Tonight, we got the go ahead to wash a couple of pumps at a gas station. Mostly it will give us some nice pictures and experience. With that said, we won’t have hot water and I understand the ups and downs of not having a hot wash (future investment). So what we’re working with is caustic soda beads. I know we can use SH, but we want to try the caustic only. Mostly wanting to know peoples pros and cons using the beads.
I assume you mean you’re washing the concrete pads around the pump stations, and not the actual pump stations themselves.
I don’t do as much concrete as many others but in my experience, caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) is the go-to for removing oil/fuel from concrete.
It’s not foolproof so don’t be a fool: learn how to mix it (don’t add water to the beads; add beads to the water), wear PPE, etc. Don’t let sodium hydroxide solution dry on any surface before being washed away.
Sodium hydroxide solution will chew up blacktop and asphalt, so don’t let your solution run onto those surfaces.
When I’ve used sodium hydroxide solution on concrete to remove oil/gas/diesel stains, customers have been thrilled with the results. Good luck on your job.
I would guess that it varies, but what is your mix ratio/recipe?
Yes. The area around pumps obviously. And we add beads to water and no we don’t let it dry. Just like anything in this industry. As far as ration we did 5 cups to five gallons. Seemed very diluted think we will go hotter than that.
Definitely happy you mentioned the black top part of that tho. That was not known to us. Appreciate it!
