boy have i screwed up!

[cornfed]

I went to my friends house last night. She was painting a concrete floor and the paint wasn't sticking to the concrete. I told her that she needed to coat the floor with wd40 to get the funky stuff on the concrete up. We tested an area and it worked. The stuff came right up and the we even painted that part to make sure it would stick. It worked great....in that spot! We then coated the entire floor with WD40 - I'm talking a thick coating of it and let it sit overnight. She just went home and tried to get the stuff up and it didn't come up. So now the floor is coated with wd40 and nothing is coming up! Any suggestions at all?

[Exodus]

Ooooh that sucks! Have you tried CLR?

[Drorain]

grab some skates...


seriously, before you try anything, I would contact the company to see if anything reacts with the wd-40

[cmont]

You need to get a degreasser involved now. Something that will break up synthetic oil. Lots of rags and lots of patience. WD-40 is a good cleaner but shouldnt be left on over night.

[Exodus]

I would contact the company to see if anything reacts with the wd-40

Oh yea, Very good idea!

[Drorain]

yah some chemical reactions may make you end up deaded so be careful

[cornfed]

I had read online that this was a sure fire method to get the crap up. Oh well! No, we haven't tried clr. We did try a phosphoric acid last night before we tried the wd40. It didn't get the stuff up. The wd40 really worked in that one spot. I feel so bad for influencing her to do this! I'm gonna go over there tonite and see if maybe she is just scraping wrong or what. Then we'll absorb as much of the wd40 with rags and then maybe do some clr. I will contact wd40 and see what can be done too. This really sucks! I'll try to take some pics tonite so I can share the enormous catastrophe that I've created.

[Exodus]

yah some chemical reactions may make you end up deaded so be careful

What is "deaded" ? ;) J/K

Hey Dro, congrats on 4K

Sorry in advance for possible thread hi-jack. :o

[Exodus]

enormous catastrophe that I've created.

Hey, that's what friends are for! Messing things up worse then struggling together to make it better! I can't count how many times I made something worse or one of my friends made something worse. Everything will pan out. :)

[Danger_Mouse]

Just light it on fire, that will get the WD40 off.

I think what cmont said is the best solution.
Man that sucks, I feel for ya.

grab some skates...
LMAO

[Navian]

where is this concrete? In a garage? there is a specific cleaning chemicals and a certain paint for that.

Oops. But since wd40 dries quickly, it was logical at first to do as as you did it in the tested area, spray, scrape, spray, scrape. Since you let it dry, well your going to have to use like cmont said a degreaser, wd40 is a light lubricant, and should not be used instead of an oil (.. Have you tried just straight liquid dish soap like Dawn? One person puts the soap directly on the floor w/ no hot water, in small area and scrubs it in with an SOS pad, let the soap do its job and break up the oils (5-10min) then the another person follows through with hot water and a spunge to clean up the soap. Its going to be a pain in the a**, but it might be cheaper.

If that doesnt work, there is an other way, and will probably cost more, alot more:http://www.concretenetwork.com/concrete/cleaning_concrete/chemicals_help.htm

[CatintheHat1]

We've had oil spills on our driveway. Nothing completely removes the stain, but you buy this bucket of mind-eating chemicals and it does a pretty good job. Call the local mechanic or garage, he'll likely sell you some, but otherwise, it's usually available at building supply stores. I'm in Canada. We use Canadian Tire.

[cmont]

I wouldnt try using CLR though, it stands for Calcium, Lime, and Rust for a reason. Might just be adding another potential problem to the situation. The first problem was putting the WD 40 on the floor over night, concrete is porous and soaks up whatever it can. So there might be a dark tint to the floor that will never come off even after you do some clean up. Navian made a good point with the Dishsoap.

When we were redoing my house we wanted to clean the grout in the kitchen so we used Pyruvic Acid. Highly volatal but it works. Be sure to ask about usage at the hardware store. This step would be to try and get rid of the Dark Color left by the WD-40. I don't know if there is a product available to stop the reaction of the Acid eating the concrete so best to be careful.

[balou]

I'd sop up what you can with rags first (toss oil soaked rags in an air tight container or wash right away as they can start on fire). The do what Navian said - Dawn dish soap & water. Use Dawn - don't go cheap.

