Driveway cleaning

[AKmoose]

Cat litter or floor dry, as said grind it in. If still signs of any stains, repeat. Back in another life I worked in a Safeway warehouse where we shipped out boxes of meat, beef, pork and chicken, a lot of the boxes would leak some blood out, and not suggesting anyway to avoid forensic detection but the citric acid in orange juice would take the blood stains out, might work with oil, I've never tried.

 

[okietool]

Gunk. Denatured alcohol. Electric Clean.
Call a place that custom mixes soap, tell them what you want. If you buy it, pay attention to the warnings.

 

[Chief Sapulpa]

Some sort of media blasting; sand, nut shells, baking soda or dry ice.

 

[TinkerTanker]

Just shoot the relative and use the blood to soak up the oil. Then clean the blood up with oranges like AKMoose said. Problem solved!

 

[capnkirk462]

I've got an issue with a brain-dead relative that continues to park an oil leaking automobile on my driveway in spite being asked repeatedly not to do so. I've also got acorns from my neighbor's tree being half eaten by squirrels and dropped on the driveway, which causes what appears to be immutable stains left behind. I have a pressure washer but I can't get the acorn stains off the concrete at all. I can lessen the oil stains but getting rid of them completely is another matter. I've tried off the shelf degreaser, muriatic acid (diluted), laundry detergent, and mineral spirits (mistake).

Any suggestions KNOWN to work? Bleach? Full strength muriatic? Or just give up and let nature do its thing for months on end?

Restaurant worker here, so this is for fryer oil not motor oil but you never know. I see you tried laundry detergent that usually helps on light spills. But lye usually works on deep ones, might have to do it more than once. Put down some water, and lye, scrub the crap out of it with deck bush preferably, let sit for a while-you should see the lye pull the oil out of the concrete as it sits. Remember lye is a S.O.B. it will burn the tar out of you. I ordered mine online, but you used to be able to get it at big box stores.

 

[dennishoddy]

When working in the machine shop, we had machines that leaked oil for years. Cleaned it up by spreading solvent on the oil stain, then putting oil dry clay granules on top, then adding more solvent. Let it completely dry for a day or two until the solvent completely evaporates and sweep away. The area where the stain was, typically was cleaner than the surrounding area.

 

[crrcboatz]

Simple Green worked well for me last spring

 

[dlbleak]

Make sure your tip isn’t blown out. Then, make methodical sweeps slightly overlapping. Depending on the pressure, it can be a slow process. ‘Roll’ the wand up at the end of a pass so as not to leave a line that will take months to go away.

 

[Two Gun Warrior]

Might try original formula Gojo hand cleaner. Scrub it in good and then pressure wash. Careful not to use to much pressure, it could take the smooth finish off the concrete, 3600 psi is a lot. You could just seal and put a shop type coating on it, so the oil or stains do not soak in.

 

[jakeman]

You keep pouring muriatic on there and the stain will probably be gone, because the concrete will be gone.

The hydrochloric acid won’t touch the oil, but it will etch the **** out of the concrete, which is why people think it’s a good cleaner for oil stains, but it isn’t. It just removes the stained concrete.

Unless you want your drive way etched, stop using acid. Choose an alkaline degreaser/cleaner instead.


Edited to add - you might try to find some TSP. The real **** not the TSP substitute or the phosphate free stuff. They suk. The real stuff is a really good degreaser though. There are also some enzyme type cleaners out there that contain petroleum eating little critters. Chemical Products in SW OKC used to make one called Terazime (sp) that was a microbe petrochemical cleaner that was the bomb. CP was started by Clendon Thomas who was an ex OU running back or some such from back in the day. I used to just call him the All-American. No clue if they are still in business or not, but you can probably find a microbe type cleaner most anywhere.