Dry Ice Blasting Makes Quick Work of Mold Problem in Correctional Center Ceiling
Roof damage and water intrusion left an Illinois correctional center facing a challenging clean-up recently. Mold had accumulated in the ceilings and attics of two 25,000 square-foot buildings. In some areas where the white spores had covered everything from the trusses to the wooden floor joists, it looked like a snowstorm had blown through.
A series of environmental contractors who had inspected the project provided a daunting assessment: the mess would have to be tackled with cleaning and sanding by hand, a process that would take months to complete. For the corrections facility, where inmates had to be moved from building to building while the work was ongoing, this was more than an inconvenience.
No Contest: Effective & Water-Free CO2 Blasting vs. Hand Scrubbing
Fortunately, there was one environmental contractor who knew of a better option: dry ice blasting. The contractor had first-hand experience working with Polar Clean, a division of Premium Plant Services. The Polar Clean team’s expertise includes work in high security environments like correctional facilities as well as work with hazardous materials like mold.
The contractor hired Polar Clean and all three buildings were cleaned using dry ice blasting. Water-free dry ice blasting is fast and effective for cleaning in tight spaces like ceilings and attics. Using chemical-free frozen CO2 pellets that sublimate on contact, dry ice blasting gently dislodges a wide array of adherents including dirt, grime, mold and flaking paint, with no collateral debris to clean up.
With proprietary nozzles that enable cleaning in areas that even hand cleaning cannot reach, dry ice blasting is a solution that specialty contractors have come to rely on in settings where the introduction of water and other debris is problematic and hand cleaning is impractically slow and tedious.
Specialized Experience & Training for Tight Spaces & High Security
The project required full Tyvek® suiting and the use of respirators, as well as the placement of plywood flooring. Additional precautions included meticulous security clearances, background checks, and procedures for maintaining an accurate inventory of tools. The environmental contractor managed containment and HEPA vacuuming. Each building was completed in about a month – a pace roughly four times faster than hand cleaning. After testing free of mold, the attics were treated with a mold-inhibiting coating.
Why Work with Polar Clean?
At Polar Clean, our solutions are designed to solve the kind of cleaning challenges that ordinary industrial cleaning can’t. With an array of solutions including sponge blasting, abrasive blasting and more, and specialized training and expertise, our capabilities make us the go-to provider for cleaning challenges others deem “impossible.”
Whether your job is impossibly high, impossibly inaccessible, impossibly fragile, or must be completed on an impossibly tight deadline, there’s good chance we’ve already tackled it somewhere –– safely, effectively and with minimal downtime. From lighthouses to salt mines, to the interior of a petroleum reactor, we’ve been there.
To learn more about our solutions for your impossible job, contact a Polar Clean team member today. You can also schedule a lunch and learn session at your office or via a Teams meeting and we’ll share what you need to know about dry ice blasting for your application.