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Residential · Miami, FL
Stone Surface Ice Blasting
Stone Surface comes to us when the usual cleaning methods are too harsh for the part. 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 stone surface 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
Cold does most of the work here. The contaminant shrinks and lets go, and the surface below it is left as it was.
- Low moisture
A panel or motor can be cleaned without soaking anything, which is why the method suits electrical work.
- No secondary waste
Cleanup is just the buildup itself. The media vanishes, so nothing ends up in seams, drains or bearings that needs flushing out later.
- Often no teardown
No water and no grit means nothing has to be protected by taking it out first. Most parts stay installed while we work.
More residential work
Related jobs we get called for
Questions we get asked first
Will it damage the surface underneath?
On most substrates, no. The pellet is soft and sublimates on impact, so it does thermal work rather than mechanical work. We still test an inconspicuous spot first on anything unusual.
Do you have to take the equipment apart for stone surface?
For most jobs, no. Reassembly is where time and money normally go, and cleaning in place skips both. If a part has to come off, we raise it when we look at the job, never halfway through.
How much mess does it make?
Some, because the grime has to go somewhere. It falls where we have planned for it to fall, and picking it up is part of what you are paying for.
Do you come to us?
We do. Everything runs out of our truck, so you never haul anything to us. We work from Miami across South Florida, out to about a hundred miles.
What does a job cost?
Most of the price is time on site, and time depends on how much buildup there is and how easy it is to reach. Send photos and a description and you get an actual number back, not a range pulled out of the air.
How soon can you look at it?
Most of the delay is waiting on details. Once we know what the part is made of and what is stuck to it, we can tell you when we can come and whether dry ice is right for it.
The comparison
Why not just pressure wash it
- Solvent and degreaser
Trades the deposit for a residue, plus ventilation and waste to deal with, and it is hard on the finish.
- Hand scraping
Labor-intensive and uneven, and whatever you scrape with eventually marks what you are scraping.
- Media blasting
It takes the top off whatever it touches. That is the point on rusted plate and the problem everywhere else.
- Pressure washing
Drives water into harnesses, bearings, panels and seams, then everything waits to dry. On electrical work it is simply not an option.
- Dry ice
Thermal shock breaks the bond. The pellet sublimates, so nothing abrasive touches the part and nothing is left to collect but the contaminant.
What comes off
What this takes off
The method does not care much what the contaminant is, only that it sits on top of something. Here is the usual list.
- Ink and printing residue
Ink and coating on anilox and press rollers, surfaces where changing the texture changes the print.
- Food residue
Carbonized product, fat, starch and sugar build-up on processing equipment, cleaned without chemicals touching a food contact surface.
- Grease and oil
Thick grease that has been sitting for years comes off too, it just takes more passes. Fresh oil film is quicker, and both leave nothing behind but the grime itself.
- Carbon and soot
Heat-bonded black deposit. Because heat put it there, a sudden cold front is what breaks its grip.
- Adhesive and sealant
Cured sealant, old gasket, tape glue and sound deadening, the residue left when something was removed but its bond was not.
- Resin and mold release
Release agent and resin build-up on tooling, where a solvent fix trades one residue for another.
- Paint and coatings
Selective removal, layer by layer, on parts where media blasting would cut into the substrate.
How a job runs
The sequence, start to finish
There is no mystery to how these jobs run, and no part of it we would rather you did not ask about.
- We blast, then clean up
The media disappears on contact; the contaminant does not. Gathering what came off is included, not a line added afterward.
- You look before we pack up
A second pass while everything is still connected is free in every sense. A return trip is not.
- You describe the job
The machine, the deposit and the downtime you can afford. Those three things decide the whole job, and we would rather know all of them before quoting.
- We look at access and containment
Anything that should not be blasted gets covered first. On a control cabinet that might be a few components, and on a food line it might be most of what surrounds the area we are cleaning.
- We test a small area
The test patch also answers whether the buildup releases at all. Bonded grime usually lets go on the first pass, but if something on your part won’t move, we would rather find out on a hidden corner and tell you.
Before we turn the rig on
There is nothing toxic in the media and no residue afterward. What we watch is the room itself: an enclosed space needs moving air, and we arrange it up front.
This is not a quiet method. Ear defenders are standard issue on site for anyone nearby.
Nothing wet goes onto your equipment, but cold metal in warm air can still pick up condensation. It clears as the part comes back up to temperature.
We bring our own air supply on the truck. You do not need to find an outlet, a compressor or a water line for us.
Tell us what needs cleaning.
Tell us what the machine is, where it is and what is on it. A photo or two speeds it up. One of the owners calls you back.