most of them did sweet you-know-what.
Basically what I am saying is the simpler, old methods tend to work very well or better than most advertised magical products.
The idea is to pull up most of the oil into the kitty litter as the solvent evaporates. Depending on the depth and size of the stains this might take a couple of hours. Sweep or vacuum off the kitty litter when dry, sprinkle the area with water and use a laundry powder to make a wet paste that you lightly agitate in with a fine bristle broom head (house broom with fine nylon bristles).
Agitate again with a little more water after 15 - 30 mins and wash off with a garden hose. If after it dries it looks like another repeat will do more then go for it again.
If you pressure wash it the stains will reduce in intensity quite noticeably, but the clean part of the pavers will dramatically lighten too which will make the oil stain just as visible in contrast.
If the stains did not remove properly which is more normal than the possibility of them becoming perfectly clean, the sun and weather over two or three months should make them almost invisible. The point is to get most of the wet oilyness out plus most of the dirt stuck to the stain and not clean the pavers too much in the process.
Most degreasers are just strong detergents and do not get down past the surface, some of them are oil based with an emulsifier that leave oily streaks when they are washed off. Dripping engine oil has black carbon in it most times which gets soaked into the pavers with the oil so the stain can be deep which is why degreasers usually disappoint.
My experience comes from years of testing different chemicals and techniques because I used to be a water jet cleaning contractor and I was called many times to remove oil stains which was usually impossible to do to the customer's satisfaction. I used water pressure jets, emulsifiers, alkaline degreasers, so-called green colloidal products, caustic based products, kerosene, turpentine, thinners and other similar products, acids including hydrochloric, phosphoric, sulphuric and hydroflouric in special solutions without much more success than the above diy method.
There may be some great new products out there, but I doubt it. I tried many new, wonder products for removing oil stains and most of them did sweet you-know-what.
Basically what I am saying is the simpler, old methods tend to work very well or better than most advertised magical products.
Last edited:
I void warranties
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2011
- Messages
- 605
..Dig them up and turn them over............if they still stand out, move them to a corner where they won't.
thats the fix. my experience is if they are surfaced colored they dont clean well.