What to do with those grease stains on concrete.

The other night my wife fired up the gasser to make hamburgers before I got home as we were supposed to have bad weather. Well it moved in faster than we thought and it started raining while the burgers were finishing. No sooner than the burgers came off the rain picked up and was heavy for about an hour before settling down to just a steady rain for the night. Needless to say the cover did not make its way back onto the grill.

Fast forward to the next day and I came home to 3 huge grease stains on the patio. :mad2: It looks like water got into the grill and filled the drip pan, then spilled over. There was grease inside the cabinet of the grill and it ran out through the creases near the wheels and then ran down the concrete. So out came the cleaning products!

First I tried diluted simple green and a brush. Not much going on there so I went with concentrated simple green. That worked a little. I then went up to straight Clorox Outdoor. That cut it some more but the stains were still extremely visible. Next step was a trip to HD where I picked up some ZEP concrete cleaner and some ZEP absorber. I followed the directions on both items, but the stains are still EXTREMELY visible. They are better than they were, but I'd love to get them even better. Coincidentally the concrete around the stains looks brand new after the cleaning.

Surely some of you have had similar events occur and have some ideas on what I can do to make the stains less prevalent. I would gladly entertain any ideas other than digging up the patio! :thumb:

save your money, they don't come out completely. Better to do what you can to remove the oil (leaving only the stain). At that point you can test different sealers to see what will darken it enough to blend in all over.

You can keep trying but at some point you'll have done so much to that area that you've created another eyesore.

Let your dog have at it.

Try using a oven cleaner or better yet, Sam's sell a Oven, Grill and Fryer Cleaner that works great. Spray either on and wait a few minutes then if you have a pressure washer, use it to rinse. This should work. You may end up having to pressure wash the rest of the patio area or whatever it is. Lol... It'll make the whole area look new again.

If this doesn't work, time and sunlight will do it's natural best and bleach it away.

Thanks for all the responses!

Bigmista said:

Paint the concrete black.

Click to expand...

Too darn hot here to due that. I might as well cook over asphalt. Yikes!

bignburlyman said:

At the Kansas Winter Q in Great Bend KS, where the cook teams set up is also the staging area for the professional drag strip. The drag strip operators were concerned with some grease spills that would get on racing slicks and cause problems. The method they use (and Kent Romine & I used) is like this. First they saturate the concrete with laquer thinner, then use a stiff bristle broom (or brush for a small area) to scrub the laquer thinner in. Then they use a weed burner to burn off the laquer thinner. Then they use a water hose to soak the concrete and spread Tide laundry detergent which is then scrubbed with a clean stiff bristle broom. Then it is rinsed off with water.

This is a lot of effort but it really does pull the grease out of the concrete. The drag strip crew said they have tried lots of other methods, but this is the only one that worked. Also, they suggest the guy spreading the laquer thinner not be the guy using the torch. :mad2:

Click to expand...

That sounds like a lot of work but I'm sure it works. I may have to give it a shot! Thanks!

Smiter Q said:

Let your dog have at it.

Click to expand...

The vet bills would be more expensive than digging it up and re-pouring! :heh:

Carnivorous Endeavors BBQ said:

I'm with Cajunator.... try getting some heavy duty EasyOff oven cleaner. Saturate the spots and cover it with a plastic bag for 12 hours or so. Then rinse.

Click to expand...

Good idea. Thanks!