Have you ever had your worst fear come to life? I always think of that scene in the movie, "Witches of Eastwick," where the character played by Cher wakes up to find herself in a bed of snakes. Though it wasn't snakes, I woke to every soap maker's nightmare: An oil spill the size of the Exxon-Valdez (ratio equivalent of course!)
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| This picture doesn't give the spill justice. |
The oil covered 90% of my 12 X 16 foot studio. It went under the shelves, soaked into boxes that were on the floor, and soaked into the wood of most of my cabinets. It was all my fault. I used new oil heaters that were a little different than my previous ones. My old ones were in Fahrenheit. These new ones were in Celsius. Slight detail. I'm not going to harp on how pissed at myself I was. As they say, "There's no need to cry over spilt oil!" I had to concentrate on the clean up. Surprisingly enough, an oil clean up in a soap studio is very similar to an oil spill say.... in the ocean!
Step 1: Contain the oil with towels so that it doesn't spread any further.
Step 2: Leave the oil alone until it hardens.
Step 3: Scrape up the oil from the floor using a trowel and put into a bucket to dispose of it properly.
Step 4: Use HOT soapy water to wash the floor.
Step 5: Once the floor is dry, use your favorite grease remover cleaner to wash the floors again.
Step 6: Repeat step 4.
Four hours later, my floors were pretty good at this point. As for everything else, I either had to dispose of or wash in hot soapy water.
Lesson learned. Make sure you know what temperature you are working with! I hope this story helps if this nightmare ever happens to you!!!
