Removing oil from a driveway

[obi_waynne]

A friend has a leaky engine and visited my MIL. His car left big black oil stains on the driveway.

What is the best way to remove oil stains from the driveway?

It is red brick block paving if that makes any difference. Jet wash didn't shift it. She's tried washing up liquid as well and there is still a dark stain on the drive.

 

[SLEEPER]

Getting oil out of block paving is a pain because he blocks are absorbant.
You can take out an area of brick paving easily enough ( if it was laid right ) .
Any decent paving company will give you a few spare bricks to leave in the garden out the way . That way they will have weathered the same as the drive.
The way to get up the paving is to sacrifice one block - if one its covered in oil it hardly matters , Break it with a hammer and a sharp chisel and it will come out. You can them take the blocks out and replace the stained ones. You need to level the sand first , just compact it untill it the blocks are a few mm higher than the layed drive. When done you can use a small wacker plate to level them or put a board over them and drive the car over a few times

 

[rdp50734]

Coca cola is another way, youtube for a demo.

Failing that was to burn it off using petrol on the oil and a blow torch.

Obviously keep the 2 a good distance from each other.

 

[SLEEPER]

you cant burn oil off if it has soaked into a block Most paved drives are actually blocks made with aggregate not sand so are much more pourous.
thats why people sometimes seal block driveways

 

[old-git]

NEVER, NEVER put flame near petrol other than in an internal combustion engine!!!!

You may be very careful and understand petrol's ignition characteristics but many people don't which could lead to tragic consequences.