Diesel Cleanup

[phreaqe]

I have a question that hopefully the Garage can help with.

At my work we have a room that was previously used to store diesel fuel for the server room generator. it is now empty and has been for a few years. We would like to use the room as it is basically in our server room and is wasted space right now. However it has a very strong diesel smell. I assume that there has been spills over the years and it has seeped into the concrete. i have heard of Enzymes that eat diesel to remove it but i have not really found a product for it. What is the best way for us to get the diesel smell out of the room and make it so we can go in there without having to breath that?

 

[LTC8K6]

http://www.odorxit.com/?homenew

http://www.odoban.com/products.php

Odoban will kill just about any stink.

 

[SyndromeOCZ]

diesel will soak into the concrete pretty deep. sometimes the best/only way to get it out is to get a commercial concrete grinder and take the floor down some.

 

[Ferzerp]

Are there any sealants that would just seal it in? I'm not sure that the diesel is going to compromise the concrete in any way, but if it would, my suggestion is obviously not a good idea.

 

[SyndromeOCZ]

As a floor coating professional. the diesel most certainly will compromise any sort of sealant sticking to it. I generally do epoxy floor coatings in doors, and they will lift right off in a large sheet if you don't get that diesel concrete off of the surface.

Some concrete finishers will spray diesel on their slab on the last step of finishing it, this allows their power trowels go glide over the surface much better and make their work easier. But if someone ever wants to coat that floor they will have to grind the top layer off of the concrete to get their coating to properly adhere to the concrete.

 

[SabaII]

Has the bacteria grown at all? Is it black and smell real funky? Once you clean it up the smell should not be an issue unless it is basically molding from bacteria growth. In which case I would get that cleaned up asap and then see if there is still a stink. It should really only be a stain if cleaned properly but maybe I am used to the smell as I worked in a truck shop. If it is black they make a product that you generally use to kill the bacteria in fuel in trucks ect. called Kill'em. But like I said idk if that is your problem or if it really is the diesel itself causing the stink. But I have never ran in to it where the diesel/petroleum product has cause a smell just a stain at worst.

 

[phreaqe]

Thanks for the posts everyone.
LTC8K6 - I will look into those. If we can get the odor removed that is really the biggest problem as i don't believe we are going to seal it, we just want to put some shelving in to store stuff.

SabaII - i just Google for the kill'em stuff and i don't think that's quite what i am looking for but thank you for the information. as far as the mold and stuff i dont really have an answer because i have not actually been in the room, i have only smelled it when someone else opened the door at one point. i will try to get the keys and take a trip to that building today so i can have a better understanding of what i am looking at here.