Home / Services / Residential / Home Equipment
Residential · Miami, FL
Home Equipment Ice Blasting
When people call about home equipment, the constraint is usually the same. We clean it without water, without chemicals and without anything abrasive touching the surface.
What builds up, and why it matters
On this kind of work the problem is grease, soot, mildew staining, old finish and garage grime. Household surfaces are usually softer than industrial ones, so the non-abrasive part matters more, not less.
We come to the house; the rig runs off the driveway. The people who call us about home equipment are usually homeowners and collectors, and the thing they are actually worried about is damage to something in your own home.
The method
Why dry ice and not the alternatives
- Non-abrasive
The pellets are frozen carbon dioxide, softer than the metal they hit. They break up and vanish, taking the bond with them and leaving the surface intact.
- Low moisture
No water means no rust starting in a seam you cannot see, and no moisture trapped behind a gasket or under trim.
- No secondary waste
No pile of sand in the corners afterward. The pellet is gone on impact, and only the original contaminant needs cleaning up.
- Often no teardown
We clean most equipment where it stands. Taking things apart and putting them back is the expensive part of any cleaning job, and here it is usually skipped.
More residential work
Related jobs we get called for
Questions we get asked first
Will it damage the surface underneath?
No grit touches the surface, so there is nothing to wear it down. The ice hits, breaks the deposit loose and vanishes. On anything we have not cleaned before, a quick test spot comes first.
Do you have to take the equipment apart for home equipment?
Often you can leave it as it is. We look at the photos, work out what blocks the nozzle, and only ask for something to come apart if there is no other way in.
How much mess does it make?
Far less than sandblasting or soda. Those leave grit in every seam, while dry ice leaves nothing of its own, only what it removed.
Do you come to us?
Always. The truck carries the compressor and hose, so we come to wherever the equipment already sits. That covers shops, plants, homes and docks across South Florida, roughly a hundred miles out from Miami.
What does a job cost?
The figure is tied to the work itself, so we price it once we know what it is. Keep in mind the bigger saving is often the teardown you no longer pay for. Tell us about the job and we will put a real number on it.
How soon can you look at it?
Send a description today, photos if you have them. An owner looks at it and comes back to you, and if your timeline is tight we will say whether it is doable before you plan around us.
The comparison
What the alternatives actually do
- Pressure washing
The water has to go somewhere, and on most equipment that somewhere is inside it.
- Solvent and degreaser
Softens the contaminant but leaves a film, fumes and a disposal problem, and attacks finishes you meant to keep.
- Hand scraping
Slow enough to be uneconomic on a machine, and the tool always leaves a trace.
- Media blasting
Abrasive by definition. Anything with a tolerance or a finish worth keeping comes out changed.
- Dry ice
Cold breaks the bond and the media vanishes. The substrate is untouched and there is no second mess to clean up.
What comes off
What dry ice actually removes
The rule of thumb is simple: anything stuck on rather than built in. These are the deposits we see most.
- Salt and corrosion product
A constant in South Florida. Removing it without stripping the protective finish is the whole trick.
- Ink and printing residue
Dried ink and coating build-up on rollers and press components, where the surface texture is the product.
- Food residue
Carbonized product build-up in a plant where neither standing water nor a chemical film is acceptable.
- Grease and oil
Old oil soaks into the dirt around a leak and hardens. Cold makes it brittle, which is why it releases where a rag only smears it around.
- Carbon and soot
Baked-on carbon that a wire brush would scar the part removing. Under dry ice it shrinks and comes away from the metal.
- Adhesive and sealant
Whatever the last repair left stuck to the mating face: gasket, sealant, deadener or adhesive.
- Resin and mold release
Residue from production that has hardened onto molds. We remove it with cold instead of chemistry, so there is nothing to rinse away afterward.
How a job runs
How a job actually runs
Most people have never watched dry ice blasting happen and are not sure what they are agreeing to. Here is the whole sequence, start to finish.
- We look at access and containment
Access drives the plan: reach, siting, masking, and the route the removed material takes off the job. It is the part customers think about least and we think about most.
- We test a small area
A factory finish, a repaint and bare steel can all sit on the same piece of equipment. Each one gets checked in a hidden spot first, because a setting that is safe on one can mark the next.
- We blast, then clean up
Nothing is left of the pellet, so the only thing to collect is what was on your equipment. That collection is part of the work we quoted.
- You look before we pack up
Walk it with us before the hose goes away. A second pass while the compressor is still running costs nothing; a return visit costs us both.
- You describe the job
We ask four things: the equipment, the contaminant, the location and whether it can be taken out of service. Pictures beat paragraphs every time. Some jobs are a poor fit for dry ice, and you will hear that from us early, before you have spent anything.
What the job is like to stand next to
Dry ice blasting is noisy. Anyone close to the work wears hearing protection, and we will ask you to keep your distance or put some on.
When we step back, the surface is chilled. That can mean holding off on handling for a little while, or seeing beads of moisture form briefly as it warms in the open air.
Power, water and air are not things you need to provide. The truck covers the air, and the process needs no water at all.
We cover what should not be hit before anything gets blasted. It takes minutes and saves arguments.
Tell us what needs cleaning.
Start with the basics and we will ask the rest on the phone. The call comes from one of the owners.