Hydro Blasting what is it?

Hydro Blasting what is it?

You can call it what you wish some refer to as sand-blasting or a all encompassing term of "Media blasting". Most of the power washing suppliers will refer to it as "wet sandblasting". With so many terms it is hard to bill and sell this service to customers. They simply do not know where to look or what the term means. I do a lot of auto and bike restorations a small market for us but it's growing quickly with that in mind I thought an article on blasting was in order. If you follow me here you know I have been in business for a while and have grown our company branding but we can always use help in getting recognition and promotion on this service.

Using attachments such as these with a pressure washer of 3500 to 4000 psi at 4 gallons a minute and specialized blasting media, Cleaned by Pete "Hydro Blasts" autos, bike, along with other items. Wet sand-blasting  or media blasting is a growing field in the power washing industry.

The power washing or pressure washing industry can not even settle on one general name or category for what we do as professionals washers. Even that term "professional washers" is a misnomer I do more than just wash. Blasting paint and rust removal happens to be one of those services. I feel it is one of the best add on services you can have once you know and understand it. It is far more than mixing media and squirting it out in a water stream. You need not have one of the large units that are specially designed for hydro blasting if you are like me and do smaller jobs the car pictured below took about 3 hours total time to do, and I did it with my 4000 psi @ 4 gpm machine just right for doing this type of blasting and rust removal.

I am try to raise up the level of what we as power washers do. Over the weekend I was working on a car that needed some attention. Knowing what to do, how to do it, and what to use is more important to me than just the job. What I'm saying is that it is more or an art an not damaging any thing is a must. Using water has advantages and disadvantages. You need not worry about tenting, respiration hoods or clouds of what maybe considered more toxic by the "EPA" water coated media falls back down and any stripped materials do also. This is the biggest plus or advantage. Hydro blasting also uses less media it can reuse any media that becomes trapped in the water stream. With air it hits and bounces off or becomes airborne thus the need for hoods and tenting. Water keeps sheet metal panels from warping under heat caused by the air method of blasting. With the same equipment we can use several different types of media.

I think we as an industry should consider coming together and referring to this type of work as "Hydro Blasting" and promote it under one such banner. I can do more with a power washer or pressure washer than you think this is just one service. It can be one of the larger growing services with the right knowledge of what it can do. We can start to ban together and doing so customers and promotions of it can help out our bottom line. If we can show that with water and the right media, hydro blasting will work for more that you can guess. 

Cleaned by Pete does hydro blasting or media blasting on several different surfaces or substrates. We do mainly auto and bike restorations a untapped field of blasting. Mobile blasting for those who are restoring their dreams from the past. Working on finer cars and bikes is what we like to do. This same service can be used for stripping paint from parking lots, graffiti removal and other service. Soda blasting in the food service area for cleaning is another field you can use soda to clean equipment inside and since soda is nonabrasive it can be used around moving equipment as conveyers and production machinery need to be cleaned or stripped. Bring this service to the for front can be a new large field for this industry. Soda is also great for removing hard water marks from tiles around pools and fountains it also can help to remove efflorescence from brick and other surfaces.

Hydro blasting '67 Mustang, Cleaned by Pete 417.459.7869 media blasting, wet sandblasting, soda blasting.

Hydro blasting tractor sheet metal, Cleaned by Pete 417.459.7869 media blasting, wet sandblasting, soda blasting.

Hydro blasting soda blasting aluminium custom wheels Cleaned by Pete 417.459.7869 media blasting, wet sandblasting, soda blasting.

Hydro blasting with soda Thunder Bird rear end, Cleaned by Pete 417.459.7869 media blasting, wet sandblasting, soda blasting.

Hydro blasting removing factory clear coat and paint from a BMW wheel center Cleaned by Pete 417.459.7869 media blasting, wet sandblasting, soda blasting.

Hydro blasting motor cycle frames and parts Cleaned by Pete 417.459.7869 media blasting, wet sandblasting, soda blasting.

Hydro blasting with soda removing the factor clear coat and finish from a Honda 550cc motor Cleaned by Pete 417.459.7869 media blasting, wet sandblasting, soda blasting.

Hydro blasting is it for you? Hydro blasting we need to educate prospective customers and prospective technicians in this field. I was working on a '67 Shelby Mustang this weekend didn't look like much but the car if done right should be in the 40 to 50 grand area when finished according to the customer. He had be working on it for about 3 month trying to blast it himself. He heard of my "hydro blasting" service from a mutual friend, said he has been restoring cars for years and never knew any thing about this type or form of blasting. He was simply amazed at what I did in the 3 hours I was there. If we can get the word out on this service I know we can elevate it to a professional level. 

This is just something to think about, trying to change of the public view of what a power or pressure does. With so many "low ballers" "weekend worriers" and the perception of working for beer money. Specialized fields filling niche markets is one way of doing this. I pulled up with 3 washers and two blasting set-ups on our small S10 flatbed pick-up with all that would be need for the job. Customer was not quite sure that what I had could meet his expectations which he said I far exceeded. It was so nice since he could not trailer it to a blasting location to have the work done, and not seeing a large trailer with a huge compressor on it was amazing.

Hydro blasting tractor fender after paint removal Cleaned by Pete 417.459.7869 media blasting, wet sandblasting, soda blasting.

Hydro blasting the Mustang before an after photo. Cleaned by Pete 417.459.7869 media blasting, wet sandblasting, soda blasting.

Hydro blasting, media blasting or whatever we wish to call it. Cleaned by Pete 417.459.7869 #wet sandblasting, #soda blasting.

So what do we call this? How do we promote it? Where do we go from here? Knowledge is the key to success. I have learned to do most of this by years of hard work and some trial and errors. I grew up building bikes and cars and that is why I specialize in this field. Help us change the views of what we do and help promote a professional look to this industry.