Extend your spring cleaning to your building's exterior
With spring just around the corner, folks are starting to think about home projects. For most of us exterior painting and log cleaning is a large project that needs to be done periodically to maintain the beauty of your property.
Last week I received several calls on exterior building cleaning. As most of you know my company does a wide variety cleaning tasks to include media blasting. For most exterior building cleaning, media blasting is the best way to strip a building surface with out hurting the substrate of the building.
For many years the only way to clean the exterior of a building was to power wash it. This technique uses water under pressure to force the contaminate off and away from the surface. Media blasting actually cuts off the contaminate leaving the surface neat and clean, it actually looks almost new when the process is finished.
There are many substances on the open market that media blasting companies use to accomplish this task. My company only uses three different types and those are: baking soda, corn cob, and walnut husks. The reason I use only these three products is because of the "Mohs" hardness scale. All three products range between 3 and 4 with an absolute hardness of no more than 21. I know for example, when doing a job and we hit aluminum (Rain gutters), no damage will occur because aluminum has a Mohs rating of 3. Or, if on the same job we hit glass (windows), no damage will occur because glass has a Mohs rating of 5.
Corn Con grit is a safe blasting media for fragile parts. It is widely used as the preferred media for log homes and other wood surfaces. This type of grit is a biodegradable, organic media that is obtained from the hard woody ring of the corn cob. It is resistant to break down and can be re-used multiple times. It will polish soft metals such as bronze and brass. It will remove surface contamination, debris and coating with little to no impact on the substrate.
Walnut shell grit is a product made from crushed or ground walnut shells. Walnut shells are ground into various grit sizes to be used for blast cleaning and polishing. When used as an abrasive, walnut shell blasting is extremely durable and multi-faceted. Walnut shell grit can be used on soft aggregate in removing foreign matter or coatings (paint) from surfaces without etching or scratching the surface.
Soda blasting is a process where a surface is cleaned or paint is removed (stripped) from that surface. It is very similar to traditional sandblasting yet has the significant advantage of cleaning the surface without causing harm to the substrate or environment.
This system and products can be used in a lot of different application, e.g architecture (building cleaning), automotive restoration, graffiti removal, marine (boat) cleaning, fire and smoke restoration, etc.
In closing this article, before you hire a contractor to work on your home or business make sure they have three things, e.g. contractor's license, general liability insurance, and workman's compensation insurance.
If you would like to share a cleaning idea or concept with the reading audience, call Ed at NWES (255-2266), e-mail them to madan@surfl.ws or send them to Bonner County Daily Bee, 310 Church street, Sandpoint, ID 83864, Attn: What Would Ed do? For more information about Ed, check him out at NWEES.COM
Copy written by Edmond E. Madan, certified forensic, fire, flood, mold inspection & remediation contractor. Ed is the CEO of Northwest Executive & Environmental Services, LLC.