Grease Stain Removal Guide
Removing Motor Oil And Grease

Grease stain removal is something you will need to know about, whether your job is a mechanic, or you just peer under your car's engine or tinker with small appliances in your home.

Many household objects and our cars all have grease and oil on them which can get on our hands, clothes, upholstery and carpet if we are not careful.

When that happens it seems the stain will just continue to spread if you aren't careful, so the sooner you deal with it the better.

Below are instructions for removing grease stains from your clothing, upholstery and carpet so you can get back to tinkering with your cars, or just the rest of your life without having to deal with these stains.

Grease Stain Removal From Fabric And Clothing

Step 1: Pretreat the stain with a laundry prewash stain remover.

Hint: Some of these laundry stain removers work better than others. The one lots of readers have suggested specifically for these spots (including by loved ones of mechanics) is Lestoil cleaner (click the link for reader reviews and experiences).

Step 2: Launder in the hottest water allowed for the fabric to thoroughly remove the stain and the oil or grease.

Hint: Make sure the stain is gone after washing, but before you place in the dryer or you may set the stain. Repeat if necessary.

If you'd like to use a home remedy, I've collected several suggestions from readers about removing these stains from clothes here.

How To Remove Grease Stains From Upholstery

Step 1: Scrape up as much of the motor oil or grease as possible from the upholstery without spreading the stain further.

Step 2: Place an absorbent, such as cornstarch or baking soda, onto the spot, and let it soak in for approximately 15 minutes.

Step 3: Scrape or vacuum up the absorbent, which has absorbed some of the grease and oil.

Hint: Depending on the amount of the grease or oil on the upholstery you may need to repeat this step several times until no more is absorbed by the baking soda or corn starch.

Step 4: For the stains still remaining take a clean white cloth and sponge the stain with a dry cleaning solvent.

Hint: First, be sure to test this solvent on an inconspicuous area of the upholstery to make sure it is safe.

Step 5: Next, blot at the stain until the solvent is absorbed.

Step 6: Repeat steps 4-5 until the stains are removed from the upholstery.

Hint: Be sure to get the upholstery only as wet as necessary to remove the spots.

You can get more information on how to clean upholstery here.

Grease Removal Stain Tips For Carpet

The instructions for grease stain removal from carpet is the same as for upholstery.

However, if you don't have luck with the method above you can do something additional with the carpet stain.

You can mix a solution of two cups warm water, one tablespoon dishwashing liquid, and one tablespoon of white vinegar together, and using this solution, sponge the stain with a clean white cloth, blotting at the stain until the liquid is absorbed, and the stain removed.

Once the stain from the grease and oil is removed from the carpet use plain cold water and a new white cloth and sponge the area to remove the cleaning solution, and then blot dry.

In addition, a home remedy you can try is to remove grease from carpet with shaving cream. Click the link to find out more about this method, including a video demonstration.

Removing Grease Stains From Your Hands

If you've ever worked on a car, or even tinkered with a small appliance, you have likely gotten some grease and oil on your hands.

Soap and water doesn't remove this stain very well, especially around your fingernails.

What will work for grease stain removal from your hands is mineral spirits.

Hint: After you get the grease off your hands with the mineral spirits wash your hands with soap and water to get off the mineral spirits, because you don't want it to stay on your hands too long.

There are also a lot of hand cleaners on the market, which are designed specifically for removing these types of mechanical oil and grease from your skin.

Removing Motor Oil And Grease From Concrete And Garage Floors

It is very common for oil and grease to get on your driveway, or your garage floor.

It can happen if your car leaks a bit of oil, and it will leave an unsightly stain and it can also be slick, making it dangerous to walk in the area.

I've collected a number of tips and tricks for you to use when cleaning up these drips and spills. You can read tips for removing oil stains from concrete and driveways here, including watching several videos on the subject.

Submit Your Own Stain Removal Tip For Grease

Do you have your own stain removal tip for removing grease stains? If so, submit your tip here, or read other tips already submitted.

There are also quite a few grease stain remover recommendations on the page, such as Lestoil mentioned above, but in addition things like WD-40, Fels-Naptha, more laundry products, and even odder things like Coca-Cola.

Further, check out these cleaner degreaser reviews here.

Get Even More Stain And Spot Removal Help Here

Are you a stain magnet like me? If so, check out the A to Z Stain Removal Guide which gives directions for how to remove over 100 types of stains from all kinds of surfaces.

In addition, here are some other stain removal guide pages you may need, since you needed this one!

Related Pages You May Enjoy

Soot Stain Removal

Cleaner Degreaser Reviews

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CAUTION: This website is provided for informational purposes only. It is provided as is, without warranties or guarantees. Some stains and messes just won't come out, and are permanent. Further, some cleaning methods can harm your item, so if what you want to clean or launder is sentimental or expensive call a professional. See disclaimer of liability for more information.