Due to an unfortunate set of circumstances, my garage floor was covered with transmission fluid and a million other oils and greases that seeped in to the 50-year old concrete. I've tried dish soap, special concrete cleaner and even kitty litter, but the floor won't stop being slick and dangerous. While it's great to do burnouts on, it's not so great to slip and fall and knock stuff over all the time.

Does anyone have methods for getting soaked in tranny fluid out of old cement? I've heard oven cleaner, engine degreaser and baking soda, but haven't tried them yet.

maybe a skim coat of lt wt concrete?

Probably wouldn't adhere if there is a film.

I have used a product called "oil dry" (I think that was the name) It was a dry, green powder for industrial use. I think you leave it on for a few days and it helps suck the oils out of the slab. It has worked very well for me, but what you describe soulds like a lot bigger project than the few oil spills I have had.

I bought mine at a local hardware store, but it was 10-15 years ago.

When we put sales offices in a model home , we use the garage...we put plastic down then pour concrete on top to level it with the rest of the house....thats so it wont 'bond' with the other concrete....but that stuff on the plastic ,doesnt go anywhere...

Probably the difference between Houston and the upper midwest.

After one winter up here, that stuff would be toast. Between freeze / thaw cycles and road salt, there wouldn't be anything left of it.

Have you tried scrubbing the slab with a stiff push broom and alot of Mineral Spirits? Sop up the wetness with some old towels and use floor dry to soak up the rest. You may have to do this a few times...

Be careful when you dispose of those towels.

My four year old concrete garage floor has now seen the restoration of the bird, and has the odd bits of oil and god knows what on it. I spent most of the weekend cleaning it out and moving stuff to a storage garage I rented, so I can epoxy the floor. I am going to start with muriatic acid, scrub it in with my trusty boat brush, and then pressure wash it.

Is there not some sort of enzyme based oil eating product out there? It may help in your case. I'll let you know though how the muratic acid works...I just happen to have a 5 gallon pail of it left over from doing the exposed agg driveway before I sealed it.

Not cheap, but they do have that rubber garage floor matting.....that would work well!

Ah, Dave. Thanks for the lead in -

There is a product from Griot's Garage called simply Concrete Cleaner. It's a orange smelling pancake batter - like substance that has oil eating properties. It works like K2R - pour it on, spread it around, wait for it to dry, and sweep it up.

It works great on both old and new stains. Lifts them right out.

A bit pricey at $45 a gallon, but cheaper than replacing the concrete.

At $45 a gallon, if it works, is well worth it if it saves you grief and elbow grease...

.....which could further stain the concrete!

Like I posted before, plain old Shout stain remover works on all my little dribbles on the driveway. I sure a whole garage floor might get costly though.

I think I'm going to try the suggestion of powdered laundry detergent first, then if that doesn't work (it's a big mess) I might go on to more aggressive approaches. I also had a similar thought to putting down a skim coat of concrete, but putting it on dry. Ooh, or... tell me if this sounds ridiculous.

Mixing a little bag of quikrete with mineral spirits instead of water, but mixing it thick so it has room for more moisture. Then spread it over the floor, hoping that the mineral spirits (or maybe turpentine) dilute and soak into the oil enough for it to become viscous, then soak into the quikrete and solidify. With the coat being that thin, it should sweep right up. I'm thinking that I should call my friend who's a chemist for Eli Lilly to verify my theory. If it works, then I'm totally taking out a patent on it .

(by the way, the reason the floor is so bad, is that I didn't get a decent seal on the transmission fluid pan before I filled it up, and every drop drained out of it. Of course the car was on jacks and I didn't notice until it was all over the garage, and had been seeping in for a month. SUCK!)

CAUTION: THIS IS NOT HOW TO CLEAN THE FLOOR . many ,many years ago i saw an older guy scrub oil stained floor with gasoline and stiff broom then wash the gas/oil away with water (the oil/gas floats away). it scared me when I thought about one spark from air compressor or anything could cause fire and I left, next time I saw his floor it was really clean but his driveway was oily nasty mess. I'll bet you could wet the floor everywhere that was not stained (so it doesnt spread)and use mineral spirits like bronze bird said and catch the mess with rags.Please don't just let the mess run out on the ground. let me know if you try it and it works.I rather not know if you catch fire or pass out from dangerous fumes,I have hard enough time sleeping now the bird keeps me up at night

Althouh I havn't tried it yet, I was told that a power washer will clean oil out of concrete.

I use muriatic acid after using a straight degreaser and pressure washer.

Nothing else works better.

Muriatic acid will eat away at concrete, just a little bit though. I've tried my pressure washer alone and did almost nothing to the oil stains. Just my 2 cents.

Thats good tho, etch the concrete a bit and take away the oils, and that will give the paint a better tooth to adhere too. I am going to use muriatic acid solution after some spot work, then pressure wash to get the latent oils and acid residue out, then paint.

I would not mix the cementitious material with any sort of thinners, you will likely just end up with some sort of sludge that will not harden.....mind you if you mix it with chocolate, you might get peanut butter cups....

they sell concrete cleaner at home depot

The Muriatic Acid is for the purpose of just etching the concrete. Is does nothing for cutting the grease or oil. I cover copper pipes and such with oil so the acid doesn't get at the metal. .02

A 50/50 mix will work just fine...

I use a 50/50 mix of Tyler and Dustin that includes scrapers... seems to work fine

There is a soap that gas stations use to clean up grease an gook. That was my job when I was in high school. It is florescent in color and it worked pretty well-a powder form. I don't remember what it is called.

good one doug