Cleaning , maybe resurfacing, Concrete Surfaces

House Repair Talk

Help Support House Repair Talk:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

voyager

Junior Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2014
Messages
100
Reaction score
45
A couple weeks of winds and heavy rain filled and overflowed the grease pan on our BBQ grill out on the back lanai.
The grease, and carbon char in it, have left stained spots on the lanai's concrete.


I've soaked liquid soap and detergent on it a couple of times while hitting it with a scrub brush.
The stains are not going to be easy to get off.
They have soaked into the surface, penetrating the concrete, the carbon intensifying the stains.

Any good ways to remove grease stains from concrete?
01 - Stains.jpg

As long as I'm looking at working the lanai's concrete floor, gasses evolved by the eruption we had 2 - 3 years ago, are being washed out of the air by rains and have damaged the lanai and walkway's concrete surfaces by dissolving the surfaces exposing the sand and gravel aggregates.
02 - Disolved Lanai Surface.jpg03 - Wazlkway Surface.jpg04 - Walkway Surface.jpg

I'm considering refinishing the surfaces, over 600 sqft.
Having to etch the surface and apply a new coating while exposed to weather, complicated by our being out of a drought into a wet period.
Because of the exposed sand and gravel, the surface is much darker.

Thoughts and suggestions for getting a smooth, even surface and color doing this?
 
for the grease stain, I'd try grinding some kitty litter into the spots and see if it will lift it.
another thought would be to try to clean it with TSP (tri-sodium phosphate) from your local hardware store.
in regards to the exposed aggregate, I'm thinking the only solution is to tear it up and repour it.
 
Kitty litter was a good idea, not perfect yet, though.
I should have thought of it.
Will look for some TSP too.

I scrubbed some in with a block of wood.
It lifted some of it.
By sweeping and not removing all the fines from the ground in litter, it was very hard to see the stain.
The color of the litter almost matches the concrete.
Washing them off did bring a somewhat lighter residual stain back.

Scrubbing it several times more should lighten it some more.
Might even see almost complete removal by it.

We've got too much exterior concrete to rip it all up and replace it: 12'X60' lanai, 12'x12' tub pad, ~75' of 4' walkways and a 20'X20' entry pad for the garage.
The lanai is complicated by ~1/2 of it being screened in, carpeted and made part of the house's living area with furniture and stuff in it.
That comes pretty close to a 4 to 6" x 1650 sqft + pour, more than what's under the house.
Don't see that happening.
Might look into cleaning and resurfacing the entire thing.
Don't think it can be done in patches with colors matching.

Got time, will have to wait for drier conditions.
Hard to tell how long it'll be until that happens.
 
Last edited:

Latest posts

Back
Top