Painted my garage floor when it was a week or too old. Now I just wipe what ever up with a rag or shop vac.

 

What kind of paint did you use and what steps did you take to ensure adhesion?

Good Luck, L.M.

 

As an ex-house painter, we found that all paints and resins suffer from heat transfer which causes the paint/resin to lift just from the heat from warm tires over time.

The best oil spill clean up I've found is plain old brake cleaner. Spray it on, give it a rub with a rag. You may have to do it a couple of times to get it all up.

 

I painted my new shop floor with a product called U-coat-it. It is a diy sealer/floor paint. I added a product to prevent slipping. It has held up great to brake fluid, oil of all kinds and even some heavy object drops.

I typically use cat litter from the dollar store and after it is absorbed I sweep it up. I will also use a grease cutter with a mop after the fall application of fluid film has been done to all our vehicles. that will be this weekend.

UcoatIt is a decent option of your floors are not too oil soaked, or when new.

 

To answer Luckymac, I just washed the new concrete with soapy water, rinsed and let dry. Then painted with ordinary concrete paint. No problems so far after 2 1/2 years. I also use brake clean and floor dry. I vacuum up dirty water, sand and mud during the winter after everything drips off the vehicles and snow blower. I do get dirty water stains but they wash away.

 

I've found the best oil absorbent is granular Diatomite (granular diametrious earth... not the powder kind that's used for insects but the kind that's about the same shape as kitty litter).
...
Other posters should add their best methods of how they clean their shop/garage floors and driveways.

I have used the powdered diatomaceous earth with fairly good success to soak up a big oil spill on the plywood floor of my shed. It works its way into the surface texture of the wood better than the granules.

I highly recommend smoothing & semi-polishing your concrete floor. I have a semi-polished floor and it is awesome. It makes cleaning up spills really easy (just wipe up spills) and sweeping becomes much easier. However, I prefer to vacuum my garage floor with my shop vac to keep dust down. Any paint spills can be scraped up with a razor blade or putty knife when dry. A semi-polished floor will also allow you to use a floor squeegee to get rid of water. I actually wash my cars in the garage during the winter because the floor is so easy to squeegee out. Be careful not to polish the floor too much because it will become slippery. You don't want the concrete glossy (think of the floor at Lowes or Home Depot), you just want a little sheen.

The only downsides are that the floor will still show stains and you will still get some 'aging" of the concrete, especially in the tire tracks after years of sand & salt. However, my floor is almost 25 years old, and the tire track areas are slightly more textured now than the rest of the floor.

You can kind of see the sheen (and patina) of my semi-polished floor in this picture.

 

Ashes from your grill or fireplace/wood burner works good and the price is right

 

Ashes is a good option if you have a fireplace. Ordinary Portland cement is also an option, but if you want to be "high-tech" and environmentally friendly, there is this type of absorbent. Watch the video at this link:

 

I put one of these down when I'm doing any oil/fluid work.
https://smile.amazon.com/Lumax-LX-1...words=oil+drip+pan+for+under+car&qid=1606620531&sprefix=oil+drip,aps,170&sr=8-6

 

I put one of these down when I'm doing any oil/fluid work.
https://smile.amazon.com/Lumax-LX-1715-Silver-Galvanized-Drip/dp/B000MCXOR2/ref=sr_1_6?crid=LNR3K6PWV5BW&dchild=1&keywords=oil+drip+pan+for+under+car&qid=1606620531&sprefix=oil+drip,aps,170&sr=8-6

That looks like it'd work just fine
I wonder if one of Mrs. Lucky's cookie pans would work?

Good Luck, L.M.

 

I use a piece of drywall to catch drips and small spills when doing oil changes. To clean up drips on the concrete I spray it with wd40 and wipe it up with a rag. Still leaves a light stain on the floor but it's a garage floor so i dont worry too much about it.

 

I use sawdust or if I don't have any, hamster bedding to clean up the oil and grease, soaks it up much better than cat litter. (It soaks up oil and water without turning into clay) When done, I just toss it in the wood stove. (I was in construction so could get sawdust easily, good sources are sawmills, cabinet shops, truss companies etc)
For the most part I don't worry about light stains, but to get rid of bad stains I wet the floor down, then sprinkle a powdered degreaser work it around with a scrub brush on a broom handle let it soak for a bit then give it some more scrubbing and squeegee it out the door or soak it up with saw dust. I always keep things I don't want to get wet on blocks or pallets to keep them off the floor so it's easier to clean around them.

 

A friend of mine, Marv Dimond, former president of Havoline, told me to put some cat litter down and twist it in with my foot, like one does with a cigarette butt. It works very well, gets it all gone, even if the oil has been there a long time.

 

The best oil pick up I've ever used on concrete is Pour-N-Restore. The stuff is amazing.

 

I. It's my guess that since body shops are a dusty environment that the shop dust absorbs the residual oil after a spill cleanup.

I use dust to clean up oil spills. My floor is always dusty. I live in the country and there are gravel roads etc all around. In the winter, all the sand and salt that I pick up off the roads melts and drips on the garage floor.

When I get some oil on the floor, I grab a broom and sweep up a few square yards of concrete. That gives me a bit in my dust pan. I spread that on the oil and leave it for a day. It usually wicks up most of it. After that, the spots just kind of go away on their own.

 

I use dust to clean up oil spills. My floor is always dusty. I live in the country and there are gravel roads etc all around. In the winter, all the sand and salt that I pick up off the roads melts and drips on the garage floor.

When I get some oil on the floor, I grab a broom and sweep up a few square yards of concrete. That gives me a bit in my dust pan. I spread that on the oil and leave it for a day. It usually wicks up most of it. After that, the spots just kind of go away on their own.

That's the same thinking behind my #1 post. The tiny particles of dust wick up the oil that's in the pores of the concrete.

Good Luck, L.M.