what to use for getting oil out of concete

D

davidjdew

New member
Hi
I have a job doing a driveway that has about three years
worth of motor oil on it. Any ideas of what to use to pull it up??

thanks,

David
 
I dont have the correct answer,but many of the products specifically formulated to remove asphalt and oil are xylene,tolulene based.

it is interesting that a gentleman one time told me his secret formula for removing oil consisted of 85 percent kerosene and 15 percent parts washing solvent,i never tried it but he swore by it.

i remember Ron talking about a formula that was very expensive but worth it,maybe he will comment,good luck
 
did'nt mike aka eXtreme show a picture of some really bad oil stains b4 and after..i think he used hf ?
 
paul i did see the pics and HF is still a lousy degreaser, but HF is great at eating cement.
take off the thin top layer of cement that has grease on it and it will look like new.
Most hot water rigs with surface cleaners are doing the same thing. Removing the dirt by removing the sand that's in the cement.
Your wearing the dirt away.
plenty of CLEAN SPOT'S on my garage floor where i remove the siphon pump and let it drip on the floor.
caustic's are for cleaning oil. Not acids.
Acids eat the lime in the cement, exsposing new sand. If you think eating the surface is cleaning it, then yes, HF is a cement cleaner.
This post is in no way attacking anyone, just wanted to point out what i think.
Why use HF when muratic acid would work?
 
ron p

thanks for putting me straight ron..did'nt pick that up on the previous post.

cheers paul.
 
Cleaning Parking structures requires the right kind of equipment. Hitting at 235 degrees with a high ph detergent ( About 12.8+). Let the detergent do its job by scrubbing it with a stiff nylon. Let it stand for 40 to 70 minutes. The hitting it with 6+ gpm at 4 to 5,000 psi with heat at nozzal hitting 230 degrees F.
Go to www.garagecleaning.net . Its our website, but you'll get the picture.
 
On a flight line in the military u use kitty litter and grind it into the ground with your heels. It works quite well for removing oil, Harrier engines always leak! We used to say If they were not leaking , then they were empty! I stomped in alot of kitty litter in 10 years of working with aircraft.
 
Jim@Garagecleaning said:
Cleaning Parking structures requires the right kind of equipment. Hitting at 235 degrees with a high ph detergent ( About 12.8+). Let the detergent do its job by scrubbing it with a stiff nylon. Let it stand for 40 to 70 minutes. The hitting it with 6+ gpm at 4 to 5,000 psi with heat at nozzal hitting 230 degrees F.
Go to www.garagecleaning.net . Its our website, but you'll get the picture.
Click to expand...
I liked your site and video, very professional
 
I like it too, but his video says he uses two zero degree nozzles on a surface cleaner. Just before that the narrator talks about how the machines are capable of producing 5,000 psi. Clearly 5,000 psi is not being used when using the zero degree nozzles, but how much pressure is used? A zero degree stream can etch cement even at relatively low (for a pressure washer) psi.

alvisishere said:
I liked your site and video, very professional
Click to expand...
 
I always tell others, water is like a knife, .... For example: If you have a scab on the back of your hand and you take a sharp knife to scratch it off, you will cut your skin, but if you take a butter knife and apply that same amount of pressure, you'll be able to remove the substance without cutting yourself. This is true for water as well. The thicker the spray, the more pressure you can use without damaging the cement.

With that said, I do use up to 5k at zero nozzles but I usually stay at around 4,500 psi. We do not stop when cleaning. We are using 6+ gpm. Our machine is capable of 12 GPM ( 11.6 GPM to be exact) This along with the cement rated at 6k per inch ( for a parking garage) allows us to be that aggressive. Yes, if one was to stop for any length of time ( 3 sec or more), etching will happen. We do not stop in one place.

WE DO NOT DO STORE FRONTS OR SIDEWALKS. Their cement can be rated as low as 2,500 pound per square inch. The cement in a multi level parking garage is much harder and is concrete. Concrete is usually rated at 5 to 6,000 pounds per square inch. Your guys need to be trained and understand this will happen before doing the job.
It is not easy, but it is possible. Practice and error will be your guide. It took us 20 years.

Just a foot note, we have ran the unit so hot in the past, that the hose rated at 265 degrees F started to melt. When we hit above 265, our pressure drops to about 3 to 3,400 psi. Our gloves melt to the hose and one can not just “Let go" of the pressure hose. You have to take off your gloves while the gloves are melted to the hose. Our hoses usually last only 3 weekends before you see the R2 wire. We use a 1/2 inch line... not 3/8. Our unit weighs in at 9,700 lbs. GVW with pressure unit on it. Trailer is custom made at 14,000 GVW. We have built a second unit in a goose neck form.

In order to drive the hydraulics, a 100 HP turbo diesel is used. (3.3 liter). Just by a turn of a knob, we can regulate the GPM's from 1 to 11.6. This is done by the hydraulics. No belt driven machine is able to do this. You will stall your motor. Because of the hydraulics, the motor is running at 2,000 rpm's constantly. The motor is unaware of the change in the flow of the water pump.
 
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In the beginning, yes. We was very worried about the hoses busting. After all this was a custom machine designed especially for garage cleaning.

2.2 million BTU's is allot of heat. But so far, no hose has busted. We replace them after so many hours of use. It costs us $1400 every three weeks or so, but to get the results that we demand, it is worth it. The cement looks near to new or better. Our filter, which is required to meet standards set forth by the SRWQCB and the CCCSD is capable of 40 GPM. It to is custom built at a cost of 70k. and is 24 ft long. So far, we have not seen any equipment that comes close to our specs.

Just a note, because some pressure washing companies have said their units, in the middle of Feb at 40 degrees outside temp, can maintain 200+ degrees at 6 gpms, the cities are now asking for the BTU's of equipment to be used. Their engineering dept then calculates the actual temp. Some users say that their 350,000 BTU can maintain 200+ at 6 GPM's. Actually their more likely to hit 160 to 180 depending on their floor rate.

Because of our extreme heat, our guys have to wear an undershirt, then a thermal long sleve, then a sweat shirt, then a insulated jacket. The wand's quick connect is wrapped in a bath towel secured with duck tape. The Duck Tape eventually melts together. Having No leaks, if one guy has the wand under his arm pit, working, he can only last 20 minutes or so. Any longer, the heat will give blisters to your ribs from the transfer of heat from the hose to the body. If the O ring leaks, no one can withstand the heat. We have to stop working shut it down to replace o ring. The cool down takes 4 to 6 minutes. Also, our guys have to weigh at least 185 lbs. Otherwise they cannnot control the wand.

Someone asked me how we get the surface cleaner machines down; the trailer is equipped with a 1800 LBS electric crane that folds away out of site. That crane can lift the 2 surface cleaners from the back of the trailer down to the floor. The trailer unit has a reserve diesel tank of 115 gallons DOT approve. The trailer is powder coated to 6.5 mil thick. It is not painted.
 
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Sounds like some great machines, do you have any pictures other than what is on your website, those are kind of dark and hard to see.

How many Sq.Ft. per hour can you do on average?
 
We can clean with two surface cleaners running about 120,000 to 145,000 sq ft in 4 to 6 hours depending on how oily the surface is. Rinsing and filtering takes about the same amount of time. A fire hose is rated at 80 GPM's at 125 psi. We can only filter at 40 GPM's. Because of this, we have to slow down for the filters to catch up. We are in the works of getting units to filter 60 GPM's. These filters meet or exceed all gov req. even in the most restrictive places like Lake Tahoe.
 
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