Cooking oil on patio

[nuttybird]

My dad had a bit of an accident with a pan of cooking oil - basically he left the hob on and it caught fire.  Instead of throwing a damp cloth over the pan he caught hold of it and literally threw it outside the backdoor. Now though he has a patch of goo on the patio slabs where the oil landed.  We've tried boiling water, scrubbing it and also a power hose but with no luck.  Does anyone have any ideas what to use to get it off?  Looking forward to your answers! Thank you.

[banana]

I would try a strong detergent -either a solution of soap powder or better still a very strong washing Soda solution.

Failing both if those maybe an oven cleaner would work if left on .

In the event of the slabs still being gooey then the only recourse is to turn them over !

[lindapinda]

You could try scrubbing with fairy liquid neat.

[jean88]

By power hose do you mean a pressure washer like Karcher? Normally its quite good. I will buy a packet of cheap flour and pour over it, leave for a while and scrape it up. Than wash down with strong detergent.

[RevShirls]

I would suggest a strong solution of vinegar and warm water - even pouring neat vinegar over the greasy/gooey patch. Vinegar is fabulous for getting rid of any kind of grease and oily marks. It sounds like you may need a few bottles  of vinegar for this if it a big patch - but vinegar is quite cheap.

[RevShirls]

Meant to say that it is good to scrub the mark with a scrubbing brush dipped in the vinegar solution too as vinegar is brilliant at cutting through grease and oil and will really break up the mark should get rid of it.

I have been using vinegar for years for lots of things. It is really very useful. The following website (not my website, I might add) gives lots of tips about vinegar:

http://frugalliving.about.com/library/blvinegararch.htm

Tip number 64 relates a bit to oil and grease and indicates how effective it dealing with this.

[fibifooz]

Did you sort out your problem, because I have the same problem and have tried washing up liquid, cillit bang and scrubbing it and its still there?

[clairelb]

I have absolutely no idea if it's true, but I once heard that coca-cola removes engine oil from your driveway, so it might be worth trying for cooking oil.  Again, no idea if this would be any good by my mother in law has an immaculate garden, and she uses Jeyes Fluid for cleaning her patio and driveway.

[nuttybird]

Thank you so much to everyone for your replies.  I am going to arm myself with all you suggest and take a trip to my parents house this weekend to give it all a go!!  I will report back with the results.

[nuttybird]

THE COOKING OIL IS NOW OFF THE PATIO!!!!  We tried Jeyes - didn't work; vinegar - may have helped a bit; then Mr Muscle Oven Cleaner - this loosened it up and we finished it off with a wire brush attachment to an electric drill - et voila!!  Thanks to all previous suggestions.