Posts
10108
Joined
4/1/2008
Location
Dallas, TX
US
Edited Date/Time
8/20/2021 7:20pm
I’m wondering if anyone has had any luck blasting walls while vacuuming at the same time? I have lots of electrical boxes, conduit, plumbing, etc all over the walls. I can’t stop production for long enough to remove and then rewire/replumb everything so I was hoping to attach a strong vacuum to a blaster and do a little bit each weekend while production is down.
Anyone tried something like this or found something off the shelf that would work? I have about 1/2” of foam covering on the walls that is about 40-50 years old that my industrial insurance company would like to have removed, just not sure how to do it.
Anyone tried something like this or found something off the shelf that would work? I have about 1/2” of foam covering on the walls that is about 40-50 years old that my industrial insurance company would like to have removed, just not sure how to do it.
The bubble won't work well either, as I am trying to keep the old foam particles from falling on/into the electrical boxes that are mounted all over the walls and such. It's a 60 year old plant, wiring and plumbing everywhere.
I'm afraid that there is no easy way to have this done, unfortunately.
The Shop
Is there an opportunity for after hours work?
Here are some examples. The pale yellow colored areas are the foam covering. Just about 3/4” thick. Over the years the wiring, plumbing, etc has been added over the foam.
While this is a much smaller scale than what you plan to do, it should be possible. Maybe a large shop vac floor nozzle could be used.
Also plan to use some kind of dust collector/barrel before the shop vac because that insulation will plug up you vac filter quickly.
To be serious, I'd see if you could just spray new over to seal the old in. Otherwise it's going to be a very long and tedious project with your current restraints.
Covering it may be the only option but that doesn’t really solve what they claim is the problem. The foam itself doesn’t really burn, per se (it does, but very slowly), but they want it gone because in a fire it would likely melt and cover the floor, hindering efforts to put out a fire.
I like the idea of trying to get behind the foam and using the dry ice blaster to try to take it off in larger pieces. We run basically 24/5, so there’s the possibility of trying to do sections on weekends. My big worry there is trying to contain the particulates so that the startup on Sunday night isn’t delayed. It’s obviously not a ‘clean room’ but we need a reasonably clean environment in order to produce what we do in the building.
Apparently our maintenance team has a dry ice blaster on order for equipment cleaning so I may be able to try to see if it works after all. But the blaster has been on order for over 6 months so no telling how much longer I’d have to wait.
Post a reply to: Media blasting walls-covered with conduit, etc.