Lingering smell of oil after leak

R

rory

Guest
Hi,

The boiler in my house sprung a leak a while back and spewed a fair bit of kerosene on to the floor and surrounding wall. The boiler is in a press in the utility room. Although fully repaired now I'm left with a lingering smell that I can't shift no matter how much I ventilate the place.

The floor under the boiler is bare concrete and I suspect that some oil soaked into it and is now releasing the fumes. I wonder could I apply some form of sealant?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks,
Rory
 
as its only the soaked in residue left, perhaps you could burn it off with a blowtorch without too much risk of damage ?
 
Rory

I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that your Oil Delivery company will have a solution for this. I had a tank leak outdoors and as far as I remember the delivery company had some sort of cleaning agent for the kerosene......

P
 
Had the same problem in our house last year due to Oil leaking from an oil cooker onto concrete floor.
Oil had slowly leaked under lino for quite a while and left a stain on the concrete-there was also a smell of oil in the room.

The man who repaired the cooker recommended removing the oil stain/smell by the following simple method.

1 Get some fine sand or maybe salt (I used fine bagged builders sand)

2 Find a biscuit tin or sweet tin, should be some left over after Christmas (must be made from metal)

3 Fill the tin full of sand and put it in an Oven at "Gas Mark Hot" i.e. leave it to get very hot.

4 When the sand is very hot (couple of hours in my case in the aforementioned cooker - it really can't be too hot)
Carefully lift out the Tin (use oven gloves and tongs and maybe carry the tin on some sort of tray or piece of plywood)
and spread the sand on the oil stain. Leave for a couple of hours or in my case overnight.



The heat of the sand and its ability to absorb the oil will get rid of your stain/smell - it worked for me anyway

When sand is cold sweep it up and dispose of it.
If it doesn't clear totally the first time do it again.
 
you can get oil soak granules in motor factors they are not expensive your local garage could give you a handful, or car parks use it to soak up oil, cement is also very good a small bag from hardware maybe. I would leave it for as many days as possible. You could then seal the floor with polybond or cement floor paint available in red or grey.
Roger
 
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