[Satchel]

what about a lighter?? Burn it off :D

[balou]

OMG Satch!! lmao!

[Satchel]

Speaking of burning... ya know those little white fluffy things (cotton wood, or something) that cover your yard? DO NOT light them on fire... they catch fire very quickly!

[balou]

We have a pyro in our midst.

[rickself]

I'm gonna go over there tonite and see if maybe she is just scraping wrong or what.
Ya, right, like she's gonna let YOU in the door! :D

[cornfed]

Okay, I went over there an assessed the situation - she's not home!! It's pretty bad. The wd40 soaked into the glue like substance and has made a goop that is like a paste. This paste is almost dry. I scrubbed down a section with palmolive cause thats all she had. It's gonna take some elbow grease, but I think it's gonna work. I dried the little piece I cleaned and tried to paint on it. The paint is sticking as far as I can tell.

We're gonna go with Dawn cause it's better than palmolive at cutting grease and that's what the wd40 people said to use when I called them (after the lady stopped laughing at me). Basically, I think the paste needs to be rehydrated. This is her daughters bedroom. The awfully sad thing is that we are doing this so that her daughter can paint her floor black and have her walls be basically 100% cyan. It's an awful color scheme! The other thing that sucks is that my friend has a bad back, so guess who gets to get us out of this!! I guess I'll go get started after I put my little one to bed tonite. Ugh!!

[balou]

What if you got it wet with WD40 again - small areas at a time? Sounds weird but if it's just not working because it is too dry...

[cornfed]

That's a good suggestion balou! I'll see if she'll let me touch the can!! I'll let ya'll know how it goes!!

[jena4]

Good Luck Cornfed! I'm sure it will turn out okay. Sounds like it doesn't matter if it stains since she's going to paint it black anyway.:o

[cornfed]

We wd40'd, scrubbed, scraped, wd40'd, scrubbed, scraped and on and on and now the concrete is clean. I am so friggin sore it ain't even funny! We then mopped twice with dawn to remove the residue. I think I'll stay out of anyones home improvement projects from now on!

And thanks for all of the advice everyone! Great tips!

[balou]

yahoo! I'm glad it worked!

[Red Kittie Kat]

What a predicament!! Glad you got it all fixed now ....... but wow ..... you poor thing.... you are gonna be sore for a couple days now :(

[Samakimoto Graphics]

All the best Cornfed!

[urstwile]

Cornfed, you're obviously a great friend. Good on ya, hon. I'm glad you got it figured out.

Can you come over here to my place and help me sort through all the magazines I have piled up in my section of the apartment? :D

[cornfed]

Aw thanks Urst! If you could see my house, you'd come organize if for me!! I am extremely sore today! She is a good friend and a therapist, so we put up with a lot of each others crap and have no hard feelings between the two of us. If we do, then we work them out constructively- that's what's great about her being a therapist!! She keeps me in check and I scrape her floors!

[Kool]

Sorry, I'm pretty late on this thread. Don't you need to use a primer on concrete?

[cmont]

Yea to seal it, but that's after all of the carpet goop comes up off the floor. Which is how they got into the whole WD40 problem in the first place.

[Logo-Mechanix]

At work here we use rubbing alchol to dissolve the wd40 we use to clean excess acrylic paint off of engraved plates.

[Navian]

I think what Kool is talking about, is primering the floor before painting it. which you should always do, no matter what you are painting, you should always use a primer first.

It makes the paint stick easier to the surfaces, because the primer seals up the material surface, and gives the paint a good bonding surface. Where as just straight paint would most likely to just get soaked up in the material (think of corkboard, primer it the paint will stick, just paint it and you will waste alot of money on paint because the corkboard is a spongue.)

[cmont]

No i hear ya... thats pretty much what I was thinking too.

[Navian]

Just keeping ya on your toes.

[cmont]

lmao. I hear ya!

[PrintDriver]

I'm just thinking of the smell.
Gotta be pretty high by now.
Fans and ventilation...

[cornfed]

Yeah, we were pretty high on fumes last night! My friend is really sensitive to it so she was a lot higher than I was. :mad: We had the fans going and the windows up. She's gonna prime it before she paints it.