Commercial Pressure Washing in Cairns

The surface is the easy part

On a commercial job the concrete is rarely the difficult bit. The difficulty is everything around it: the trading hours you cannot interrupt, the staff and public walking through the area, the tenant next door whose stock is stacked against the wall you need to wash, and the fact that a wet hardstand is a slip hazard until it dries.

Most of what we do commercially in Cairns is car parks and driveway aprons, loading docks and hardstands, awnings and shopfront surrounds, common area paths for body corporate and strata, bin bays, and the back of house areas behind food premises. The surfaces are ordinary. The planning is not.

Grease needs heat, not pressure

Behind a kitchen, in a bin bay, or around a fryer oil store, what is on the ground is not dirt. It is a fat and oil residue that has soaked into the concrete and hardened, and cold water at any pressure will not shift it because the grease is not water soluble at ambient temperature. All cold water achieves is spreading a thin film wider across the slab.

Grease-laden concrete needs an alkaline degreaser, enough dwell time for it to break the fat down, and hot water to keep it in suspension while it is rinsed. Get the temperature right and the concrete comes back close to its original colour. Get it wrong and you are just moving the problem to the edges of the pad, where it darkens again within days.

Where the water goes

Cairns stormwater drains into the inlet and out to the reef, which is why washing grease, detergent or fuel residue straight into a gully is a problem and not a technicality. Bin bays and kitchen areas get bunded, and the wash water gets collected and disposed of properly rather than sent down the nearest grate. If a site has a trade waste connection, that is what we use.

Salt matters here too. On sites near the Esplanade, the marina or anywhere on the coastal strip, salt aerosol builds on awnings, powder coated frames and roller doors, and it accelerates corrosion around fixings. A rinse of the frames and fixings goes into those jobs by default, because cleaning the panel and leaving salt in the fastener recesses is half a job.

Scheduling, and what we will not sell you

Most commercial work happens early morning, after close, or on a rotating section basis so the site never fully shuts. We will work out access, water points, power and any inductions before the day rather than on it.

We will also tell you when a clean is not the answer. Asphalt is the usual one. High pressure lifts the binder out of an aging asphalt car park and leaves it loose and stony, so on a worn seal the honest recommendation is to leave it alone and spend the money on the concrete areas instead. Faded line marking is the same story: a wash does not restore it, and pressure will finish it off.

For a site walk through and a written quote, call 07 4028 4268 or send the details through the form.