In the aftermath of a house fire, many homeowners can anticipate a great deal of time and money will be spent on restoring the structure back to habitable conditions, even if the fire was very minor.
Let's take for example a lightning strike resulted in a chair that was positioned near an electrical outlet caught fire, resulting in a very small, yet very smoky fire. Although the fire may have been extinguished quickly and very little structural damage may have occurred, the entire house could still be filled with smoke, which permeates nearly every pore in the building.
All the wood surfaces as well as the poured concrete walls and floors were covered with soot from the fire. After basement survey, it could be decided that dry ice blasting would be the best method to accomplish the cleaning task.
It provides fast and efficient removal of some and soot damage, without compromising on the surfaces integrity. Dry ice blasting also provides complete removal even in the tightest angles. Dry ice blasting provides complete removal even around nails, wiring and all plumbing areas. It's much faster and cleaner than traditional cleaning methods.
It offers several advantages over the other cleaning methods. There are no hazardous chemicals involved, which instantly eliminates any danger to workers and the environment. Plus, it has a low disposal cost and cleaning is a minimal, limited to only material removal from the sooty surface.
With an air compressor and dry ice blasting machines set in place along with blast hoses, the smoky wall can be cleaned instantly. The potential buildup of carbon dioxide which can occur when dry ice is pulverized after it hits the surface from being blasting at a high capacity, ventilation fans need to be installed to provide fresh air.
Now the cleanup job using dry ice blasting uses pellets that are kept at a constant 115 degrees Fahrenheit. The pellets are fed into a hopper then the air compressor pushes the pellets out of along barrel onto the damage section. The force of the pellets is quite similar to sand blasting. As the pellets come into contact with the burnt area they begin to sublimate, turning from solid to gas and expanding about 800 times in volume acting like thousands of micro-explosion on the surface. This strips away the char while protecting the underlying substrate.
Dry ice blasting is useful for a wide variety of cleaning projects. Whether you use it to clean up an industrial oven or remove oils from a large diesel genset, you can be sure you'll get the job done effectively and efficiently with Dry ice blasting.
