[A Foster]

Is it actually possible to always remove oil stains from block paving, or is it just a case of fading it?

Does anybody guarantee to remove oil stains? Regardless of how long its been there.

Can anyone recommend the best method to clean when there is old oil stains? or what you would say / recommend to customers.

Using a cold water pressure washer.

Any advice appreciated.

[BDCS]

I add this to the quote "whilst every effort will be made to fully remove the ****** but due to the porosity of the substrate this may not always be possible". It helps if they can tell you what fluid caused the stain but they seldom know

[Kev Martin]

The successful removal of oil depends on various factors:

Size and type of spill
Porosity of stone
Temperature of contaminant
Whether stone was sealed
How well the stone was sealed and with which type of sealer

Hence the reason why if you get a warm diesel oil or power steering fluid leak on an unsealed block paved drive you virtually have no chance of removing it completely and it is often cheaper to change the offending blocks than to spend hours trying to effect  removal.

This said if the substrate has been well sealed with a  good penetrating sealer the chances are you will probably get most or all of the stain out using an Aqua Seal Poultice combined with a High Alkaline Cleaner left for 24 hours although even this may require two applications.

I hope this helps

Kev Martin
Marble Life Ltd

[A Foster]

Thanks for the replies.

It's as I suspected. A lot of chemicals promote the removal of oil stains but never do.

I've been avoiding drives with oil stains. The requests that I have had, I usually tell them its unlikely to completely come out and
basically try to talk myself out of the job.

From now on i'm going to let them know i'll do my best but no guarantees, but offer to replace the blocks. I just need to find out how to go
about replacing the blocks.

[BDCS]

If you have heat, a good degreaser and some patience then you can in most cases do a perfectly adequate job. To remove the blocks just concentrate the nozzle around the blocks to remove the jointing sand and then carefully lever the block up. New blocks usually look worse than the stain so swop them with ones from a little used part of the paving. Brick acid will age new blocks but I save old blocks from the concrete crusher for justin