Having a blast with restoration

After a fire,smoke and soot damage can be extremely difficult and time-consuming to deal with. Demon International recently helped the Ideal Group to restore washroom cubicles and steel support girders at a hospital unit using soda blasting

The Ideal Group are one of the leading providers of cleaning, restoration and sanitation services in the UK. Following a visit to the Cleaning Show in 2009, they saw the potential in the Demon International range with the expertise of Soda Blasting products, especially for fire restoration.The Ideal Group subsequently invested in a Soda Blasting Pot which has proved highly effective, especially for a recent contract at Chase Farm Hospital in Enfield.

The secure residential unit at Chase Farm suffered a catastrophic fire in 2008; the roof of the building was removed and the first floor suffered from severe smoke and fire damage.

Simmons Construction was approached by the hospital trust to project manage the restoration and re-commissioning of the building.The Ideal Group was asked by Simmons to provide assistance in fire and flood restoration prior to reconstruction works commencing.

The lower floor suffered from serious ingress of water from the fire brigade.The wing affected by the incident housed some 30 bedrooms per floor, each having a pre-fabricated shower/toilet cubicle.

No need to shell out In most cases the cubicle 'pods' had suffered from heavy soot deposits, but no structural damage.The hospital trust was keen to retain the pods as the cost of replacement would be extremely high.

There were also a great number of steel support girders which had to be retained as part of the reconstruction, but being on the upper floor with no roof, they had suffered from prolonged exposure to the elements.

A number of methods were trialled for cleaning the pods including chemical cleaning, steam cleaning and peel away latex.According to Demon, none of the methods produced as high quality results as the soda blasting method, and they also proved to be far slower processes to complete.

Speed demon The time taken to complete the clean of each unit and the finished state of each after cleaning was an important consideration.Demon says the speed at which each pod could be cleaned was very quick and that after soda blasting, little additional work was required before re-decorating and re-installation of sanitary ware could be achieved.

Overall the soda blasting also proved very effective in removing smoke and soot residue from the pods. It was also extremely easy to remove rust and soot deposits from steel works that were to be retained, claims the company.

Soda blasting was chosen by both Simons Construction and the Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals Trust as being the recommended method of cleaning and resulted in a very successful project for all involved.

"Ideal Cleaning were pleased to have helped Simons construction with this important project," says Martin Weeks, business development manager for the Ideal Group."Using the Demon soda blast system was definitely the most appropriate method for the job and gave a great result." Demon says it has a huge knowledge of soda blasting, having been a supplier of soda blasting equipment and media for many years to a range of industries, from fire restoration to automotive restoration, industrial equipment maintenance, rust removal, graffiti removal, masonry cleaning and restoration, boat hull cleaning and food processing facilities.

To find out more go to www.demon-pressure-washers.co.uk or telephone the company using the number below.