First impressions go a long way, especially when there's business involved. When it comes to buildings, the same goes. Clean facades and exteriors go a long way in making a lasting impression of how clients perceive a space. There’s no denying that a fresh-looking facade presents a more welcoming, hospitable front, and sets the tone for the rest of the building and your business. Rain, grime, staining, dirt, moss, and other pollutants can quickly adhere to the front of a building, leaving unsightly residue and marring the site's aesthetics. A quick clean from a renowned facade cleaning company is all it takes to restore your site's most visible - and often, most vulnerable - attribute, its façade.
Aesthetics aside, cleaning a building's facade also helps to expose the underlying areas for evaluation and repair. When the façade is covered in dirt, grime, and/or a coating, it's almost impossible to gauge the condition of a masonry substrate. This is especially in important in older buildings, churches, and monuments, where there's often a need to patch, repair, or reseal worn down areas.
Another reason why facade cleaning should be in your maintenance budget is that it removes damaging pollutants such as sulfur and nitrogen oxides, and other acid rain pollutants, from the building. If left untreated, these pollutants can accelerate façade deterioration, leading to huge out-of-pocket costs down the road.
Cleaning a building's facade also opens the site's pores and allows moisture to transpire. If trapped within walls that have a waterproof coating on them, moisture, coupled with soluble salts from polluted rainwaters or with atmospheric gases, travels deep into the masonry substrate through pores or cracks. Once the moisture evaporates, the salt recrystallizes, exerting tremendous pressures that break down the masonry from within.
Facade cleaning can take one of many forms. For starters, how a facade is cleaned will depend on the material it is made from. The equipment and solutions used will be specific to the type of material so as to ensure no damage occurs during the cleaning process. The building’s location and function may also determine exactly how the facade is cleaned.
One of the most common means of cleaning facades is pressure washing. Pressure washing involves the use of high-pressure washers to force dirt off a surface. The method is fast and environmentally friendly and is used to remove dirt from the facade. The water pressure usually starts out low and is increased upto 400 psi, if needed. This is followed by a scrubbing with a natural or synthetic (but not metal) bristle brush for stubborn areas and detailed elements. Sometimes a non-ionic detergent made from synthetic organic compounds is added to the water to remove oil-based dirt from surfaces.
Other water-based methods include soaking, where the building's surface is sprayed or misted with water for an extended period of time to loosen heavy accumulations of soot and crusts, and steam/hot pressurized washing. When properly applied, water-based treatments are the least invasive types of facade cleaning and a conservative way to start the job, especially when dealing with typical dirt and grime.
The other option, which is used for more rigorous cleaning jobs, involves the use of chemical cleaners. These are not only great for removing dirt, but can also be used to remove paint, coatings, metallic stains, and graffiti. Acid-based cleaners are effective on unglazed brick and terra-cotta, cast stone, concrete, granite and most sandstones, while alkaline cleaners are best used on acid-sensitive masonry, such as limestone, marble, polished granite and calcareous sandstone. Both types of chemical cleaners are sprayed or brushed on a wet surface and allowed to sit for a period of time before being rinsed off with water to complete the process.