A few years ago my first wife and I were walking and we crossed a newly surfaced road. Her guide dog got a lot of tar and gravel stuck to its paws. We tried everything we could think of to remove it including spray and wash. We asked our vet what we could use and he told us cooking oil. He used to work in the oil fields and he said they used just ordinary cooking oil to remove the oil. Now I'm not saying it will work on your step, but it sure removed it from the dog's paws and it is supposed to even work on bubble gum that kids get in their hair, so might be worth a shot. My current wife and I also have purchased a spray from the carpet store that you can spray on stuff that gets on the carpet and let it set a minute and then rub it with a damp rag and it works, but don't know about tar.
----- Original Message ----- From: Lenny McHugh To: Handyman-Blind Sent: Friday, July 13, 2007 5:38 PM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] removing tar idea Today I had a rubber roof installed on my back porch. At the top of the steps there is one glob of tar or roof cement. It is on the top concrete step where I will probably step in it when the sun heats it up and makes it soft. Also my guide dog often lays there. To remove I have a few ideas wonder if there is a better way. I don't want to scrape and use paint thinner I think that would create a bigger mess. My ideas are to freeze it and use a wire brush attachment in my drill and have the shop vac collecting the stuff. To freeze I thought about dry ice if it is available in a fairly small quantity. Or using a can of air this will freeze if I hold the nozzle very close or last resort pile ice cubes. Any ideas? Lenny http://www.geocities.com/lenny_mchugh/ [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
