So I’m moving next week, from the house that I’ve rented for the past few years, and I’ve made quite a mess on the garage floor. I don’t know if the owner is going to care or not, but I’m hoping to get all of my deposit back so I’d rather not take any chances and would like to try and clean the floor as best I can. I’ve got old oil stains, trans fluid, that white stuff from when a battery leaks all over the floor, and oddly enough a huge stain where I spilled antifreeze- didn’t expect that to stain so bad. I got it as good as I could with kitty litter, but that isn’t cutting it. Also tried scrubbing with simple green, but that’s not doing anything either. Does anyone have any tricks or advice or any products they’ve used in the past?
There are floor care products that contain micro organisms that eat hydrocarbons, but I do not know how long it will take for it to work. If the stains have been there for years and absorbing into the concrete you may not be able to do much at the surface level. I have used Zep concrete cleaner with varying success but that was on fresh oil spots. If it was me I would roll the dice, tidy up the place as well as possible and just see what happens then pony up some deposit if necessary if the owner doesn't take kindly to the condition.
I think I would try Dawn dish soap on the oil stains with a stiff brush and baking soda for the battery acid stain and a lot of elbow grease on both! Maybe with a metal wire brush.
Yes to pressure wash, dilute with water, scrub in with shop broom, than rinse/blast, plenty of ventilation, can leave a nice floor if you do right.
Be adviced, Muriatic acid dissolves concrete. It will leave it etched, possibly etched rough like exposed aggregate . Muriatic muriatic acid is used to dissolve/remove concrete from concrete pumps and ready mix trucks. Also used to create exposed a aggregate rough concrete finish. If you just use it in spots it will leave rough exposed aggregate "spots/ areas" that wont match the rest of the floor surface
Baking soda and water on the battery acid spill to neutralize it. For grease and oil the traditional way I have always used sawdust and gasoline and a push broom. Just sweep the sawdust/gas mixture back and forth over the oil and grease spills until gone. Have the garage door open. And smoke a big cigar with a big ash helps.
Oxalic acid crystals. Dissolve in warm water, up to two cups per gallon, depending how dirty things are. Spray in on heavy, let it sit for an hour or more, then brush with a stiff push broom. Rinse it out with fresh water. May need to be done a couple times to get all the stains out. Oxalic acid is safe to use, won't need to be neutralized and won't cause corrosion to metals. It can be found on Amazon for pretty cheap. Good luck!
At the Gulf service station I worked at in high school- Wet the bay's down with water Splash a gallon of kerosene about Sprinkle a box of powdered Tide detergent all over Scrub vigorously with a floor broom until your arm were ready to fall off Rinse thoroughly And don't keep gas customers waiting in the mean time.....
TSP ~ Trisodium Phosphate is a heavy duty degreaser and is available at most paint and big box stores, you should wear rubber gloves and have adequate ventilation, It will not harm concrete. HRP
I had the same situation a few years back.....after doing the full panic and many beers later, I got the bright idea to try my powder Tide laundry detergent. That shit works amazing. Wet the floor, sprinkle the Tide, scrub it and mix it in with a broom, keep it wet and keep scrubbing it around for a while. Spray it all out the garage door and follow that up with the broom, pushing the water out. Works awesome and smells fantastic.....when all else fails, gasoline.
Please don't use gasoline, several years ago a local young man was killed and his wife severely burnt cleaning floors with gasoline, it just takes one spark, she lost her husband and home. HRP
I should've qualified that with spot cleaning with gasoline.....I was a fireman for a few years, and you are correct. And obviously with the doors open and well ventilated, definitely don't soak a whole garage floor in it.
This is the same method we used in auto shop class in high school. Did it once a semester. Shop teacher, Mr. Harrelson, had about 20 of us with brooms going at it
I would clean it using one of the methods above then get some rollers and a gallon of concrete paint and leave a nice finish for the landlord.
