# How To Disolve Beeswax Off of Concrete Floor



## John Gesner (Dec 17, 2005)

I'm going to epoxy paint my honey house floor, something I should have done before now. :doh: I just got done etching the concrete, but that didn't remove some of the wax spots. I'm concerned that the paint won't adhere properly if there's any wax residue, but I'm not sure how to get the wax off. I've scraped as much as I can, but there's still some there.

Suggestions?


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## Fuzzy (Aug 4, 2005)

grinder, sandblaster


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## NeilV (Nov 18, 2006)

Flamethrower.


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## Beeslave (Feb 6, 2009)

steam cleaner


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## sqkcrk (Dec 10, 2005)

Good luck. That spot is already sealed. And probably better than anything else you could use.

Hey, there's an idea. Wax coat your floor. Why not? It'll last forever. I'd bet.


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## John Gesner (Dec 17, 2005)

Well.... Looks like I finally found a use for this emoticon:

:ws

Seriously, tho. If there's some way to salvage the floor, I'd like to know. There's two years worth of spots here and there over a 12 x 18 floor.


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## Barry (Dec 28, 1999)

Take a propane torch or heat gun and heat the spots, then use paper towels to soak up any residue. Any residue left beyond that, it will be near impossible to remove it. Just like tile adhesive cutback, you can't remove it from concrete, so you end up having to prime it and pour a cement leveler over it.


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## SiD (Jun 22, 2010)

Did you use a strong acid mix when you etched?

You may consider a set of stones, but take care not to get too deep into the aggregate, and feather to avoid obvious depressions.


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## Rick 1456 (Jun 22, 2010)

Get of the stuff they use to get gum off sidewalks...It's in a spray can and it freezes it.(get a Co2 fire extinguisher) Freeze the wax, be brittle, and then stiff brush it. If that doesn't do it,,,,,,I think you're screwed

Hope it works

rick SoMd


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## wolfpenfarm (Jan 13, 2009)

I think Lye water would dissolve it. It dissolves petroleum gunk and buildup along with wax, so it should dissolve the bees wax also.


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## John Gesner (Dec 17, 2005)

Unfortunately, it gets really warm in the honey house and the bits of wax have partly melted on the floor. So I don't think the freezing technique would work.

I used the muratic acid as specified on the bottle. One pint to one gallon water. I may try etching a second time. I also might try using an ammonia solution on the wax, which seems to work in getting propolis off my hive tool. Gonna call the paint shop and see how much the epoxy paint will be affected by the spots of wax.

Again, this emoticon just keeps catching my eye...

:ws :doh:

You all are being really helpful, and I do appreciate the input.


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## Deeptime (Jul 21, 2009)

I'd be very careful about using a propane torch for anything more than a few seconds. You can blast a chip of concrete through a window pane if you overheat.:no:


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## StikyBoots (May 11, 2010)

I would recommend using a test piece of concrete with the wax removed in different ways and paint the floor coating on it. Then after it has set try scraping it off to see how well the new floor paint bonded to the waxed concrete. If it is a two part mixture just mix up a small sample of it using the ratio. Also, the manufacturer may have some recommendations. 

I would be very careful with using a torch on the concrete. The aggregate and cement mixtures have differing coefficients of expansion and the aggregate will pop leaving a crater in the floor. Also, if concrete has water trapped into its chemical structure and when that is driven out it turns to powder easier.


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## pcord (May 14, 2009)

Can you gouge out the areas that are contaminated and re-fill with clean concrete?


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## MapMan (May 24, 2007)

I'm with Barry on this one - use heat to melt the wax, and then sop up the residuals with kraft paper. I've used this technique often to get wax (from beeswax candles) from cassocks. With the dense, porous nature of concrete, you're going to have residual. Use an iron to avoid damaging the concrete. We place the iron over the Kraft paper, which is on the surface (clothing) needing wax removal. Works for clothing, worth a try on concrete.

Another product to check is to go to an art/drafting supply company and ask for a solvent to remove grease pencil markings off of chromaline (plastic) drawing sheets. Works for waxed-based products. Also, citrus-type cleaners will remove some waxes.

MM


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## garprob (Jan 20, 2009)

My kids once dumped a bunch of candle wax down the bathroom sink and sealed it off completely. I went to the hardware store and got some concentrated sulfuric acid industrial drain cleaner. It dissolved the wax in seconds. I imagine it would work well on beeswax as well.


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## Roland (Dec 14, 2008)

I vote with the wolfman, Sodium Hydroxide(lye) will saponify the wax. I would highly recommend NOT using heat. I had some concrete blow up on me when the moisture in it turned to steam. OK, gentle warm might be alright..

