How to remove oil stains from a driveway
Fresh oil lifts well: absorb the excess, treat with a proper degreaser, agitate and rinse. Old oil that has soaked deep into porous blocks will improve significantly but often shadows. The surface decides the method: degreaser on block and concrete, gentle treatment only on tarmac and resin.
Last updated: August 2026.
First: catch it fresh
The single biggest factor in oil stain removal is time. Fresh oil sits in the top of the surface where treatment can reach it; old oil migrates deep into porous material where nothing fully follows. If a car drops oil tonight, absorb it tomorrow morning: cat litter, sawdust or baking soda left on the stain for a few hours draws out the excess before any washing.
Block paving and concrete
These porous surfaces need a proper degreaser or poultice, not washing-up liquid, which disperses the oil rather than lifting it. The degreaser is worked in with a stiff brush, left to dwell, then rinsed at pressure. Fresh stains usually lift completely. Old stains, months or years in, will improve dramatically but often leave a faint shadow, because oil that has soaked centimetres into a block cannot all be drawn back out.
Tarmac: the careful exception
Oil dissolves bitumen, which is what tarmac is bound with. A heavy degreaser or aggressive scrubbing on tarmac softens and scars the surface along with the stain. The correct approach is a tarmac-safe treatment, gentle agitation and a low-pressure rinse, accepting that a long-standing oil patch on tarmac sometimes leaves the surface itself compromised. On small, badly affected patches, a tarmac repair compound after cleaning is sometimes the honest fix.
Resin-bound surfaces
Resin resists oil penetration better than block or concrete, so stains sit nearer the surface and respond well to mild degreaser and a gentle wash. The rule that governs all resin work applies: low pressure, fan jet, keep moving. Never attack an oil spot on resin with a concentrated lance.
What the DIY hacks actually do
Cola, WD-40 and washing-up liquid all do roughly the same thing: break the surface tension and disperse the oil, which lightens the stain and spreads it wider. On a small fresh spot that can pass; on anything established it makes a bigger, fainter patch. Biological washing powder paste works surprisingly well on concrete for light staining. Everything else is better left to a proper degreaser, and on a drive being professionally cleaned anyway, oil treatment added for £20 to £50 beats an afternoon of experimentation.