Been there done that. Started working at Standard station at 14 and stayed until about 19. Station was open 6:00am to 8:00pm but never on Sundays. Every Saturday afternoon floors were cleaned just as you said. But always swept everyday and messes spot cleaned. Always used Tide! Owner was obsessed with everything being clean including keeping the pump islands painted white and back room walls painted grey about halfway up and everything put away daily. Nowadays Super Clean and Purple Power works well on stubborn stains.
BTW, never had a problem with cleaning concrete but asphalt is another story. This is the only stuff I’ve found that will clean oil stains on asphalt.
Scrubbing & washing w/Dawn is helpful, never tried Tide - that should work well. But, One method that work(ed) fairly well for me was to get some Stoddard Solvent & Kitty Litter(Get the cheapest stuff, it's all just bentonite clay). Doing small areas - like a couple feet square - at a time, soak the concrete w/the solvent & use a stiff bristled broom to work it in good. Since a lot will soak into the concrete, esp if it isn't/wasn't sealed, then slosh some more onto the just-worked area, & throw down a couple cups of kitty litter. You actually don't need all that much. Then, spread out the kitty litter into a thin layer, & using your flat-bottomed("tread-patterned soles" just don't work as well to grind the stuff into the concrete pores) boots, step onto the solvent-coated, litter-covered area & literally do a slow "twist", back n forth, on the KL, kinda using the balls of your feet, 'till it's ground into fine dust(you're only going to get about a baseball-sized area done under each boot), then move to the next boot-sized area. Repeat till the whole stained greasy area is done. Sweep up the kl. You can reuse it until it's soaked-oily. It does take time, but it's not expensive. Put on Chubbie Checkers' Twist(maybe on endless repeat... ) or some other oldies to keep your rhythm going. Consider this "Bonus Exercise". On really bad spots, you may have to do this more than once(& do it after you finish the whole floor, giving the old oil some time to seep back up to the surface), but the concrete comes up pretty clean. If you do this periodically, it doesn't take as long... Did this at Sears in the 70's when soap, scrubbing-broom, n water didn't work(but that would've been spot cleaning), on my own garage floors(& also ones at rental dumps when I was younger & wanted clean floors to work on) over the years, & also at the bus company (diesel shops - Damn - those are filthy & messy!)(in my work area) for decades. It does work w/o the solvent, but it's not as quick to lift out the mess. Also used this to get antifreeze up out of the floor. Marcus...
Use to use Tide powder and mineral spirits, grab the shop broom and go to work. Now I use Liquid Dawn. Once in the spring and then again in the fall. Wet the floor down with water, and Dawn to your liking then grab the broom and go to town! Rinse with power washer
Working in heavy duty shops for many years, we always took some varsol out of the solvent tank, and poured it onto the bad areas. Scub like crazy with a push broom, and then follow with floor dry. When you are done, it looks terrible. But I’m about 15 it dries of and usually looks very clean and white.
A little off topic but when I read cleaning the floor with kitty litter and gas it reminded me of an incident I had about 20 years ago. I absorbed a gas spill with kitty litter and pushed it in front of the overhead door with my push broom to air out. Then I got this idea that it would be quicker to get rid of it by lighting it on fire. The pile was small (less than a gallon bucket.) The fire was instantly too big, and I took my push broom to push it outside. Then it got BIG by spreading it out and adding air! Amazingly I didn't burn my garage down. Afterward, I thought WTF was I thinking! Every time I use that push broom (burnt and melted bristles) I think about that day. My floor was clean but not my pants!
Tide works. Back in the day when I was taught to do the daily floor show at 10:40PM, The guys all swore by Oxydol. There might have to be concession made about stains but as long as it won't be trackable,,,,, It is a garage after all
Oil-Dri was used every week on the floor in the machine shop I had access to back in the day. It seemed to work pretty well... https://www.oildri.net/Downloads/2019sellsheet/Oil-Dri Sweep.pdf
I think Fast Orange is an excellent cleaner for greasy hands. And I've found that it works about as well to get grease off other things too. I've used it to clean cruddy engine blocks. Some Fast Orange scrubbed just a little with a parts brush and the grease drips right off. Maybe it'll help with your floor. And you won't blow up.
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