July 17, 2008

Mural mishap puts Bellevue firm in the spotlight

Photo by Surface Cleaning Technologies [enlarge]

Pete Hall of Surface Cleaning Technologies expels a mix of compressed air, heated water and volcanic crystals to remove gray paint from a mural near the Woodland Park Zoo.

WHEN A POPULAR Seattle mural was mistakenly coated with gray paint and feared lost forever, a Bellevue company found itself in the spotlight. Surface Cleaning Technologies contacted the city and told officials about its product, expelling compressed air at a low pressure along with heated water and volcanic crystals to remove surface coatings layer by layer.

Pete Hall, general manager of Surface Cleaning Technologies, said he was a little nervous when he went out to test the site in front of reporters and neighbors.

“We thought we could do it but there are a lot of variables,” Hall said. “We were kind of concerned but then when we did the demo it worked as good as we thought it would.”

Less than two weeks later, after more than 30 hours of spraying the wall with the volcanic crystal mix, the gray paint was gone and the mural near Woodland Park Zoo was back. Hall said he hopes the mural job will give the fledgling company a boost in getting its name out.

The three-person company was founded last November and is owned by the Heron Group of Saint Simons Island, Ga. That company also owns Northwest Concrete.

Surface Cleaning Technologies uses the Farrow system, originally designed about eight years ago in England to clean farm equipment. Now, one of the biggest applications for Surface Cleaning Technologies is graffiti removal. The method also works to clean surfaces in preparation for painting, including wood and cement, or to clean any surface of built-up materials or coatings, such as refurbishment of a brick building.

“The combination together lets us have very good control about how much we can take off,” Hall said. “You can adjust the pressure, how abrasive, how soft.”

The volcanic crystals used by the system come in four different levels of coarseness to be used on different types of jobs and materials. One of the coarser types comes from Hamilton in Skagit County. The volcanic crystal, which is as fine as ash, basically explodes on contact, reducing the impact that otherwise comes with power-washing. Hall said the biggest sell of all might be the environmental one — the technology is completely organic and uses no chemicals so it can be used anywhere.

Clark County could soon become a customer. Hall did a demo on graffiti removal for officials there on July 1, and they now want to buy their own machine and do graffiti removal themselves.

Pete DuBois, sustainability coordinator for Clark County, said that would fit better with environmental goals and save them thousands of dollars. Currently, Clark County uses a protective sealant on its sound walls to make it easier to remove graffiti, DuBois said. But he said work crews were complaining about the toxicity of the material they have to rub onto the graffiti to remove it, so they started looking into alternative methods.

Learning about how easy removal could be made them really question the logic of what they were doing, DuBois said.

“Basically, the approach there is you're planning on graffiti hitting every square inch of your walls,” DuBois said. “If you have weeds, do you spot-spray or do you go out and spray the whole area?”

DuBois said the protective sealant they have been using costs about $1.25 per square foot, and a large project can have up to 40,000 square feet of sound walls, meaning it costs $50,000 to coat that large wall, not counting the cost of rubbing any graffiti off.

DuBois said Surface Cleaning Technologies will sell them their own removal machine for $40,000, and then will sell them bags of volcanic material to run the system. He said the county has written the specs for a competitive bid process, but is pretty certain the low bidder will be Surface Cleaning Technologies.

The technology can be used to take paint off of almost any surface, including wood and cement, Hall said. It doesn't work well on removing paint from glass, he said, as it can pit the glass. It probably works best on metal, he said, and shines it in the process.

One recent metal-cleaning job was for Seaview Boatyard, a Northwest company that repairs and maintains yachts at four waterfront sites in Seattle and Bellingham.

The company is updating its filtration systems and taking other measures to meet new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency requirements on runoff, said Operations Manager Tom Ringold. To prepare sailboat masts for painting, Seaview typically carted the masts out to a sandblasting company. But with its push for less toxins, Ringold said the company decided to try the Surface Cleaning Technologies method.

Because the product is environmentally friendly, it can be used right at the marinas without concerns over runoff, Ringold said, unlike the copper slag used to sandblast metal.

That also saves Seaview money it used to spend carting masts elsewhere to be sandblasted.

Ringold said the masts were ready for painting after the volcanic crystal power wash, and did not need additional sanding or a filler coat.

“It leaves a really nice profile and it's by far more environmentally friendly,” Ringold said. Seaview is switching to the technology at all of its marinas, including its biggest on Shilshole Bay.

The base charge for Surface Cleaning Technologies on-site cleanup is $200 an hour, plus travel time. Hall and his crew can do up to about 100 square feet per hour.

Next up, Hall said, is targeting smaller jobs such as homes, fences and small businesses. He has done a few graffiti clean-up projects at apartment buildings and parks and wants to do more construction site work. The company is putting together a crew to do those smaller jobs. Hall is also contacting the U.S. Coast Guard about cleaning buoys.

The technology especially makes sense for Seattle, Hall said. Unlike sandblasting or other clean-up methods, it can be used in the rain.

“Otherwise, we'd be working two months a year,” he said.

Previous columns:

• More water regulations are good news to some, 07-03-2008
• Hook camera has crane operators smiling, 06-26-2008
• Lumber company helps builders construct homes, 06-19-2008
• State grapples with construction-related deaths, 06-12-2008
• Generals must act quickly when trust funds file liens, 06-05-2008
• Finding flaws without tearing through walls, 05-29-2008
• Union contest highlights apprentices' skills, 05-22-2008
• Carpet takes on a different shade of green, 05-15-2008