Roland


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## beekeeper_sd (Oct 30, 2008)

we wash our flours with a combination of water, bleach and TSP (which you can get at most lumber yards), scrubbing with a brush on broom handle or a good stiff push broom. Works very well. Every place there is beeswax on the floor the TSP will turn it bright yellow.


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## John Gesner (Dec 17, 2005)

beekeeper_sd said:


> we wash our flours with a combination of water, bleach and TSP (which you can get at most lumber yards), scrubbing with a brush on broom handle or a good stiff push broom. Works very well. Every place there is beeswax on the floor the TSP will turn it bright yellow.


TSP? And does it just turn it yellow or disolve it?

I'm also curious about lye, but I'm not sure where to get that and if it will damage the concrete....


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## John Gesner (Dec 17, 2005)

Roland said:


> I vote with the wolfman, Sodium Hydroxide(lye) will saponify the wax. I would highly recommend NOT using heat. I had some concrete blow up on me when the moisture in it turned to steam. OK, gentle warm might be alright..
> 
> Roland


Ok... Had to look that one up. Saponify, basically turn it to soap. And then scrubbing with the acid brush will release it so I can rinse it away?

Again, where do you buy lye?


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## MapMan (May 24, 2007)

>>Again, where do you buy lye?<<

One used to be able to find it in the household cleaning department of most stores, but now it is tough to find because of the crackdown on manufacturing chemicals/raw materials for meth production. I haven't checked my neighborhood Ma and Pa hardware store lately, but it used to carry the Red Devil brand. Otherwise check on soap making internet sites for possible locations to purchase.

MM


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## schmism (Feb 7, 2009)

weedburner. go light they put out some heat.... melt/burn it off easly then follow up with detergent wash.


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## pbuhler (May 31, 2009)

Hi: I'd recommend the lye. It can be bought by us from Wal-Mart as drain cleaner in cans. Concrete is a basic mixture, and compatible with lye. Using an acid will eat into the "cream" layer of the concrete with a bit of fizzing as the two compounds react, and in my opinion will not help break down the wax so that it can be removed. Remember to add the lye to water not the water to lye. I'd start with a cup of water and add some lye to it stirring with a stick - it may look "syrupy" which means that it is pretty strong. Use it carefully and if it looks like a weaker solution will work, go for that.

As already said, the lye will help the wax turn to soap which can be scrub brushed off, flushed, squeegeed, and shop vacuumed or wiped up. Using the iron and towel method in advance of the lye may get the bulk of it making the second step easier/quicker. You'll have to judge the texture of your floor; the heat may just drive the wax deeper into the surface making it harder to scrub off.

When working with the lye, wear sturdy rubber gloves and preferably a face shield to protect your skin/eyes in case of a splash. Have plenty of water available to dilute, and a bottle of vinegar nearby could be useful as a neutralizer if you get too much on your skin.

Good luck. This has worked for me, but your floor may be different. What have you got to lose? The lye is cheap, and appropriate care is not that hard to achieve. Paul


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## beekeeper_sd (Oct 30, 2008)

John Gesner said:


> TSP? And does it just turn it yellow or disolve it?
> 
> I'm also curious about lye, but I'm not sure where to get that and if it will damage the concrete....


It will disolve the wax if not too thick. But, at the same time, where it turns the wax yellow you can also see where the wax is if you need to scrape some more. 

I personally wouldn't recommend lye. I make soap and have spilled lye water on my front step and I think, in time, it will destroy the concrete in that spot. 

Besides, do you really want to wade around in lye water to clean your floors? Lye water is VERY caustic and can burn you very badly, not too mention the fumes! Get a whif of lye water once and you'll see what I'm talking about. This is not the kind of stuff you want to mess around with!


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## HVH (Feb 20, 2008)

Other options - xylene or methylene chloride (Furniture Stripper).


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## My-smokepole (Apr 14, 2008)

As a painting contractor If you can find someone that rents floor grinders and regrind the floor. Check with the main Sherwin William store contractor one. In floor prep the poorest to the best floor prep goes like this Acid grinding shoot blasting. 
David


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## timothyvanwing (Apr 28, 2010)

We recently repainted our garage floor. I went through 3 dissolving solvents before I found this one. http://www.lmcc.com/products/citrex.asp 
It's called CITREX. And it literally dissolves anything. Look at the info and what it's used for. believe me, this will work.


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## pbuhler (May 31, 2009)

> I personally wouldn't recommend lye. I make soap and have spilled lye water on my front step and I think, in time, it will destroy the concrete in that spot.
> 
> Besides, do you really want to wade around in lye water to clean your floors? Lye water is VERY caustic and can burn you very badly, not too mention the fumes! Get a whif of lye water once and you'll see what I'm talking about. This is not the kind of stuff you want to mess around with!


