Steam Cleaning Bricks

[Spoilt Victorian Child]

I've just found this video on YouTube of a Toronto company cleaning brickwork (external and exposed internal) with a steam cleaner, leaving virtually no mess!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGuqJCoEbmU

This could be just the solution I'm looking for to clean my exposed brick wall in my kitchen without half flooding the place out.

What do people think about any potential long term damage high powered steam could cause to the bricks or lime mortar? (Some of my bricks are quite soft, others quite hard)

Does anyone know of (or has used) any such machines in the UK? Can you hire them?

The actual model they're using in the videos is one of these, which on the manufacturers website seems to imply they're meant for cleaning floor tiles/grout/pavements.
https://turbo-force.com/

 

[GPHouse]

Hi

I've seen a lot of cleaning options recently, the other one I've seen a lot of recently which leaves little mess is Dry Ice Blasting - no idea on cost/practicality.

If it's a DIY option - Kling strip (and I presume other places) do a Vacwash Pressure Washer Attachment which removes a lot of the usuam mess, not sure if it would be too wet/harsh though?

G

 

[plasticpigeon]

That system looks really good. I haven't seen it over here. I had someone use a doff machine on some stonework but they ruined the stone. They were morons but I think it is a harsh system and it uses a lot of steam so would make everything very wet so i wouldn't recommend that, it would definitely blow a lot of mortar out.

 

[Spoilt Victorian Child]

I've found one reseller/cleaning service near Basingstoke that seems to use the same steam cleaner as in that Canadian video.

http://www.cleantileandgrout.co.uk/turboforce/

But the only mention of its use is on floors. Also, they're a bit far away from me, but will give them a call and make some enquiries as to whether they think wall cleaning is possible (odd they don't mention it on their site).

Just looked at the Doff system and the Vacwash Pressure Washer, but they're way too messy for my needs.
In what wat did the Doff system ruin the stone BTW PP? Thought stone would be quite hardy?

The Dry Ice Blasting looks like a potential option for my situation, though I'd be interested to see the mess it does leave. That muck/paint has got to go somewhere and it looks like it gets dispersed around the room in clouds. The operators are also wearing full on masks and protective suits - in the steam cleaning video the only protection the guy seemed to need was gloves.

 

[Lime]

I would like to see the sections of brickwork being cleaned in the video after drying out.
I doubt they would look much different.
Most old brick looks better wet but the colour and appearance doesn't last as it dries.

Some superficial marks may be removed better with the steam/hot water method.
However vacuum cleaning the brickwork and wiping over with a clean damp sponge is as likely to produce as good or similar appearance to the steam cleaning.

The examples they show of whole houses are all built of apparently hard and relatively modern brick.
Soft, old brick is much less likely to benefit IMO.

Steam cleaning may be an alternative method to use but I doubt it is quite the nirvana being claimed.

I don't know anything about the dry ice blasting technique.
What I would say is if it involves a rapid change in the surface temperature of wet brickwork I'd expect damage, not necessarily immediately visible.