Getting (fish) odor out of cement

Jul 06, 2006 9 Replies

I have a freezer in the garage where I had several ziplock bags of fish filled with water & frozen. I left for the 4 day holiday, and apparently, I failed to close the freezer door, leaving it open.



Over the 4 days, the bags melted in the heat, and "fish water" ran down the refridgerator, and had formed a puddle in the concrete around the fridge.



I have used bleach & water, and tried powerwashing the concrete. The smell is reduced quite a bit, but still noticeable.



Is there anything more which can be done?


Have you tried strong detergent? I'm guessing the fish smell is probably oil-based, and good strong dish soap (maybe straight dawn?) or some kind of citrus degreaser might help. If household-grade stuff doesn't work, see if your janitor at work has anything stronger. Just guessing here - believe it or not, I've never tried to get a fish smell out of concrete. Good luck, Andy

go to a pet supply store and get a gallon of enzyme stain remover like that to remove cat piss smell from carpet. make sure you get rid of all the bleach residue first. May take two applications, read label.

lee h

The amines (chemicals) responsible for the fish odor are organic "bases". So, an acid will neutralize them.

That's why finger bowls at fancy dinners always had a slice of lemon. Then people found they could tolerate old fish by applying lemon juice. Now, many just like the taste of lemon on fish.

Yep, stop sniffing your cement. Get yourself a scratch and sniff instead.... The smell will leave on it's own as long as you stop calling the fish spirits into your nostrils....

did you ever resolve? We had a similar issue after installing a gorilla garage floor??? UG! Need help

replying to aenewhouse, Carol Barnes wrote: So, if you haven't experienced this, your just guessing, right?

replying to daddyfish24, Carol Barnes wrote: I didnot resolve the issue.

I have a lot of experience with this. People dump their "fishy" coolers and chum on the concrete at our boat ramp from time to time. What I can say is 12 years later the fish smell will certainly be gone.

replying to gfretwell, Toshi wrote: Carol, what did you use to get the fish smell out? I spilled some on my garage floor and bleach didn’t seem to help. Thanks!

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