Concrete cleaning

[Bob Impact]

So apparently the guy who owned this house before me had a deep seated religious belief that revolved around making his garage floor as filthy as possible because it's unbelievable, like the house itself is absolutely spotless but it looks like he literally dumped quarts of oil all over the floor. He also apparently liked gum but really didn't like spitting it into a wrapper because that's all over the floor too. But I digress. For the past couple of nights I've taken everything I can to this god damned floor with some success, I've went through concrete cleaner to degreaser to Trisodium phosphate (both the substitutes, which SUCK and the real deal), Kerosene, Xylene and now Acetone to clean this crap off. The only things that work are Kerosene, Xylene and Acetone with varying degrees of success. All of this is getting scrubbed in and removed with a 2,000 PSI pressure washer. So what the shit can I do to get this floor reasonably clean? Also, how clean does this floor need to be to be painted with an epoxy paint?

tl;dr version: I need really aggressive concrete cleaning methods.

[CHUCKWAGONCOOK]

Have you tried using a "Mexican"? I hear they do a pretty good job. And cheap to boot!!!

[torker]

AIRTEC ES 200 -
Light weight, handy scarifier
for small to medium surface areas.
For milling concrete, scabbling and planing. For removing thermoplastics / cold plastics on asphalt and concrete.
For descaling, stripping off paint and grooving on light surfaces.
For general cleaning, derusting, stripping of grease and removing of carpet and tile adhesives.

http://www.floorpreparationmachines.com/media/images/products/img_es_200.jpg

[Crash]

http://www.prosoco.com/ProductDetail.asp?ID={0A8009D3-C299-4C47-B095-6CBF42E62534}

Never used it myself, but Prosoco has a good reputation in the construction industry.

[weekapaugjz]

The blood of a sacrificed lamb.

[Crash]

The blood of a sacrificed lamb.

Or this.

[torker]

Your wife should do it. If she knows what's good for her.:wink:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_tphMnL4vxbs/SGfMoYxL7WI/AAAAAAAAAPY/NbKrsHH9iks/s320/mopping_woman.jpg

[Tallman388]

Also, how clean does this floor need to be to be painted with an epoxy paint?

It doesn't have to be spotless, but it needs to be pretty clean (dirt and dust free) for it to look right. My garage had epoxy paint on a floor that wasn't cleaned very well before painting and you can pretty much peel off large chunks of the paint at will. If the previous owner had taken the time to clean the floor well enough, it would look really good now.

[sarsbusdriver]

Try Kruger Industrial Smoothing. Great company.

[TripleSkeet]

Just paint over it.

[CofyCrakCocaine]

flame-trower.

[monkfish]

Did you try muriatic acid - it's nasty stuff, but works really well at cleaning/etching concrete.

Read the instructions very well before using it.

[Bob Impact]

Did you try muriatic acid - it's nasty stuff, but works really well at cleaning/etching concrete.

Read the instructions very well before using it.
Yeah, I was trying to hold on muriatic (which is a really just Hydrocloric acid cut with some water) until I was ready to etch but it looks like that may be my best shot. As it stands now I'm getting there with a combination of acetone, brake parts cleaner and the pressure washer, then i'll do one final scrub with Citric acid and just etch it and hope for the best next weekend. In the meantime I can stick myself out there a for an hour a night attacking the nastier stains.