Hello. I’ll use this thread to introduce myself. I’ve read over these threads fairly extensively and wanted to participate in the community so here goes.
I’ll be performing my first pressure washing job for a coworker cleaning his driveway and I was looking for critique/constructive criticism/not so constructive criticism. I’ll give back to yall by reporting back on the efficacy of star power on ancient ■■■ oil spills. My tools consist of a 2.5GPM 3,400PSI pressure washer, scrub brushes, a 14" diameter surface cleaner, 2-gallon pump sprayer and the will to not be crushed under the weight of massive quantities of child support. Le’ggo.
THE JOB
The man is a mechanic and has a substantial amount of oil spills on his concrete drive. I’ve set expectations that while oil spills can be dented, they’ll never come all the way up. Not looking to weed torch the man’s driveway. I plan on boot heeling kitty litter into the stains and let sit for about 20 minutes and then applying a degreaser and liberal scrubbing to the oil stains in question. Gonna wet the whole drive down and then apply pretreatment as prescribed here in these threads (soap, bleach) then get to washing. I’ll apply a post treatment as well (more soap, more bleach) and then utilize star power and leave it sit on the stains to see how that plays out.
Appreciate anyone dropping their two cents in or pointing out some foolishness I might overlook. I’d like to make a good impression as my coworkers are hoo hoo’in and ha ha’in as I’m a little eccentric and they’re all curious as to how this interaction will unfold.
Bit of a trial by fire with oil on the concrete but do your best. With a 2.5gpm it’s probably a good idea to go in a slow circular motion with the surface cleaner to cut down on stripes. Post treat with 3% will fade the rest.
Appreciate the reply man. I’ll keep what you said in mind. Dudes words to me as I was discussing the oil stains were “I’m not expecting miracles, just more damn effort than what my son put in”. I’ll be heading out to the job on the 29th. I’ll update with pictures then.
What is ‘star power’? Kitty Litter not going to do much for you unless they’re pretty fresh, which I doubt, unless there’s a lot of excess sitting on the surface. Go by auto parts store and get you a gallon of purple power for the oil spots. Spray it on direct, brush it in. Don’t have to brush hard, just kind of work it in. Let sit for about 10min. Hit the spots with another lite coat and then start cleaning after your pre-treat of rest of drive.
If he happens to have his hot water heater in the garage, see if he’ll let you hook your hose to it for cleaning those oil spots. May want to use your wand with the hot water on just those and then clean whole thing with your surface cleaner. Or just clean whole thing and then come back with hot water and your wand on those spots.
Got it. Star power is the food safe chemical we use at work (agricultural background) it’s a mighty degreaser but rather expensive. I have some purple power on hand, and I intended to use it as the initial degreaser. Only applying star power at the end to let it sit on there and see what it does with time. Thanks for the response. I’ve watched your videos that you’ve posted and I appreciate you!
I’ve been dealing with oil stains in my own driveway since the front axle seal decided to just randomly start leaking. Here is what I found did the best for me who doesn’t have hot water or professional degreasers.
First, I put down some floor dry, the stuff from the auto store, not kitty litter. Ground it in good with my shoe, then gave it a day. Next day ground it in a bit more, cleaned it up then soaked in purple power 50/50 mix. Probably could have gone straight but I already had a 50/50 mix ready. Let it dwell 10 minutes or so, brushed it with a stiff deck brush, then dwell another 5 or so. Then using the wand at high pressure concentrated on just those spots. They I lightly coated the area again in pp and surface cleaned my whole driveway. You can see a bit of darker concrete where the spot was, but overall no one would notice if you didn’t point it out.
We cleaned a driveway last spring where a car flipped over in it and leaked all it’s fluids…we hit it with Gutter Butter (I think they used it straight, but I’d probably try 50% first), homeowner was thrilled with that result. No idea how fresh those were, but it had been long enough that the client was frustrated by the insurance process, and had gone all through it, so they weren’t brand new by any means
Most hot water heaters have a spigot on them for draining or whatever. At least everyone I’ve ever had. Most people keep theirs set around 125-130 deg. Screw garden hose on and you have hw. A lot of the newer homes have the instant hw, don’t know if they have a hw spigot coming off of them or not. If I had one I would.
You can just use a hose with a hose nozzle. It’ll help break it down. When I’m putting degreaser on a really bad dumpster pad or whatever, I usually put down at about 120 with my ball valve at real low psi so it’ll pull soap and you can see the oil or grease start breaking down.
