My friend has a block paved drive (the reddish interlocking blocks) and his son's car has had a oil leak which has soaked into the blocks over a period of years, he has tried all the normal cleaners but with no success.
As his son has got rid of the leaky car he wants to get the oily blocks cleaned, does anyone know of something else he could try (not an angle grinder).
Form a well or dam around the area out of putty/plasticine & fill with hot biological washing liquid solution.
Or lift them & turn them over/replace.
Lifting the stained blocks and swapping them to a less visible corner or edge might be the easiest solution. I can't imagine anything removing oil which has been soaked in for that long.
While the individual blocks are out, he could try dunking them in a bucket of white spirit and having a scrub at them. Might remove the surface staining.
"Gunk" used to be the only thing that worked. Sold by Halfords amongst other places.
Realistically there isn't much that will get it off - especially the black gunge iron oxide in it out of the engine. You could try soaking them in paraffin for a week or three but I doubt if it will work.
They will fade gradually with time over a few decades or so...
Best bet is buy some new matching blocks or turn the old ones over. It is a lot easier to clean a bit of soil off them than oil stains!
That might work. I found that oil stains on our concrete disappeared after having neat washing up liquid applied and worked in a little with an old tooth brush then simply left for the rain to wash away.
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