| Author |
Message |
    
L_Tilly
| | Posted on Sunday, July 28, 2002 - 08:32 pm: | 
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What do you suggest for cleaning a cement garage floor?
We recently bought a three-year-old house (there go the Disco-Spending-Units for a while) and when we moved in there were already some oil and rust stains on the floor. Naturally my Disco has left it's marks as well.
Now that I have a garage (as oposed to parking on our appartment's gravel driveway) I'm able to do some more involved maintenance and am getting some of the worse leaks addressed (swivels, oil pan, etc). I'd really like to clean up as much of the oil stains as possible and get the floor looking decent. Any suggestions beyond acid and spray paint?
L_Tilly [email protected]
96 Disco "Beowulf"
NH, USA |
Kyle
| | Posted on Sunday, July 28, 2002 - 09:15 pm: |
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Every so often I got at it with 5 gallons of gas and a shit load of clean rags. That takes most of the stains and old spray paint marks out of it....
Kyle |
M. K. Watson (Lrover94)
| | Posted on Sunday, July 28, 2002 - 10:19 pm: |
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lol kyle there was a local guy who attempted to do the same thing, he left his garage door open and his furnace as well as his H20 heater were in the garage. you can imagine the rest.
now L_Tilly, back in the day when i was in the navy there was a flavored drink that we referred to as "Bug Juice" it was just large packs of Kool-aid. (i likes the orange stuff) it appears that citric acid is one of the major ingredients. we would mix it with a few gallons of water and scrub bilges and deck plates with the stuff. anyways its somewhat eco-safe and smells good too. and its cheap.
good luck
mike w |
Bill Molnar (Circekat)
| | Posted on Sunday, July 28, 2002 - 10:29 pm: |
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To add to Mike W's post: Bug juice is five gallons worth of kool aid in a single packet. This is usually mixed in with one to two gallons of water. No sugar! (LOL)
Mike W: When did you get out? I retired in 98 from San Dog. Sounds like you did time in the hole. I retired from mine. Remember, green is for stainless and red is for brass!
Enjoy,
Bill M. |
Stephen
| | Posted on Sunday, July 28, 2002 - 10:40 pm: |
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Cat litter! sprinkle some on and let it sit for a few days and it will absorb a fair bit. |
Todd Sanders (Sanderskog)
| | Posted on Sunday, July 28, 2002 - 10:58 pm: |
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I'll throw out the anal approach. I did this with my old garage.
Hit a Lowes or Home Depot type store. They actually sell a garage floor cleaner. It's typically citrus based. You'll find it in the paint department typically. While your going through the hassel of doing that you may as well pick up the epoxy paint they sell for the floors as well. Take a weekend to clean and paint the floor. Then if you ever have drips, spills, etc. again you can just wipe it up.
I have yet to do this with my new(er) house. It's a lot of work but worth it in the end. I got tired of cleaning up after my other toy ('68 BMW 2002 track rat) that drips like mad. But then again, that's how I change its oil...
Todd |
Dave_Lucas (Dave_Lucas)
| | Posted on Sunday, July 28, 2002 - 11:48 pm: |
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I had a large Transmission fluid spot on my garage floor; I cleaned it up with muratic acid (Don�t know how to spell it) it worked great! I then went over it with Cement gray oil based paint. Now if I have a spill I just need to wipe it up with a rag and if it starts to look bad I just get out the roller and make it look like new again.
I would recommend adding some silica sand to the paint to add traction, or a sign that says slippery when wet. |
Todd Sanders (Sanderskog)
| | Posted on Sunday, July 28, 2002 - 11:55 pm: |
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I'd second what Dave says. I failed to mention the sand.
I too used the acid on previous floors to clean them. Although you really should wear a mask and have lots of air moving through the garage.
Todd |
Ali
| | Posted on Monday, July 29, 2002 - 12:06 am: |
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I just painted the floor with Epoxy paint (two part) from Menard's hardware store. Took three cans and the floor is much nicer and brighter. The cans cost about $47/ea. I used Muriatic acid to etch the concrete, then use degreaser and brush to remove the stubborn stains. Now any mess cleans up nicely. Home depot's epoxy paint is one part so I went with this one.
We'll see how it holds up long term. My neighbor applied Home depot's paint w/o etching it first and his paint is coming up after two months, especially under the hot tires. |
muskyman
| | Posted on Monday, July 29, 2002 - 08:59 am: |
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ok
SIMPLE GREEN
mix 4 to 1 in water scrub with a brush and hose away
it was developed by wisconcin Pharmacal for cleaning up oil spills and toxic dumps
it breaks down spent oil into a non-carsonagenic carbon and water that washes away without any impact on the sewers or lakes down stream
the departments of conservation in many states use it
it also leaves the floor clean and residue free
SIMPLE GREEN...best stuff I have tried |
Paul T. Schram (Paulschram)
| | Posted on Monday, July 29, 2002 - 09:46 am: |
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Having made my living directing spill cleanups, I'll chime in.
Believe it or not, Dawn dishwashing detergent is used by many environmental clean-up companies for removing oil stains. As the usual clean-up standard is to remove visible traces, it is critical for us to insure that the surface is spotless. Yes, you can buy Dawn in 55-gallon drums, but it's hard to keep everybody from filling the bottle on the kitchen sink with it!
When I worked for an electric utility, we kept five-gallon bottles of Dawn on the trucks for transformer oil spills. Also, although I couldn't suggest this as it wasn't legal, Dawn will disperse an oil sheen on big bodies of water very quickly. Funny, but the barges that delivered the fuel oil to the power plants always had big jugs of Dawn on them! |
isaac fain (Searover)
| | Posted on Monday, July 29, 2002 - 03:22 pm: |
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another vote for simple green. works great on brake fluid, 90wt, and other grease.
cheers |
RVR OVR (Tom)
| | Posted on Monday, July 29, 2002 - 08:39 pm: |
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Ali - Did you just let the acid dry after etching or hose it down the driveway? I was going to do that, but don't want to kill all the plant life along the drive.
Tom |
Paul T. Schram (Paulschram)
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 30, 2002 - 09:14 am: |
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Tom:
If you allow the acid to just lay on the concrete, it will continue to destroy your concrete. Don't worry about the plant life, just use LOTS of water to neutralize the acid.
Be careful to avoid the temptation to use a more aggressive neutralizer. It tends to generate enough heat to break the concrete. If you must, use something like a slurry of baking soda.
The HCl breaks down into salt and water once neutralized.
Paul |
Ramsay (3toedsloth)
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 30, 2002 - 02:31 pm: |
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When power washing gas stations I use a product called "Super Drive Up". It's amazing stuff. As soon as you apply it you can see a slick from where oil/gas/various other acoutrements are pulled from the cement. I'll find out who the manufacturer is and what the active ingredient is when I finally convince myself to go to work today. Doesn't etch the concrete however, so if you're planning on painting afterwards I'd go with the muriatic acid. Watch your skin though. I'm pretty lax about using protective gloves and what-not but when it comes to muriatic acid I go the whole nine yards. It eats through clothes and skin at about the same speed. Not fun. Good luck with your project.
JR |
muskyman
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 30, 2002 - 10:33 pm: |
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Paul
funny story about the oil spills and dawn
One Of my friends is a drilling expert that goes from oil rig to oil rig getting things back on schedule and fixing tie ups.
he always had 5 gallon juggs of commercial Joy dish soap everywhere he'd go. He would stop in town for a week here and there,small suit case have dozen juggs of Joy.
he used to say you could pour it into the stream of a fire hose and sink a oil spill to the bottom before it caught the attention of the green peace freaks. |
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