Painted Brick Cleaning.
Surface Preparation – Nationwide
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
Sand Jet Cleaning
Greenleaf Contractors specialise in using an adjustable low pressure sand jetting system that has been used nationwide for property restoration, including gaining approval for and subsequently working on many Listed Buildings particularly in Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire . 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 cleans paint from bricks without pushing large quantities of water into the surface and with minimal surface damage, at the same time, the ‘damp’ system also captures dirt, paint and abrasive, preventing the health and safety risks associated with dry blasting. It is a safe way of removing lead paints from brickwork – for the lead paint is captured in the sludge and can be disposed of as a hazardrous waste. This brickwork was on an old mill in Licoln.
A further advantage of the system is that it also uses far less abrasive than traditional techniques, making expensive abrasives cost effective, but more significantly reducing waste – and when removing lead paint this can be a very significant cost saving. Abrasive does not need to be recycled, preventing cross contamination between jobs, and apart from in specialist cases, is not a major part of the running costs.
Dry Blasting
For some internal tasks, damp blasting can be awkward – for the sticky / sludgy nature of the end product from the sand jet does typically need a hose or pressure washer to clean up. We have therefore developed a low pressure and low consumption dry blast pot that can be used to gently clean bricks. The dry waste is relatively easy to sweep up – although dust will get everywhere in the room being cleaned. Occasionally though, we are asked to ‘Sand Blast’ internal walls to give the impression that the walls have been Sand Blasted – on more than one occasion we have had to come back to a site as we have cleaned a wall without damage, but the designer or architect wanted a “damaged effect” – but hasn’t passed that message on – assuming that all sand blasting is equal! This brickwork was inside an old post office to pub conversion in Cheshire
Key Benefits
- The variable pressure mean that the system is gentle enough to clean delicate surfaces, yet powerful enough to strip multiple layers of paint in one pass.
- It is not a chemical process so no noxious or harmful slurries or fumes are generated.
- As it uses only minimal amounts of water and abrasive the system is regularly used indoors.
- Much less mess than other systems, the low pressures mean that secondary mess (dust being blown out of floorboards etc.) is also minimised.
- Maintaining the requirements of BS 8221-1&2 :2000 the British Standard Code of Practice for the Cleaning of buildings.
- Quick efficient Graffiti Removal. No interference with other work in area.
