Degreaser

Picture a car that leaves a small puddle of motor oil on a concrete paver driveway overnight.

ICPI's first step for oil that has soaked into a concrete paver is not a cleaner at all. The excess comes up with rags, and an oil absorbent such as kitty litter goes on the spot for a day before it is swept away.

Any oil still in the paver after that is a job for a cleaner, and a degreaser is the kind of cleaner that dissolves oil so it can be rinsed away. ICPI's advice is to use cleaners "specifically made to remove stains that commonly occur on concrete pavers." Whether a penetrated stain comes out fully, and ICPI's other remedies, are answered under can paver cleaning remove oil stains.

Techniseal's product guide never prints the word degreaser; the names on its grease products say what they do instead.

Its Professional-Grade Oil & Grease Remover, in the guide's words, "removes penetrated petroleum-based products" and is "ideal for older, penetrated stains." Its Dirt & Grease Cleaner "removes motor oil and grease," "dissolves, dislodges and encapsulates grease" and is "ideal for sealed surfaces and fresh stains." Those lines are a manufacturer describing its own products, and the label on each one sets how it is used.

The Natural Stone Institute, writing about natural stone, arrives at the same meaning: "An oil-based stain will darken the stone and normally must be chemically dissolved so the source of the stain can be flushed or rinsed away." Dissolving is the part a degreaser does, and rinsing is the part water does.

Oil is one stain among several on a driveway; the dirt, grime, algae, mold and tough stains a full cleaning takes off are laid out under what a paver cleaning removes.

Degreaser is trade usage, and the paver industry's own cleaning guide does not print it.

ICPI Tech Spec 5 describes the chemistry of paver cleaners in other terms: its protective gear sentence names "acid or alkalies," and it says many cleaners effective on dirt and efflorescence are a mix of detergent and acid. The phrase alkaline degreaser appears nowhere in it, so a product that calls itself one is using a market name, not an ICPI class. Those classes, and why ICPI specifies buffered cleaners, are explained under why a paver cleaning means chemistry.

ICPI's instruction for every stain remover and cleaner is that "the label directions and warnings should be read and carefully followed for all precautions," and the label, not a trade word on the front of the container, is the place to look for what a particular product is meant to do and which surfaces it suits.

A cleaner comes before a sealer in Techniseal's guide, which says to always use one rather than a water jet alone; the rest of that order is covered under sealing a driveway without cleaning it first. A degreaser is aimed at oil and grease, and chlorinated pool water on a paver deck is a separate chemistry question, taken up under whether pool chemicals damage pavers or sealer.