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Oily residue on garage floor

by jerry coleman
(kansas city , mo)

Q. I had a concrete floor poured in my garage last august and now my floor always has an oily residue coming up through the floor. Makes the floor always slippery. what causes this and how can the problem be fixed?

A. I've never heard of something oily coming up through the surface. It sounds like the floor is sweating but that wouldn't feel oily. There may be a problem with the sealer. My suggestion would be to strip the sealer in a small area and see what happens there after a few days. If that spot stays dry or looses that oilyness, then you'll know it's the sealer. If that's the case then you need to strip the sealer and seal it again with a quality sealer. If the spot gets oily again then there is something coming through the concrete. In that case, a penetrating sealer would probably solve your problem. A penetrating sealer seeps into the pores and reacts with free lime to form a gel like substance. This substance eventually hardens and fills in the pores, thus preventing anything from passing through. You'll have to go to a concrete/masonry supply store to find a penetrating sealer.

Before applying the penetrating sealer you need to remove any previous sealer.