Recently I was asked to try out OilGoneEasy – Oil Gone Easy Home and Driveway S-200. Oil Gone Easy Home and Driveway is an environmentally safe product used to remove oil and fuel stains from a number of surfaces including concrete, asphalt driveway, flag stone, brick, pavers, cobblestone and even soil.

Oil Gone Easy using the process of bioremediation which uses safe microorganisms to degrade the oil and fuel and turn it into non-toxic compounds. The United States EPA lists this product as an innovative technology for fuel and oil clean-up.

Oil Gone Easy Trial

I decided to put Oil Gone Easy to the test by trying to remove some oil stains from our garage. My old work truck had a slow oil leak and it left quite a mess on our new garage floor as you can see in the photo.

Using Oil Gone Easy was really “easy”! The directions said to just pour the product directly onto the oil stains and leave it as long as possible. The longer you leave the product on the stain the longer the microorganisms have to break down the contaminant.

As you can see I poured a liberal amount of the Oil Gone Easy solution onto the surface of the concrete that was stained with the motor oil. I left the solution on the concrete all day and occasionally brushed it with a stiff brush to help remove any oil from the surface.

I made sure the oil stains remained covered with the Oil Gone Easy solution as long as I could. It was a bit difficult because our garage floor is sloped to drain (fairly common practice for garage floors). Every hour I poured more solution on until I finally ran out of it.

Oil Gone Easy Trial Results

The final photo shows the results of my trial of the Oil Gone Easy product. After about 5 hours of soaking time the oil stains were clearly improved. I finally washed the floor with regular water and scrubbed it with a stiff brush. As you can see most of the oil stain has been removed.

The manufacturer actually recommends leaving the solution on a stain for up to two weeks if it’s an old stain. The product is actually water-proof so there’s no worry if you apply it outside and it rains, it will still work fine.

Bioremediation is not a new science and it’s been used successfully for years now to clean up petroleum contamination. What I like best about this product is how safe it is for kids and animals. You can use it without fear of someone getting hurt while you clean up a nasty oil spill. This is certainly a product I’d use again. I like that you can use it on everything from concrete driveways to an asphalt driveway.

OilGoneEasy Recommendations

In order to fully benefit from the stain removing power of OilGoneEasy  you need to leave the solution on for up to 14 days. Below are some before and after shots from the manufacturer. They show an oil spill that was wiped up manually and a photo a week later after using the OilGoneEasy. My trial was short but you’ll need to leave the product on the stain longer to achieve the best results.

Legend of Honey Hollow

The Legend of Honey Hollow is a very well written story about endangered bears from around the world that  end up all living in Honey Hollow. Honey Hollow is a special bear sanctuary with clean air and water until developers threaten to destroy their environment by cutting the forest down. The bears team up with the loggers children to save Honey Hollow from certain destruction and to protect the environment they live in.

The author, Jeanne McNaney does a wonderful job teaching children to appreciate wildlife, the environment, community and working together to save our environment. The book contains amazing illustrations that bring this environmental awareness book to life.

Our 4 year old son has fallen in love with the book and the characters of Honey Hollow. I have to believe that teaching our children valuable environmental awareness at a young age will only help strengthen the current environmental movement. If your children enjoy reading books and you’re looking for a great way to teach them about the fragile environment we live in then this book is for you.

Follow this link to buy a copy of The Legend of Honey Hollow for your children to enjoy.

Recently we created a great new walk-in closet in our master bedroom suite with products from EasyClosets. We are really pleased with our experience from EasyClosets and I wanted to share some information about their products that showcases their environmental awareness.

Protecting The Environment

EasyClosets works hard to protect the environment by utilizing many different recycling approaches.

• 100% of EasyClosets particleboard used for shelving comes from post industrial waste streams. This means that the particleboard is manufactured using 100% wood scraps that are created from other wood milling operations (wood chips, wood scraps, saw dust, etc.).
• EasyClosets uses packaging materials created from 95% recycled materials.
• 98% of their inbound cardboard is recycled on-site for new packaging materials.
• 100% of waste product from cut closet rods is recycled

Some may argue that using particleboard isn’t really green. However, I disagree because the scrap materials used for particleboard would either be burned or dumped in a landfill. By using those materials to build useful materials we’re helping reduce the impact on the environment.

If you’re looking for a new closet then I suggest you give EasyClosets a look!

Sea Stone Cabinet Hardware

Stone Cabinet Hardware

If you’re in the market for a “Green” alternative for your cabinet hardware then this is a great product to consider. The folks at Sea Stones sent me a sample sea stone cabinet pull to review. Sea Stones, LLC is a New Hampshire based company selling sea stones for decorative uses.

The Serena Stone Cabinet Knobs and Drawer Pulls are made with ocean-smoothed stones, hand-gathered in New England, drilled and securely mounted to solid stainless steel posts. I was very impressed with the quality and appearance of the sample that I received. They appear to be very strong and durable.

What I like most about this concept is how Sea Stones collects these rocks and preserves the source. Each rock is hand picked from local ocean beaches and rivers. Each rock taken is replaced with a piece of quarry stone. They also plant trees to replace ones harvested to create the mounting plates for their “Coast Hook” products.

So if you’re truly looking for another green alternative and you need cabinet hardware then check out their site. They offer many different colors that are sure to compliment any new kitchen.

In addition to cabinet hardware Sea Stones sells:

• Bottle Stoppers
• Coast Hooks
• Desk Clocks
• Jewelry
• Magnets
• Napkin Rings
• Wine Glasses

It’s nice to see natural products being produced to help us keep our homes Green. If you know of other Green products that would benefit our readers please let me know.

The Tribute window can be ordered with triple pane glass filled with krypton gas to achieve a U factor of 0.20! That means these windows are about 60% more efficient than the standard double pane argon gas filled windows that we typically use.

Some of you may argue that vinyl windows are not exactly green. However, I argue that these windows have almost zero maintenance (no painting) and the energy savings over time make them a serious improvement for the environment.

Be sure to follow the Total House Construction Series over at my Home Improvement Blog if you’d like to read more about this great new Energy Star home that we’re building this fall.