The concentration of caustic soda that you need to make soap is much greater than what you need to remove a film of wax. I think that using drain cleaner you're in the 3 - 10 % range so not as noxious or dangerous - still recommend face shield and gloves; SD is correct, strong solutions will be noticed, but if concerned, a vinegar final wash will neutralize the caustic and a water rinse and dry will prepare for paint. BTW, NaOh crystals may be available through a pharmacy or chemical supply source. Drain cleaner may be KOH (Potasium Hydroxide) which works too. Lab grade NaOh is just more expensive and allows you to control the mixing concentration better/easier.
The citrus cleaner has piqued my interest - smells nice and may be less of a hassle. Good luck. Paul


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## beekeeper_sd (Oct 30, 2008)

Probably true that the mix for soap is much stronger but you are still going to get dangerous gas coming off the lye water. I use lye for my kitchen drains when they plug up but, again, gas. I'm just thinking the amount of lye water you would need to clean a floor is going to be pretty noxious. There are much safer cleaner.


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## timothyvanwing (Apr 28, 2010)

Just thought I'd let you know: Citrex is resold as a wax remover for body boards, surf boards, and skimboards...etc. Get a quart of it from somewhere, but I'm telling you it doesn't burn (atleast when i've used it). This is the best dissolver stuff i've used..ever.


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

Mineral Spirits (distilled turpentine) will dissolve wax. I use it to clean up wax or to make wax furniture polish as it breaks down the was and mixes with it nicely. I've recommended it to others in here for cleaning wax on concrete floors and was told it worked wonderfully.


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## John Gesner (Dec 17, 2005)

When I googled "how to remove wax from concrete", I got a hit on mineral spirits. But I was discounting it because the hit revealed it was used with parafin, a petroleum based wax. I wasn't sure about beeswax, but I may still try it.

The citrex has my curiousity.

Also, the paint store where I got my product recommends TSP, which I now know is tri-sodium phosphate. They sell it in powered form and you mix up what you need.

This all being said, I'll forge ahead Saturday. I've got extracting customers lining up now and I've GOT to get my new spinner set up and finish plumbing in the sink. Projects WAY overdue...


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## beekeeper_sd (Oct 30, 2008)

John Gesner said:


> Also, the paint store where I got my product recommends TSP, which I now know is tri-sodium phosphate. They sell it in powered form and you mix up what you need.
> 
> (


 Told you so!!!  (just kidding)


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## John Gesner (Dec 17, 2005)

Yup, you did!


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## Chick (May 21, 2009)

A propane torch should do it. Don't leave the torch on too long, or the concrete will start to chip off and fly.


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## pbuhler (May 31, 2009)

Found this looking for preparation for acetone staining

"Often, surfaces inside an existing house will have dry wall mud, paint, wood stains, tile adhesives, carpet adhesives, grease, pet stains, etc. on the concrete. Areas where debris remains on the surface may prevent the dye from adhering properly leaving color imperfections on the floor. Use Bean-ee-Do, for removing carpet or tile adhesive and Soy Gel Professional Paint Stripper to remove epoxy, sealers, varnish or paint stains. For more information on these and other concrete cleaners, visit www.directcolors.com. Soap and water or an orange degreaser can be used to remove stubborn dirt or similar stains from your slab. Using an organic degreaser (such as DCI Orange, Simple Green, etc) at a medium concentration, scrub the surface thoroughly with a nylon brush and rinse with clear water. A fine sanding pad on a floor buffer can even the surface and re-open the pores of a distressed concrete. For an interior project where water run off is not possible, use a shop vacuum, mop and/or squeegee to contain the water and aid in drying. The floor should be completely dry before beginning the coloring process. DCI Concrete Dye will cover up some minor imperfections, but to insure a consistent color, you will want your surface as clean as possible. If you desire a more even finish or are unable to clean your floor to a staining level or have loose, exposed aggregate, you should consider using an overlay to resurface your floor. An overlay can be colored using several different methods, including concrete acid stain, concrete dye, pigment or antique release.

***Be sure all soap and cleanser residue is removed from concrete before dying the surface, and make sure your surface is adequately dried.***

We'll all be experts with our collective finds.


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## beekeeper_sd (Oct 30, 2008)

John Gesner said:


> Yup, you did!


Just so someone acknowledges it! ha


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## Countryboy (Feb 15, 2009)

The vinyl tile floors get a wax coating applied to them. They make strippers that eat the old wax coating, so you can apply a new wax coating. I would think the wax strippers for vinyl tile floors would strip bees wax as well.

Wax is non-polar, so it won't dissolve with a water (polar) solution. You need a solvent like gasoline or lighter fluid or mineral spirits.

Where is Gene Weitzel when you need him? He has a chemistry background.


