I have my house for sale in New Jersey, looking to move to Maine to begin my homesteading adventure. Anyway, I dropped a bottle of olive oil on my front patio, and it has left a rather large stain. I was wondering if anyone had any solutions. I have tried DAWN(dish detergent), and STAY DRY (an oil stain removal product for motor oil stains). Neither has worked. Anyone have any ideas?? Thanks in advance!! Cara Lewis cnllewis@email.com

-- cara lewis (cnllewis@email.com), April 27, 2000

Answers

Have you tried kitty litter? I know my brother has used it for motor oil stains on his driveway.

-- Tracy (trimmer@westzone.com), April 28, 2000.

Muratic acid, mixed 5 to 1 with water(5 parts water). Apply liberaly and let stand for 15 minutes than scrub and rinse off ! This works on most concrete and tile surfaces. Use safety equipment such as, rubber gloves and eye protection and don't track your mixture onto carpet and interior flooring. Hope this helps.

-- Joel Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), April 28, 2000.

I guess it doesn't matter that much to you if the oil comes through again in a few months. However, if we're talking a concrete finish, then dry cement powder will soak up a lot of oil; then sweep up the powder - repeat as necessary. For other surfaces, use powdered (slaked) lime as above. If necessary, warm with a fan heater to make the oil more mobile, so it will move into the powder better. This works for mineral oils - ought to do OK for olive oli, and can't harm, but I haven't tried it.

On concrete, you could (try first on a secluded spot) use whitewash, thinned quite a lot, to try and cover.

Or you could just paint it all with olive oil.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), April 28, 2000.