You may have noticed that your garage floor has gone through some wear and tear over the years. It could be damaged and cracked, or it may just be some repairable and reversible stains that can be resolved.

How Does Oil Contamination Occur?

Garage & workshop oil stains can occur from a number of things. Whether it’s a clumsy spill, a messy day or a vehicle leakage, once that oil has been dripped on the floor, it’s hard to recover.

Even more so if you leave it for a long period of time; the build-up of oil and grease-based components will seep and soak into your concrete flooring making it even harder to clean.

Practices for Removing Garage Oil Stains

Here are a few methods you can try to repair your oil contaminated garage flooring.

Shot Blasting

 Shot blasting is a method where a wide variety of abrasives, for example iron grit and rounded shot particles, are applied to the flooring using a stream of compressed air.

This ensures that the oil contaminated pores are opened, and the softened matter is removed. Different grades and sizes of abrasives are used in order to achieve the best results for any concrete garage flooring.

Hot Forced Air Equipment

Shot blasting will expose the areas of more deeply ingrained oil and grease but will not be able to remove it, which is why you should then use hot forced air equipment to get rid of those nasty garage oil stains.

Hot forced air equipment consists of a hot gas jet flame which, when applied to concrete flooring, will vaporise any oil-based contaminants that are present.

Alkaline Detergent

 A highly alkaline detergent with a pH above 12 is an effective way of removing oil from your contaminated garage flooring.

 By scrubbing it in and vacuuming it out, you should repeat this process until you can see that the oil has stopped leaching from the pores. This one definitely takes a lot of elbow grease!

Washing & Drying

Washing alone or washing in addition to any of these methods is a good way to remove oil and grease from your garage floor. Using a hard-wire brush will allow you to get deep into the substrate and consequently emulsify the oil or grease.

In addition to this, give your flooring a rinse down with a high-pressure and high-temperature washer to remove the oil completely. Make sure you dry the floor thoroughly once you have finished.

Why You Should Choose GFTC Flooring Solution 

If your garage flooring is contaminated with oil beyond repair, then have no fear. GFTC interlocking tiles are ideal for installing over oil contaminated surfaces because they allow the floor to breathe, therefore will not lift when the moisture tries to escape.

Installation is simple, so if you want a quick solution to your garage flooring, take a look at our tiles on our online store , or alternatively contact us.