Brick cleaning by laser

[^woody^]

Technology eh?

 

[HawkEye244]

They don't appear to operate within the UK sadly

 

[JohnD]

Yet.

 

[HawkEye244]

Yet.

Having done some research it appears that there are other companies.

However, having looked at the demonstration videos I am not convinced the laser would be able to deal with badly defaced brick and stone work where ,i.e. cement render has been removed leaving a nasty cement slurry residue.

I have stone I am trying to clean at the moment and from first hand experience I can say the type of cleaning shown in the video could be just as easily achieved with a jet washer.

 

[opps]

Having done some research it appears that there are other companies.

However, having looked at the demonstration videos I am not convinced the laser would be able to deal with badly defaced brick and stone work where ,i.e. cement render has been removed leaving a nasty cement slurry residue.

I have stone I am trying to clean at the moment and from first hand experience I can say the type of cleaning shown in the video could be just as easily achieved with a jet washer.

I too found quite a few companies that offer laser brick cleaning in the UK, and some that sell the hardware (POA).

A friend of mine is a brick pointer. He often has to clean victorian bricks. You will not remove 100+ years of pollution from bricks with a pressure washer alone. He wets the bricks with water and then brushes on pretty evil chemicals which are then washed off using a high psi pressure washer.

I for one was impressed with the laser cleaning videos, including the ones where they use lasers to remove rust and paint from metal.

Unfortunately the machines are incredibly expensive and the owner needs to learn which frequencies to use for any given surface that needs to be cleaned. I don't see them becoming mainstream trade items any time soon.

 

[foxhole]

Does the laser not destroy the surface staining rather than cleaning it?

 

[HawkEye244]

I too found quite a few companies that offer laser brick cleaning in the UK, and some that sell the hardware (POA).

A friend of mine is a brick pointer. He often has to clean victorian bricks. You will not remove 100+ years of pollution from bricks with a pressure washer alone. He wets the bricks with water and then brushes on pretty evil chemicals which are then washed off using a high psi pressure washer.

I for one was impressed with the laser cleaning videos, including the ones where they use lasers to remove rust and paint from metal.

Unfortunately the machines are incredibly expensive and the owner needs to learn which frequencies to use for any given surface that needs to be cleaned. I don't see them becoming mainstream trade items any time soon.

I would think the cost of running the machine would be expensive as well. Many kW = ££

If your friend can recommend a good cement dissolver that can be used on stone (granite) I would be pleased to hear his suggestions.

 

[opps]

I would think the cost of running the machine would be expensive as well. Many kW = ££

If your friend can recommend a good cement dissolver that can be used on stone (granite) I would be pleased to hear his suggestions.

Will ask him when I see him next.

I suspect that he will recommend a higher strength hydrochloric acid (assuming that you are talking about granite bricks rather than tiles).

https://www.tmchemicals.co.uk/cemelex-x28brick-cleanerx29-152-p.asp

To clean 100+ years of soot, I think he uses hydrofluoric acid.

CW20 Heavy Duty Brick Cleaner - 25lts - Collect only

Centurywise CW20 heavy duty brick cleaner is specially blended to quickly and economically remove heavily ingrained dirt, grime, carbonaceous soils and rust stains from brickwork.

www.centurywise.co.uk

They will not sell the hydrofluoric acid to DIY- he has to drive to Enfield to buy his, from memory, he pays about £130 for 20L

 

[Mike13]

ordinary brickcleaner should be fine on a real granite. But some sold as granite are gneisses and shists instead, those might not cope so well.