How To Remove Grease and Oil Stains From Your Garage Floor
For many of you, you will have noticed that working in the garage can often lead to a lot of oil and grease spillage. However, you do not need to put up with all those unsightly stains if you are willing to put in a little elbow grease – (excuse the pun)
Here are a few expert tips from the guys at Doormatic to help you get rid of those unwanted stains, without pulling on the purse strings, so you can enjoy a pristine garage just like it once was.
About cleaning concrete floors
Concrete is a porous material, meaning oil, grease and other liquids that you may spill will be soaked up extremely quickly. This means you should act quickly when there is a spillage, but for those of you who haven’t, fear not, you can get it out using the following cleaning options:
How to use degreasers to clean your garage floor
Whilst degreasers are a fantastic option for removing those stubborn oil stains, you need to ensure you always choose an eco-friendly products to ensure yours and your family’s safety. Usually, you will find that these solvents will contain a citrus-based degreaser in an absorbent that will not directly soak into your concrete garage floor.  Here are a few steps to follow when using your degreaser:
- Clean away any liquid
- Use a hard broom to sweep away any dirt and debris
- Use a trowel to spread the degreaser over the stains so it is thoroughly covered
- Let the degreaser dry until it turns into powder
- Sweep up the remaining powder and discard. The remaining moisture will dry within a few days allowing the stain to be fully removed.
How to use laundry soap to remove oil and grease stains
For many years now, the powdered laundry soap has been well known as an effective oil and grease stain remover. To ensure your stain is removed effectively and successfully simply follow these steps:
- Dab and soak up any excess liquids to prevent further stains
- Mix a generous amount of powdered laundry soap into a bucket of warm water to make a very soapy solution
- Add warm water over the stain and then add additional soap powder on top of the soapy water and allow to sit for a couple of minutes.
- Scrub the stained area hard using a stiff brush
- Rinse everything off – preferably using a high pressure hose to ensure better results
Using industrial strength degreasers for grease and oil stains
You will find that most industrial strength degreasers will follow the same steps for application – again please be sure to use the eco-friendly options for safety reasons. However, these are a lot stronger and are unfortunately a bit more expensive because they do work very quickly and can be a lot more effective. Although the application steps are the same, please follow these important precautions to protect yourself during usage:
- Always use rubber gloves and eye protection when using any kind of industrial products
- Ensure the windows and doors are open so your garage is well ventilated during use
- Follow all  usage instructions very carefully.
Homemade cleaning remedies for grease and oil stains
You can make your very own homemade solutions that can effectively remove oil stains from your garage floor. Some of these include the following:
- Kitty litter – sprinkle some fresh kitty litter over spillages and let it sit for a couple of hours before sweeping up.
- Mix up some sawdust with paint thinner and allow it to sit for a few minutes
- Spray some WD-40 on your stains and leave to sit until it is fully soaked and then scrub and rinse off. (preferably using a hose)
- Apply mineral spirits and leave them to stand for a few minutes. Use a hard brush to scrub away the stain. Afterwards, cover the area using paper or newspaper and let it dry. Mix it up with a cup of laundry soap to plenty of warm water and scrub it clean and rinse it off.
Don’t forget…
You should always remember that oil stains on your garage floor need to be cleaned up sooner rather than later. Accidents will always happen so just choose the stain removal method that best works for you and get cleaning before it has the time to soak into the concrete.
Need further assistance?
If you are still having trouble removing those stubborn stains on your garage door then why not give us a call today and talk to one of our friendly advisors. We will be more than happy to help!
If you have any further questions about garage doors in general then contact us today for further information.
