Oil in parking lot

[kenpoed]

I live in a condo development and had a transmission fluid leak of about 1qt. It ran down the parking lot and while I have r hosed it, it has an oily outline.

We are not due for rain for a week or so, I have been watering it down as much as I can reach with a hose and sprinkling detergent.

Will a good rain with detergent sprinkled take care of the ugly outline?

Help!

 

[Chris142]

They use dawn dishwashing detergent to remove oil from animals. Ougha work on a parking lot.

 

[yonyon]

Assuming this is blacktop, the oil sinks into it. The longer it sat before you got to it with detergent, the more the oil sunk in. Time and weather will eventually take away that outline you're looking at but don't be too surprised if it takes a year or so.

 

[GreeCguy]

Originally Posted By: yonyon
Assuming this is blacktop, the oil sinks into it. The longer it sat before you got to it with detergent, the more the oil sunk in. Time and weather will eventually take away that outline you're looking at but don't be too surprised if it takes a year or so.


And, if it's asphalt, it will degrade the asphalt over time. As my grandfather used to say: "like dissolves like."

 

[GreeCguy]

as a side note - we did a car wash at our Church a couple of years ago to raise money for the youth group. Someone brought a bottle of "tire shine" to spray the tires of the cars we washed. That was about two years ago, and you can still see every spot where we "tire shined" tires in the parking lot, especially when it rains and the parking lot is wet.

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: GreeCguy
Originally Posted By: yonyon
Assuming this is blacktop, the oil sinks into it. The longer it sat before you got to it with detergent, the more the oil sunk in. Time and weather will eventually take away that outline you're looking at but don't be too surprised if it takes a year or so.


And, if it's asphalt, it will degrade the asphalt over time. As my grandfather used to say: "like dissolves like."


I am not sure oil does that much harm to blacktop. Its gas that does a job on it.

Simple green.

Maybe get a bag of oil-dry for next time. Or cheap cat litter.

 

[GreeCguy]

Have you tried Tri-sodium phosphate?

 

[bdcardinal]

Tide powered clothes detergent and a stiff broom. It is what NASCAR uses when oil gets spilled on tracks to clean. I used it in my driveway and with a little elbow grease it worked well.

 

[GreeCguy]

Originally Posted By: Donald
I am not sure oil does that much harm to blacktop.


For a period of time, I worked at an apartment complex as a grounds keeper. You could always tell where a "leaker" had been parked as over a period of time the asphalt would begin to break up and crumble and eventually make a hole.

Not saying this will happen to the OP with a one time spill or leak. But it will happen if the leak is not repaired or contained.

 

[gregk24]

Originally Posted By: GreeCguy
as a side note - we did a car wash at our Church a couple of years ago to raise money for the youth group. Someone brought a bottle of "tire shine" to spray the tires of the cars we washed. That was about two years ago, and you can still see every spot where we "tire shined" tires in the parking lot, especially when it rains and the parking lot is wet.


Thats strange...I use tire shine every week when I wash my car and its left no residue anywhere on my driveway.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

When I changed the starter in my parking lot I managed to leave a HUGE grease spot. I got some dawn dish soap and a stiff brush and it all came out.

Last night, I dropped a tube of grease on the carpet and it got all over. Dawn, again, got it out no problem.

PB Blaster will eat a hole in the pavement in a day ...

 

[yonyon]

I hope you're not using ATF as tire shine.

 

[GreeCguy]

Originally Posted By: gregk24
Originally Posted By: GreeCguy
as a side note - we did a car wash at our Church a couple of years ago to raise money for the youth group. Someone brought a bottle of "tire shine" to spray the tires of the cars we washed. That was about two years ago, and you can still see every spot where we "tire shined" tires in the parking lot, especially when it rains and the parking lot is wet.


Thats strange...I use tire shine every week when I wash my car and its left no residue anywhere on my driveway.


Is your driveway asphalt or concrete? The parking lot at Church is asphalt and the marks show up as white stains, especially when it rains. I don't remember the name of the stuff we used, but it was clear and came in a clear bottle. It did make the tires look great, (I even sprayed my own tires with it when we were done).

 

[Kuato]

Originally Posted By: Donald
Or cheap cat litter.



^THIS. Before anything else, dump a good bit litter to absorb, then once it's had awhile to soak it up, use the hose/Dawn/whatever.

 

[Donald]

And best to change it some place other than in front of your unit.

 

[JHZR2]

Dawn. Regular blue stuff.

 

[camelCase]

Gotta remember - Asphalt is simply the leftovers from oil refining mixed with aggregate (rocks).

Crude oil is basically a mix of a bunch of different hydrocarbon strings. Some are very short, and some are very long.

In refining, they separate these strings. Shorts end up as things like D-Limolene and other aromatic petroleum products that are typically used as solvents and/or fuels. The next step up are the medium lengths that typically go into greases and oils we are all familiar with.

The super long strings that are left over are what I'm referring to as "the left overs". Thick, nasty, sticky, black tar looking [censored] that is used in a few limited applications. Asphalt is one of them.

Back in the day, these leftovers had higher concentrations of the short and medium strings in them. This led to a higher quality, and longer lasting, asphalt. As refiners have gotten better at pulling all those more expensive molecules out, the leftovers became worse. This made them perform worse at their job as "glue" in asphalt.

Similar to all oils - asphalt oxidizes and degrades under heat, UV light, and other conditions. Then - when you spill a refined oil on them - it starts to want to mix with the "leftovers". The asphalt binder begins to loose some of it's binding ability since it's effectively having it's viscosity lowered. Like someone else said their father said, "Like dissolved like".


To clean - oil dry, sawdust, kitty litter, and some elbow grease.


PLEASE DO NOT WASH OILS AWAY WITH WATER! Even when they are encapsulated in sufactants due to soap being used - they are still bad for our environment. A lot of the old guys here will probably roll their eyes - but it's serious stuff.

DO NOT WASH OILS AWAY WITH WATER! DO NOT LET OIL GET INTO YOUR GROUNDWATER OR SEWAGE SYSTEMS!!