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## John Gesner (Dec 17, 2005)

Well, I probably should have taken pictures before and after, but I didn't. I did, however, want to get back on here and let you all know what happened. I know some of you have long since passed out from holding your breath... 

I used TSP. It worked, fairly well, but I had to treat using about twice the recommended mixture. I also found out that it was better to keep the floor flooded with the mixture so that any wax was in contact with fresh solution. Seems that once the wax dissolves, the strength of the TSP solution is degraded pretty quickly.

Nice thing about using the TSP, where ever there were spots of wax, the solution turned bright yellow. It was easy to see trouble areas that needed more work, and after two years of extracting there were quite a few areas...

All in all, it took me about a week until I was happy with the result. In between treatments, I was rinsing the floor with the garden hose, using a squeegee and drying with fans. I also used my pole sander with 90 grit and touched up areas that looked the worst. I treated one final time with muratic acid. Some areas where there had been waxed were not affected by the first etching, so I etched one last time to even everything out.

The two part epoxy paint I used went on pretty nicely. Worst part was having enough ventillation without every moth and mosquitto in the neighborhood sticking on the floor. I applied two coats and it looks really nice. Cleans up so much easier and five gallon buckets of honey slide around nicely.

WORD OF WARNING: Honey, coupled with a little water, on a finished floor, is - how do I say this? Slicker than snot on a brass doorknob. Olympic figure skaters would have a hard time with their footing. I had a bucket overflow on me and about two gallons of honey had to be cleaned up. With boots on I could stand in one place and gently slide around. Going barefoot was an interesting experiment - felt really nice but didn't help with sliding. 

Thanks for everyone's input!


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## Cactii (Sep 5, 2009)

I'm not sure if this will work... but it's worth a shot because any wax will screw up your paint.

Take a brown paper bag and lie it flat over the areas where you want to remove the wax. Turn a clothes iron on the highest setting and iron the brown paper into the wax, it should be attracted to the heat and get sucked up into the brown paper.

Without removing the paper light fire to it - the brown paper should act like a candle wick and with the wax into the paper as it's burning.

To check to see if you've got all the wax out you should use a little bit of water on the area - if it balls up and doesn't soak in you still have wax.

If the brown paper fails to get out all the wax use some lighter fluid on the stains. Make a nice puddle of fluid over the wax stain and light it on fire.

** PS - Use all the precautions required for your situation.


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## victory1504 (Mar 27, 2010)

Try auto starting fluid. It contains ether. Ether will disolve bees wax. Be VERY careful with it ! It is extremely flamable ! You might use it on a small area with good ventilation.


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## Troy (Feb 9, 2006)

I see you already got it done, but in the future...... "Goof Off" works good. Get the old fashioned kind that has all kinds of warnings on the label about ventilation. It stinks to high heaven, but dissolves wax in a quick wipe.

They make a new version now that is much milder, but not as effective, so you gotta read the label.


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## Duboisi (Oct 7, 2009)

If you want to make it slightly less slippery, you can add another layer of paint, and throw on some fine sand before it sets.

Guess you have to choose - sliding buckets or sliding beek.


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## DrJuan (Aug 14, 2021)

For small areas, Berymans B12 will soften waxes so they can be wiped off. Available at most auto parts stores. First scrape off what you can. An option is to use heat at this point as other here have recommended. Then put down a layer of paper toweling and wet it with the B12. immediately cover with a polyethylene sheet or section cut out of a plastic shopping bag to slow evaporation. Allow to soak for maybe 5-10 minutes and then hit it quickly with any kind of wire brush and wipe up with more towels or rags. Repeat as necessary. Then use strong ammonia or lye solution on the film that is left, brushing again with a wire brush. Wash that mess up with TSP in a mop bucket and allow to dry. You can then proceed according to instructions on the paint can for concrete floors. They may recommend an acid etch with Muriatic (hydrochloric) or pool acid dilute solution. 

Note that light sand blasting also works well and avoids any chemicals..


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## David ryle (Dec 2, 2020)

John Gesner said:


> I'm going to epoxy paint my honey house floor, something I should have done before now. :doh: I just got done etching the concrete, but that didn't remove some of the wax spots. I'm concerned that the paint won't adhere properly if there's any wax residue, but I'm not sure how to get the wax off. I've scraped as much as I can, but there's still some there.
> 
> Suggestions?


If you can locate some, I think Toluene would work.


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## crofter (May 5, 2011)

You can buy it from some hardware stores as drain cleaners. The chemical name is sodium hydroxide. Potassium hydroxide would be similar in action. Gillets Lye used to be a standard hardware or grocery store item but controls have tightened due to amateur explosives and meth labs. Saw posted not too long ago Red Devil drain cleaner.


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## elmer_fud (Apr 21, 2018)

This is a 11 year old thread


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