A large part of our work is on buildings. This could be cleaning the paint off a small area of wall after a conservatory has been removed, or an entire block of flats. Sandblasting can be used as a cost effective way to prepare a wall for rendering. Often, buildings are painted for ‘unknown’ reasons; sandblasting is the best way to remove this paint, revealing the original brickwork below. Care needs to be taken to select the right air pressure and choice of abrasive, as in the wrong hands it is possible to do more harm than good.
Sandblasting to remove the paint from the exterior of buildings can make a dramatic improvement to the look of the brickwork, stone or cobbles. Have a look at these ‘before and after’ shots of renovation projects we have been involved in East Sussex and Surrey…
In other situations we have used very high pressure and coarse abrasives to blast through masonry to expose the embedded steelwork. Most buildings are above ground; however we have done plenty of work underground in the cellars of private houses and also several large vaulted railway arches. See below for ‘before and after’ pictures of a vaulted cellar we blast cleaned…
As well as cleaning up brickwork, the same methods can be used to clean concrete, render and stone. On many occasions we have used sandblasting for graffiti removal and aggregate exposure. See how sandblasting has exposed the stones on this simple block of concrete…
During works on the ‘Jubilee line’ railway extensions we sandblasted many concrete panels to expose the stones and create an ‘aged’ look to match the originals.
Sandblasting can be used to help blend old and new brickwork.
A favourite sandblasting job on brickwork is removing the paint from old inglenook fireplaces in house restorations.
Here are some ‘before and after’ examples of brickwork and an inglenook fireplace. Note that the beams in the first example are softwood – most of the beams we sandblast are oak, but by working gently, good results can be obtained when cleaning softwood too…
