Whether you’re a grease monkey or not, oil stains can happen on your concrete driveway, garage concrete, or the like. Maybe a car leaks, or you spill something on the way to tend to your needy, fixer-upper lawnmower. They’re a lot more common of a hazard than you might think!

That being said, oil stains on your concrete driveway or garage floor sure are an aesthetic nuisance. Not only that, but they can ruin any new finishes or sealants you apply in good faith to your concrete, so it’s imperative you get rid of them before any recurring maintenance tasks come up.

Creative Concrete, a New Brighton local concrete company, has a handy how-to guide below.

Depending on how old the stain is, as well as it’s severity, you’ll need to go at the removal process a little differently. In an ideal world you’ll catch the oil stain while it’s fresh, which makes the cleanup process a little easier, but we know that real life isn’t always ideal. Luckily, there’s hope for old oil stains, too—so we’ll cover both.

Cleaning one often can be resolved with items you have around the house. After blotting away surface-level oil with a hand towel, you can go at it with a scrub brush and dish soap, baking soda, powdered laundry detergent, baby powder, chalk, or a variety of other drawing, stain-removing agents. A nice water rinse when you’ve finished should do the trick, though you might need to go at it quite a few times before things fully go back to normal.

While concrete is immeasurably hardy, be careful to do your research when using home-based materials, and as always, don’t mix cleaning supplies!

If the stain is a stubborn one or is otherwise nonresponsive to the above method, it’s time for stronger measures. Commercially sold concrete degreasers are useful here, as well as commercially sold “poultices” that draw out stains to eliminate them.

If the concrete stain hasn’t yet responded to the DIY methods described above, we recommend a trip to the store, despite what the various guides to resolving concrete stains online say. A specially-made product is likely to be able to handle the task it’s designed for—plus, making your own deep cleaner often involves mixing chemicals, something that can be very dangerous in the right circumstances.