Cleaning up grease spills either at home or in a restaurant kitchen is a mess no one wants to deal with. Of course, you can’t easily wipe off the spill with water and a rag.
As we all know, water and oil don’t go together, so you will end up spreading the other areas, which could easily result in a fall/accident.
This post is primarily concerned with how to clean up grease spill on floor. The best way to clean up grease spills is to use a degreaser. Alternatively, you can use an old rag to soak up the oil, then use absorbent materials like baking soda, salt, starch, kitty litter to soak up the residues then wipe them off.
This post will highlight safe ways to clean up grease spills on the floor.
Read: How to remove grease stain from carpet
How To Clean Up Grease Spill on Floor
Table of Contents
As mentioned earlier, the best way to deal with grease spills is to use a degreaser. But a degreaser might not be available at all times in your home. Follow the steps below to clean up grease spills on the floor:
1. Ensure Your Safety First
Safety should come first before any other step. Assuming the grease spill resulted from droplets from a skimmer or cooking spoon. The oil will be too hot to clean immediately. You will have to wait for the spill to cool down before cleaning.
If a bottle of oil mistakenly drops from your hand, that means you are dealing with broken glass all over the floor. So, first thing first, remove the glass for a safe and effective cleaning process.
Wear safety wears like thick shoes and garden gloves, then use a tong to pick up the large pieces of glass. For smaller pieces of glasses that can’t be picked up with the tong, dampen a paper towel or a piece of bread and carefully press it down.
Once the glass comes in contact with it will immediately stick onto the surface. Carefully wrap the glass in a newspaper and dispose of it.
2. Use Absorbent Materials
Once your safety is assured, use an old rag to soak up the grease, then sprinkle absorbent materials like baking soda, salt, starch, kitty litter over the affected area. Leave it for at least an hour to effectively soak up all stains.
3. Clean Off the Residues
Once you are certain that the absorbent material has soaked up all the oil, use a dustpan, a spatula, or even a simple spoon to remove the mixture from the floor.
5. Wash Off the Stain
The chances are that the grease spill probably left a little stain on the floor. You can easily use soap or detergent combined with warm water to scrub it out at this stage.
6. Vacuum the Surface
Suppose it’s a case of a bottle of oil mistakenly dropping from your hand. In that case, you should vacuum the surface after the floor has dried clean to ensure no glass or material is left behind.
Read: How to clean grease off hardwood floor
Dealing With Stubborn Oil Stains
The steps highlighted above should be sufficient to deal with grease spills, especially if you began treating the oil spill immediately it happened.
However, suppose you still get an ugly stain after following the procedure above. In that case, you can clean it off using the following method below:
1. heat a cup of water in a pan. don’t allow the water to boil, just a bit hot (you don’t want to melt the container you will use to store it)
2. Add caustic soda in the water once it cools down a little, then transfer it to a spray bottle
3. Sprinkle over the stain repeatedly.
4. Give it at least some minutes to soak up
5. Finally, rinse water. Repeat the process if you still have stains on the floor.
Read: How to clean oil off garage floor
How to Clean Up Grease Spill from Carpet
The process involved in cleaning up grease from floors is monumentally different from cleaning spills from the carpet. If you accidentally spilled vegetable or other cooking oil on your carpet, follow the steps below to get your carpet to its normal state:
1. Blot the oil with a clean towel until the towel no longer picks up any oil. If the towel is completely soaked, change to another towel.
2. Blot the affected area with rubbing alcohol and a clean towel (don’t use the first towel you used in soaking up the oil). Take care not to rub the stain into the carpet.
3. Next, combine about 1 quart of water with a 1/4 teaspoon of dishwashing soap, pour it onto the stain, and blot with a towel until the entire oil stain has been lifted.
4. Ventilate the room to allow the carpet to dry or to speed up the process, move a hairdryer over the affected area.
Read: How to clean grease from kitchen floor
Conclusion
Summarily, how to clean up grease spill on floor is not such a tedious process. If you don’t have a degreaser, the use of absorbent materials like baking soda, salt, starch, kitty litter, and even flour should be sufficient in getting rid of the grease spill. The trick is to clean up the spill immediately it happens, provided it is safe to do so.
