Brick.
Surface Preparation – Nationwide
Dirty Brick Cleaning
We can clean dirty bricks, or remove paint from them; we have various techniques or options for this depending on the dirt or paint, and the quality or softness of the brick – from the Sand Jet, to a full on Sand Blast, or even more aggressive high pressure water systems.
We specialise in using a listed building approved low pressure sand jetting system that has been used nationwide for property restoration. The system, in our trained hands, causes minimal damage to an underlying surface and is flexible enough to tackle most property restoration cleaning tasks.
Painted Brick Cleaning
We can clean painted bricks, or remove dirt from them; we have various techniques for this depending on the dirt or paint, and the quality or softness of the brick – from the Sand Jet, to a full on Sand Blast, or even more aggressive high pressure water systems. The photos below show samples of our work throughout the UK, and by using the menu selector on the top left of the picture box you can choose to see just painted brick samples, or just dirty brick samples In the photos below you can choose between dirty brick and painted brick .
Traditional Dry Blasting of Stonework (Brickwork very similar!)
Greenleaf Contractors specialise in using a low pressure sand jetting system that has been used nationwide for property restoration, including gaining approval for and subsequently working on many Listed Buildings. The system, in our trained hands, causes minimal damage to an underlying surface and is flexible enough to tackle most property restoration cleaning tasks.
The low pressure sand jet can clean bricks without injecting large quantities of water into the surface, and with minimal surface damage, at the same time, the ‘wet’ system also captures dirt and abrasive, preventing the health and safety risks associated with dry blasting.
However, the damp nature of the blast does mean that the abrasive and removed dirt / paint stick to surfaces – this can be washed out, or left to dry and brushed out. But we have now re-discovered that old fashioned, traditional dry blasting can, if the operator is careful, be quite effective at cleaning internal stonework, so we now offer that service as well. It is one of those ‘swings and roundabouts’ things – the dry blast will use more abrasive and create lots and lots of dust, but is perhaps a little easier to clean up on the day. Brickwork is very similar.
Dry Ice Blasting
There are times when alternative methods are called for, one of which is Dry Ice blasting. Here a surface to be cleaned is blasted with solid CO2 particles, and the surface is cleaned through thermal shock, the massive volume change as dry ice particles turn into gas, and some abrasion of the surface contaminant, making the process ‘grit or sand free’.
The advantage of this system is that the ‘abrasive’ evaporates on impact, so the only ‘debris’ is the material being removed. It is nearly ‘dustless’ – about as dustless as it is possible to get for an open blast system – however it will still blow cobwebs, birds nests, paint debris etc. fairly liberally!
It is used widely in the printing industry to clean print rollers, and for mould and weld cleaning.
Environmentally Friendly Chemical Paint Stripping
We specialise in using a low pressure sand jetting system that has been used nationwide for property restoration, including gaining approval for and subsequently working on many Listed Buildings. The system, in our trained hands, causes minimal damage to an underlying surface and is flexible enough to tackle most property restoration cleaning tasks. The low pressure sand jet can clean stone without injecting large quantities of water into the surface, and with minimal surface damage, at the same time, the ‘damp’ system also captures dirt and abrasive, preventing the health and safety risks associated with dry blasting. We would normally expect the sand jet systems to be around half the price of chemical stripping.
We specialise in using a low pressure sand jetting system that has been used nationwide for property restoration, including gaining approval for and subsequently working on many Listed Buildings. The system, in our trained hands, causes minimal damage to an underlying surface and is flexible enough to tackle most property restoration cleaning tasks. The low pressure sand jet can clean stone without injecting large quantities of water into the surface, and with minimal surface damage, at the same time, the ‘damp’ system also captures dirt and abrasive, preventing the health and safety risks associated with dry blasting. We would normally expect the sand jet systems to be around half the price of chemical stripping.
Pressure Washing, rapid environmentally friendly cleaning.
We specialise in using a listed building approved low pressure sand jetting system used nationwide for property restoration. The system, in our trained hands, causes minimal damage to an underlying surface and is flexible enough to tackle most property restoration cleaning tasks.
That being so, there are times when pressure washing is an acceptable, environmentally friendly alternative. It is certainly cheaper rapid, and can be quite effective for surface contaminants such as algae and grime. Subsequent cleaning with the sand jet can remove stubborn stains. We have electric, petrol and diesel powered machines, and the big diesel machine will also generate high pressure hot water and steam. These cleaning techniques have been used effectively in projects in Lincoln and Derby.