Removing oil stains from pavers

Concrete pavers, that are often used in driveways.

Google gives me some interesting ideas (including using MAPP GAS to burn the stuff off), but I figured I see what folks on this MB have used. This is oil that has, unfortunately, been sitting there for several months. Tried Simple Green, but not good enough.

Anyone with experience with a known winning method?

The only solution I’ve ever found is to alternate various cleaning methods and allow time to work its magic. A good degreaser, available in any auto parts store or most warehouse places like HD or Sam’s, is probably the best general cleaner. Soak, scrub, wait; repeat and allow sun and rain and weathering and time to do the rest.

ETA: I know of *no *way to go from oil stain to clean concrete in any short time no matter what tools or techniques you use. But thorough cleaning and time will often make the stain vanish.

Can you flip them over and use the other side?

I have given that some thought!

I’ve used this method followed by a good pressure washer with decent results on concrete driveways. However you’ll probably have to clean all the pavers or the one you cleaned will stand out.

Oil the rest of the pavers so they all match… Plus you’ll never have to worry about future oil stains!

Try dampening the pavers, then sprinkle some powder laundry detergent on them, and scrub with a broom. Lather, rinse, repeat.

That’s what we’ve tried so far, with varying degrees of success.

The MAPP gas looks like the most fun. It would take a while with large stains though, makes more sense to just attack the toughest part of the stains that way. You could try plain old laundry bleach or oxi-cleaners to see what they do.

Muriatic acid. But be careful – it’s nasty stuff.

Pour-n-Restore should work on your pavers. I have used it myself and it works great!