Last night a brand new almost 2 gallon bottle of laundry detergent fell off of our dryer somehow and broke the cap.  Over 3/4 of it is now spread out across the basement floor, and has run to the low point of the basement.  Of course, the drain is at the high point.  I need ideas how to get that much detergent up and out of the cement floor.  Of course, I bought the concentrated stuff!  There is enough detergent spread out over the floor to do over 150 loads. 

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Jerry

Wet/Dry  shop vac?

Cover the area with damp towels and step all over them to wick the detergent into the towels. Then spread a thin layer of cat litter (the NON-clumping kind) over the area after getting as much out with the towels as you can. Sort of crush it into the concrete with a grinding motion with the ball of your foot. Let it sit there for at least a day. Then sweep it up.

Or you can get a bucket of water and start washing your clothes by rubbing them on the floor, much like our ancestors did on rocks in the river.

Just kidding. That was a joke.

A wet dry vac just suds up and blows suds all over from the vent. :'(

I'll try the cat litter.  I think that might work.  Had a couple of beach towels on the floor waiting for the washer.  They picked up quite a bit.  They will be VERY clean when they come out! ;D

Thanks!  I knew this family would come through.

Jerry

This may be an obvious statement but I wouldn't wash those towels in your washer with all that detergent soaked into them or your basement will be sud-city. Might have to take them outside and do the washboard/hose thing by your drain gutter.

Don't you hate when your day gets planned by such an activity? >:( Luv ya jerry!

Joe

Brew wrote on Aug 4^th, 2010 at 10:45am:

Or you can get a bucket of water and start washing your clothes by rubbing them on the floor, much like our ancestors did on rocks in the river. Just kidding. That was a joke.

This is my favorite idea! hehe :)

Jerry - hope you found a solution....  I'm the wrong person to ask.  Once I put dish soap in the dishwasher (instead of dishwasher detergent), and didn't realize what I'd done until the dog was barking madly in the kitchen.  I went in and realized the soap suds were exploding all over the kitchen!!  Not exactly a laundry detergent story, but I tend to get into these types of mishaps more often than I should! :P

Carrie :)

Brew's idea works for me.

I use a bunch of larger than usual old bath towels to sop up stuff like this. I throw them out afterwards. I'm down to about 30 1950s era bath towels by now. It beats me why we had so many of the things.

Charlie

Thanks Brew!  Your first suggestion worked, although the second one did in part also.  I have two VERY clean beach towels!

Jerry

Callico wrote on Aug 6^th, 2010 at 2:33pm:

Thanks Brew!  Your first suggestion worked, although the second one did in part also.  I have two VERY clean beach towels! Jerry

Even a blind pig finds an acorn from time to time....