Paint spill

Brand new concrete. Few months old. A friend reached out. He spilt this paint on a customers concrete and asked me to clean it. No experience with paint removal. What can I do


I’ve used MEK on graffiti once, it was an odd green color and most came off with metal brush. i don’t know if you can soak it with mek and surfactant, but I’d try that some day myself.
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or a graffiti remover, maybe try a hotsy dealer.

The (M)SDS says to avoid strong oxidizers, though it’s not clear if this remains true after it dries (it probably doesn’t), but consider avoiding the use of sodium hypochlorite. Other than that, I can’t comment on an appropriate chemical to use, but graffiti removal products seem like your best bet.

I have removed a much weaker washable tempera paint that stained a concrete walkway though and learned quickly that removing it in just a few spots isn’t really a thing. The stain came up fine for me with plain water and moderate pressure, but then those spots were clean and stood out against the rest of the dirty concrete. I needed to wash every full square, even if only a small stain had been present originally. On a driveway, I could see it escalate into washing the entire thing, so keep that possibility in mind.

I have read a lot of warnings about washing new concrete, but I’m not sure at what age you can consider that concrete is no longer “new”. It looks unusually dirty for only a few months old too.

All these things together might be a tricky situation. Please let us know how it goes in the end.

Red is brutal. Maybe the worst to get out. I cleaned a couple store parking lots and store fronts for SW earlier this year and they had one spot that was red. It was some type of special paint, not your typical water or oil, but I forget what it was. It wouldn’t come out. I have heat and had just about every chem at my disposal and tried multiple apps of the best paint strippers. It faded a lot. But I just couldn’t get it out completely. I offered to keep working on it at an hourly rate and they said what I did was great and they were good with it. But I spent hours on that spot alone.

All that to say, bring a full arsenal if you’re going to attack it.

No experience with this at all, but…would crushing some spill dry / kitty litter into it and leaving it work?

Possibly but it looks faded or washed out already.

So the contractor might’ve already worked on it. If so @Justusbaker, find out what he did so you’re not repeating the same thing with the same results.

My .02 …and I have more .02s for later

  1. A friend in need is a friend indeed, but a friend with weed is better (from an old song).
  2. I will not remove the stain, I will (insert your choice of wording here) lessen/subdue/reduce the visibility
  3. If your throwing things at it with reckless abandon, to see what works and what doesn’t, better tape out the area and pre wet the external area - set up some socks so the run off doesn’t roll down grade and ruin or leave marks elsewhere
  4. Sometimes, it is better to think “pull” out the stain/paint then to grind it out.

Now I am off to go fix a painter’s mistake on a 4k wood house. Thanks for letting me use my brain before I go brain dead smearing paint on a wood house. I hate paint on wood.

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Since it’s a small area, have you tried a can of carb cleaner? Maybe that with a wire brush?

I’ve never used it on anything but old aluminum wheels but maybe test some aircraft stripper on it?

I’d look at it from a graffiti removal perspective. World’s Best Bare Brick & Stone might cut it (it’s great on spray paint), but you can go on their website and either send a chat or email/call. I had a large inquiry for a bunch of vandalism of a playground and they got me answers and some video links same-day.

Here’s a few where we used it on spray paint on a sidewalk though: