jonny7

Was stupid. Degreased my shifters without protecting the ground. Now I have a big stain on the blocks of my driveway. Hot water and dish soap won't do it. What's the next radical step to take?

_ForceD_

Radical?

Looks like you're going to have to WD-40 the whole driveway.

Seriously...pressure sprayer???

Dan

Bill Kapaun

Hot water & laundry soap.
Make a near paste & let soak for 15-20 minutes.
Scrub brush.

rosefarts

A bristled brush. Soap might work with the brush, simple green too.

If you don't want to scrub, carburetor cleaner probably will do it.

jonny7

I'm on it

Iride01 

Don't look at it. Seriously, does anyone ever go to someones house and compare their driveway with another?

It'll probably disappear in time. Probably just about when another stain makes it's mark.

jonny7

I totally would but it's actually a shared driveway, quite well maintained behind our block, in an historical sector, etc. Can't not see it

Iride01 

Well be careful if you to use a pressure washer. Too much pressure too close to the brick or concrete will blast away the finer material that was encouraged by brick makers or cement finishers to come to the top. After I did that to one of the sidewalks leading up to a house I used to have, then I had even more head aches with maintaining the appearance of it. Might be why I just don't care anymore about such.

However a slurry of powdered laundry detergent as someone else mentioned along with just time will let the stuff in WD40 disappear. It was clean WD40? Or was there chain gunk mixed in?

jonny7

A mix of WD-40 and of dirty shifter gunk

JustinOldPhart

What are the blocks made out of?

It's going to sound stupid, but I have a driveway made of pavers that are somewhat variegated in color. I got a few oil drops on them and simply sprayed lighter fluid on the drops and set them afire. The burning fuel pulled the oil out fo the pavers. The pavers were a bit discolored but it blended pretty well with the variegation and eventually went away.

Later on, in a fit of accelerated stupidity, I changed the oil in my motorcycle and took it for a test ride without replacing the oil filler cap. Coming back into the drive, a much greater bit of oil was dribbled onto the pavers. The fire trick didn't work as well, but to Iride01 's point, it faded with time and is now indiscernible.

sch

If the already suggested are inadequate, TSP soak and heavy mechanical brushing would be the next step. TSP is a bit
harder to find these days but is a superb degreaser. Since TSP is pretty alkaline (a bit of understatement) dishwashing gloves and eye protection
are advised. It is also a very strong plant fertilizer (ie algal blooms in waterways) hence its relative rarity but should be in big box stores.

https://www.dandochem.us/product_html...hate_(tsp).pdf
Disregard the last paragraph about "exercise performance enhancement" as that applies to milligram level amounts in expensive supplements.

jonny7

I will try Dawn+Brush for starters but I have my doubts, since dish soap barely changed anything. TSP is up next.

Here's the stain, forever immortalized.

jonny7

As can be seen, I saw no reason not to soak my shifters!

Iride01 

A month of sun and occasional rain, it'll be gone.

Or have an expert, skilled in putting in pavers remove them and either turn them over if possible or swap them out with leftovers that usually can be found elsewhere in the yard. Or perhaps move them to an obscure corner and swap with the pavers there.

It's not something you want to do yourself unless you do this every day at your job. It'll never match for a first time DIY'r.

phughes

I have used laundry detergent to get oil off a driveway, powdered works a little better than liquid, but either works fairly well. That being said, WD-40 will go away fairly quickly on its own. I use it on my reel type lawn mower each time I finish cutting the grass, and always get it on the driveway. In a few days it is gone. Mt drive is blacktop though, old so it is no longer black and you can definitely see the WD-40 stain. Why is probably showing more on your drive, is the dirty grease that came off your components.

Try a laundry detergent before Dawn, it will work much better in my experience. I even keep a box of laundry detergent in the garage for just such an occasion.

grizzly59

Nice driveway. Dawn + water + bristle brush. Scrub a bit, cover with 1 inch cat litter. Forget about it for a few days. For that nice drive, maybe try flour vs cat litter. You may need to repeat treatment.

dedhed

Any number of these type products out there.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/ZEP-1-Ga...N128/100619236

Gresp15C

Flip the blocks upside down. Or, trade them with blocks from a region that's not in plain view.

Also, nice job laying them. Did you do it yourself? I didn't have the courage for anything but plain rectangular bricks.

Mad Honk 

I spilled used mower oil last week on my concrete driveway. Treated it with Simple Green and left it on for the rain to wash off. spots gone a week later. HTH, MH

jonny7

I wish I could say yes!

grayEZrider

It's worth a cheap shot... I've had really good luck with plain club soda on all kinds of stains on floors, carpets and fabrics. Let it soak an hour and wipe it up.

bobwysiwyg

Not sure how it would work on blocks, but I've done a number on our garage floor a few times with used motorcycle oil drippings. Black and ugly stains! Picked up some oil absorbent granules. Poured some paint thinner on the area, poured the granules over it, brushed it a bit with an old broom and swept it all up. Worked well. Might take a second round of a bad stain.

Mista Sparkle

Isn't duct tape the opposite of WD-40? That should work...

Otherwise I'm probably in the simple green camp.

Paint thinner/mineral spirits may be able to dilute it and allow it to be brought up or spread out and they would dry in a little while, but I'm not certain how wise it would be to just pour that stuff on the ground.

Otherwise, as it gets warmer if there wasn't too much gunk in it, it should dry on its own. WD-40 is reasonably lightweight and doesnt stick around all that well, unlike other oils.

sch

Looked at the Zep stuff, it would work but is possibly an order of magnitude more hazardous than TSP, as it is sodium hydroxide
which for practical purposes is the ultimate alkali. It works just as well on skin as it does on grease dissolving both readily.

Retro Grouch 

1. Wait for a calm day with no rain anticipated. Spray the stain with some kind of commercial degreaser product. Cover the spot with kitty litter. Walk away.

2. The next morning sweep up the kitty litter and the oil spot will come with it.