Removing oil from paved driveway

[AlanHo]

We went on a booze run to Calais yesterday - bringing back our favourite tipple and some food items which included a couple of 1.5 litre bottles of extra virgin olive oil.

One of these bottles became the villain of the piece.

Upon getting home and during the car unloading process one of the bottles fell onto the drive and smashed into smithereens. A puddle of oil started to slowly spread over the tegula paved drive. Fortunately, I had a bag of kiln dried paving sand and was able to immediately soak up the spill - but the oil had penetrated the surface of the concrete paving. I scraped off the oil soaked sand and added a fresh layer of dry sand, leaving it overnight ready for an attempt to clean things up this morning.

This morning I spent a few hot and frustrating hours trying to remove the oil from the paving blocks. I was able to lift the rectangular ones and turn them over to present a fresh face, but the oil spill had occurred at the edge of a decorative circle and it was not possible to reverse these blocks because they were "handed". On these blocks I made use of wash powder, detergent, carpet soil stain remover, steam cleaner, my power washer, a wire brush, a scrubbing brush and elbow grease in various permutations. Although it made an improvement, the oil stain was still very visible.

Management suggested that I should try dishwasher tablets - I was sceptical but felt I had nothing to lose so I crushed a dozen tablets in a bowl, added a little boiling water to make a paste and painted it on the surface of the blocks . There was much fizzing and I left it to marinade for an hour before I used the steam cleaner followed by the power washer to remove the gunge. Much to my relief - the stain has all but disappeared - I can see it, but visitors will never notice. Girls have their uses don't they?

I assume that dishwasher tablets contain a caustic agent which kills grease and now pass on this experience in the hope it will help others.

It would have been so much easier if I had dropped a bottle of whisky instead - yet again I am the victim of sod's law.

[sapins]

If you had dropped a bottle of whiskey and it had run on to the lawn it would have been beneficial because the grass would have come up half cut :D

[-pops-]

Dishwasher tablets do, indeed, contain a powerful grease cutter - not quite caustic soda but nearly.

If you hadn't cured the problem my suggestion would have been, in the first instance to soak up the main quantity of oil with cat litter left on for a few hours then caustic soda at about 10% in water scrubbed into the marks then rinsed off. A bit of hand dishwashing liquid in with it would improve the action.

You could still try the caustic treatment if the oil seeps through with time.

You can get caustic soda from many pharmacies, builders merchants and some ironmongers.

As a rider to the above, even though I don't have a cat, we always keep a bag of cat litter in the shed for mopping up all sorts of spillages. Amazingly absorbent and safe to use on almost anything. :)

[Thos]

If you had dropped a bottle of whiskey and it had run on to the lawn it would have been beneficial because the grass would have come up half cut :D

:lol: Neat remark, sapins.

Interesting. It is, I would think, a rare problem dropping olive oil but much more common is dirty sump oil from visitors' cars. If it happens again, I will try these suggestions.

Thos.

[catgate]

Some years ago we had a campervan with an incontinent diesel engine, and we parked it on the concrete drive!!! As a very beneficial result of this I found a proprietary cleaning agent called, imaginatively, Solclens.

It seems to be able to remove anything from every thing, It would make short work of excrement on a woven woolen bed covering. We always keep a 5 litre plastic container of it in stock.

I do not know if it obtainable country wide or whether it can only be obtained from, what to me at the time was the relatively local, stockist.

They are Guardian Products (UK) Limited, Church Lane, Barnoldswick, Lancs. BB18 6UJ 01282 841401.

I have no connection to the firm other than being an incredulous and satisfied user of the product. I know Rolls Royce use it for overall laundering purposes as do a large abattoir in nearby Colne.

I have often wondered if its magical property of the removal of any sort of unwanted muck extended as far as Politicians!!

[sapins]

Some years ago we had a campervan with an incontinent diesel engine, and we parked it on the concrete drive!!! As a very beneficial result of this I found a proprietary cleaning agent called, imaginatively, Solclens.

It seems to be able to remove anything from every thing, It would make short work of excrement on a woven woolen bed covering. We always keep a 5 litre plastic container of it in stock.

I do not know if it obtainable country wide or whether it can only be obtained from, what to me at the time was the relatively local, stockist.

They are Guardian Products (UK) Limited, Church Lane, Barnoldswick, Lancs. BB18 6UJ 01282 841401.

I have no connection to the firm other than being an incredulous and satisfied user of the product. I know Rolls Royce use it for overall laundering purposes as do a large abattoir in nearby Colne.

I have often wondered if its magical property of the removal of any sort of unwanted muck extended as far as Politicians!!

Unfortunately not, politicians are coated with the latest NASA Teflon courtesy of Mr. Bush, hence Teflon Tone.

[andsome]

GUNK may well have done the job.

GUNK

[AlanHo]

GUNK may well have done the job.

GUNK

I tried gunk last year when a delivery van dripped oil. All it did was dissolve some of the oil and spread it to adjacent paving blocks. Even worse - when I hosed the area the oil suspension was spread in a thin film over a large area which took a lot of time and effort with detergents to clean up.

Thanks for the thought andsome - but it does not work. I suspect the material suggested by catgate might have the same qualities. Getting oil off a concrete paved drive is not easy and the best results seem to be obtained by using a caustic agent.

[andsome]

GUNK may well have done the job.

GUNK

I tried gunk last year when a delivery van dripped oil. All it did was dissolve some of the oil and spread it to adjacent paving blocks. Even worse - when I hosed the area the oil suspension was spread in a thin film over a large area which took a lot of time and effort with detergents to clean up.

Thanks for the thought andsome - but it does not work. I suspect the material suggested by catgate might have the same qualities. Getting oil off a concrete paved drive is not easy and the best results seem to be obtained by using a caustic agent.

You could have tried a pneumatic drill of course. I reckon that would have done the trick. :D