[Blackadder]

Morning guys.
Had to quote a 10 x 10 driveway yesterday, they have a couple of oil spots, transmission fluid on it. I have a Honda GX390, will it be powerful enough to remove them? They want it sanded and sealed too, does £250 sound about right? They are going to claim through an insurance company.

[Plankton]

Morning guys.
Had to quote a 10 x 10 driveway yesterday, they have a couple of oil spots, transmission fluid on it. I have a Honda GX390, will it be powerful enough to remove them? They want it sanded and sealed too, does £250 sound about right? They are going to claim through an insurance company.

I've never heard of someone claiming insurance for this. In some cases it can be easier to replace the affected blocks as if it's been there for some time it won't be completely removed. You can use different things to help improve it but it'll still be noticeable. The price is probably less than others would charge especially for removing oil stains.

[Smurf]

Alarm bells should start to ring when they say they are going to claim on their insurance surely?

Oil stains will not come out of block pavers using a pressure washer no matter how hard you try.
Even if using the best oil stain remover available there is no guarantee of a satisfactory result.
As mentioned sometimes the best solution is to replace the stained blocks.

I also think unless you can get the whole area clean and remove all hard to remove black spots, algae, lichen, oil stains etc which can be a challenge itself on some it's rather pointless to seal the blocks as will look crap afterwards.

Best to also find out if the blocks have ever been sealed before and with what sealer or you could get a reaction with different types of sealers used.

Classic 2 mistakes when sealing is when sand has been left and/or gets onto the face of the blocks and joints being overfilled which also results into a crap looking job.

Apart from that cleaning, resanding and sealing block pavers is a doddle. That is apart from the 3 seprate visits you have to make to do all 3 properly.... weather permitting.

So that 250 and all the costs involved and hassle you might encounter don't sound very appealing now does it?   

[Plankton]

My first experiment with sealer was on my own monoblock, I had tried different products on sections and at the front of the house I had the anti slip coating!
The wife says "Alan you've got sand stuck on the drive with that sealer" me "naw it's no it's anti slip coatin"lol

[Smurf]

My first experiment with sealer was on my own monoblock, I had tried different products on sections and at the front of the house I had the anti slip coating!
The wife says "Alan you've got sand stuck on the drive with that sealer" me "naw it's no it's anti slip coatin"lol

 

[Smurf]

I get a few calls a year from garages for quotes because of customer complaints that oil has leaked onto their driveway after cars have been serviced. Yes can guess what I say 

[outdoor restore]

I've always had good results using OT8 from Oil Technics on oil stains on block. 
Price for cleaning, re-sanding  and treating oil stains a little less than I'd want, but £2.50/m2 would definitely not include sealing.
Make sure you know who is paying you!!
I have done a couple where they have claimed off insurance, only required the customer sending the quote to the insurance co (before doing the job), the customer paid me and was reimbursed by the insurance co
Neil

[Aqua Power Solutions]

Mark, for that quote I would only be cleaning the drive .
What is your profit margin on this paticular job to come back and resand then apply a sealant ?
Ed

[Blackadder]

Thank you fellas. I quoted £350 in the end for everything to be done, also advised that there was no guarantee that the stain would be completely removed. Up to them now.

[Smurf]

Pricewise for sealing would depend on what brand/type of sealer you choose to use afterwards as the likes of resiblock is probably the best well known in the trade. They also offer training courses that may also be of interest http://www.resiblock.com/paving-and-cleaning-contractors
 

[Iain macdonald]

£350 still seams very cheap for sealing a drive if using a good sealer.i use addseal find for the price its very good quality sealer.use a leaf blower after u sand it find it best way make sure joints don't look horrible when sealed.I wouldn't say its the weather for sealing any driveways just now unless u planning use water based sealler

[johnny bravo]

good tip ian, cheap leaf blower