How to Remove Oil Stains From Concrete

Everyone hates stains. They look awful and are often a pain to remove. Your garage is a place that can get stained frequently depending how you use it. The most common stains that occur in garages are oil stains. Knowing how to remove oil stains from concrete will go a long way in your effort to keep your garage clean (check this article on how to clean your garage floor).

It may seem like your garage floor will forever be tainted with that oil stain, but there’s actually a few ways you can get rid of oil on your concrete floor.

We’ll go over how to remove oil stains from concrete garage floors and how you can prevent them from happening again in this article.

The Sooner the Better

One of the biggest reasons why oil stains can seem difficult to remove is because they’ve been sitting for a long period of time. That’s why it’s very important to deal with the stain as soon as possible to help make the removal process easier.

If you spot the stain as soon as it happens and are able to begin cleaning it up right away, you can use paper towels to try and quickly remove any excess oil that hasn’t set it yet.

Once you’ve cleaned up any excess oil, you can begin the deep cleaning to get rid of the stain once and for all.

Absorb, Absorb, Absorb

The key step to cleaning up oil stains is absorbing as much of the oil as possible before anything else. A common way to get this done is to cover the oil stain in a highly absorptive cat litter.

Depending on the size of the stain and how long it’s been on your garage floor, you’ll need to let the cat litter settle for different amounts of time. Before you apply any cat litter, you’ll need to crush it down to a finer consistency.

If the oil stain is fresh or still only a day or so old, you can get away with letting the cat litter rest for a few hours before sweeping it up. For older and bigger stains, you can let the litter rest for up to 2 days.

Whenever you decide to remove the cat litter, simply sweep it away and then wash the area with a detergent and scrub heavily. This might get rid of the stain right away, but you’ll usually need to repeat this step or go on to a more thorough cleaning method.

Scrub with Dry Detergents

The next step to take in your attempt to remove oil stains from your concrete garage floor is to scrub the stain away by using dry laundry detergent. Dry detergents are recommended more than liquid ones because they won’t leave your floor as slippery.

First, you must wet the stain and the surrounding area by blotting it with water. Then, mix a generous amount of detergent with hot water and cover the stain with that mixture. To further the effectiveness, you can then pour more detergent onto the stain after pouring the mixture.

Start scrubbing with a strong bristled scrubbing brush or broom. You’ll have to use a little more “elbow grease” for deeper and bigger stains.

Once you’ve scrubbed the stained area, let it sit for a couple of minutes, but don’t let the area dry out. After a couple of minutes, use your garden hose or a pressure washer to rinse away the detergent and stain.

Depending on the severity of the stain, it can either come out after one try or you might need to repeat this step or move onto the next step.

Oil Stain Removers

For stains that seem like they just don’t want to go away, you might need to go the route of using an actual oil stain remover. You can even start out by using this if you want.

You can find an oil removal product at your local department store and the directions might vary from product to product, but the container should tell you everything you need to do.

How to Prevent Oil Stains from Happening

If you park your vehicles in your garage or use your garage for frequent auto care and maintenance, you might find it a hassle to constantly go through the routine of removing oil stains from your garage floor.

Luckily, there are a few different ways you can avoid oil stains on your garage floor altogether.

One of the most popular garage flooring options that homeowners use is epoxy flooring paint. It’s fairly simple to apply, looks great and is resistant to oil and gas stains. You’ll be able to simply wipe up the gas or oil with a towel and it’ll be gone for good.

Other garage flooring options include snap-together tiles and even heavy duty carpet tiles that can resist oil as well. You can learn more about the different types of garage flooring options in our article.

Now You Know How to Remove Oil Stains from Concrete

Now that you know how to remove oil stains from concrete garage flooring, you can restore you garage floor back to looking good as new.

If your garage floor isn’t the only aspect of your garage that needs to be fixed, then you can count on Danley’s to build you a new custom garage from the ground up.

We’ve been the premier choice garage builder for Chicagoland homeowners since 1959 and continue to build the best garages around. Your new garage project is just a free quote away!