How to remove oil stains from a driveway

Soak it up before it sinks in. Cover the spill with cat litter, sawdust or an oil absorbent, grind it in with your shoe, leave it a few hours, then sweep it up. Follow with a concrete degreaser and a stiff brush, and rinse.

With a degreaser and patience. Wet the concrete, apply a degreaser made for concrete, let it sit the time on the label, scrub hard, and rinse. Old stains usually need two or three rounds, and the darkest ones may lighten rather than disappear.

Not on its own. Pressure washing takes off dirt, mildew and algae that sit on the surface, but oil is in the pores. It works as the rinse after a degreaser has loosened the oil, and the rest of the driveway comes up bright at the same time. That is part of our pressure cleaning.

Quickly and gently. The CMHA paver maintenance guide notes that oil should be treated as soon as possible, because it penetrates deeper the longer it sits, and that replacing a badly stained paver can be easier than cleaning it. Use a cleaner made for concrete pavers, test it somewhere hidden first, and refill the joint sand after washing; see how to clean pavers and pool decks.

On a fresh, light stain it can help soak some up, much like cat litter. It will not shift an old stain. A degreaser is what does that.

Fix the leak, and in the meantime put a drip pan or a mat under the car. Sealed concrete and sealed pavers resist stains better and clean up more easily. Clean drips the day they happen.