How to Clean An Oil Spill

Filed in archive Learning on December 29, 2006

So you're changing the oil on you rig and you spill it all over the garage floor. You've cleaned up the bulk of it by soaking it up with rags or paper towels, but there's still a huge black spot on the floor.

You can get some kind of oil abosrbent (Zorbent for instance), it's a fine white powder you put on the oil spill and sweep up later. Typically expensive and not really needed.

Another option would be dish soap. Sounds goofy I know, but dish soap is made to "cut" grease and works pretty well on oil. Granted there would be some scrubbing and washing involved with that one.

Paper towels and Shout Stain Remover works well also, as does Simple Green, or perhaps a mixture of Dawn Dishwashing Liquid and Simple Green. (Be careful what you mix, the results might be less than desirable, and leave you with a bigger mess than you started with.)

The best thing to use is kitty litter. (Preferrably new, if you get my drift) kitty litter will soak up any loose oil. After it's soaked up, you can use your foot or a hard scrub brush to 'scrape' the kitty litter over the spot to scrub it off. The abrasiveness of the kitty litter works well with the absorption.

Finally, after you've done everything you can and there's still a small stain left, put some kitty litter on it and poor some coke on it. Let it bubble up, then spray it clean and do it again. Coke is actually a great cleaner.

If you've got other ideas that work, please share!