A revolution in building façade cleaning
The world leading commercial building façade cleaning experts
All too often, the façade of a building is left to endure the elements, and dirt & grime which comes with being in high-traffic, urban environments. Building owners and facilities managers will often opt to look after the interior at the expense of the exterior façade.
Thomann-Hanry® has gained a reputation for being the UK’s premiere façade cleaning company, offering a scaffold-free, dry, and non-abrasive alternative to traditional cleaning methods such as high pressure steam and harsh cleaning solutions. Through a patented, gentle cleaning process which removes dirt effectively and efficiently to reveal the natural stone or surface of the building. This process is suitable for the vast majority of surface substrates on modern or historic commercial buildings.
Scaffold-Free Façade Cleaning Experts
What is façade gommage®
Façade gommage® is the secret behind the impeccable façade cleaning services offered by Thomann-Hanry®. The scaffold-free façade cleaning system was created and developed by Thomann-Hanry® Paris in 1947. ‘Gommage’ is a French term that refers to the process of gently cleaning masonry.
How façade gommage® works
Projected under low pressure from a cabin mounted on a hydraulic boom, ultrafine dry particles of aluminium silicate (a chemically inert by-product of aluminium smelting) flows across all surfaces, gently rubbing away decades of dirt and grime before being drawn off, filtered and collected through a water curtain for recycling.
The lightweight vacuum cabin can be suspended from outriggers or mounted on a hydraulic boom truck, with no need for costly and unsightly scaffolding, which can add time and costs to your project, as well as causing a visual eye-sore and disruption to your clients or staff.
To ensure consistent quality control, the materials and equipment our façade cleaning experts use comply with a uniform standard all over the world – together with other onsite application processes. These procedures assure our clients that every project using façade gommage® will achieve the same high standards; each time, every time.
Speed up your façade cleaning project
With no need for scaffolding, our hydraulic boom-mounted cabin can be up and running within two hours of arrival on site. Hassle-free and causing minimal disruption, we can cover up an incredible 200m2 of the façade per day.
Instead of disrupting the day-to-day running of your business, our platforms and truck mounts are fast and discreet, so cleaning takes years off your building without taking ages to prepare. And the less time your business is disrupted, the less money you’ll lose. We can also work outside of standard business hours, such as evening, weekend and even public holidays, ensuring minimal disruption to you and your customers.
Innovative & effective façade cleaning
Many conventional façade cleaning processes involve the use of water at high pressure, blasting accumulated pollutants, grime, and residues off the surface of a building, using vast quantities of water. Other alternatives use harsh chemical solvents to treat the facades surface, which can have lingering environmental consequences.
Façade gommage® uses negligible amounts of water, which is continuously recycled through the extraction stage of the process to draw off cleaning residues, no chemicals, and not a single pole of scaffolding, façade gommage® is changing the face of façade cleaning entirely. It simply uses a by-product from aluminium smelting – an ultra-fine, inert and non-toxic powder.
The only requirements of façade gommage® are power and air, which is supplied from the lorry itself.
Efficient & accessible
The façade gommage® façade cleaning system can be especially noticeable when applied to large buildings of 500m2 or more. However, many projects have been undertaken on smaller surfaces with the same astounding results. The boom can reach up to 42m from ground level and smaller machines are available for buildings in narrow streets or with other limited access.
As an innovation, the security and safety aspects of façade gommage® set it apart from traditional techniques. At the end of a day’s cleaning, the cabin is simply retracted on its hydraulic boom, leaving property security completely uncompromised. From a Health and Safety perspective, the entire process is contained, unlike DOFF, TORC and nebulous spray techniques, which can inconvenience and potentially endanger passers-by as well as occupants of the building.
A Great Job Done Well
Façade gommage® offers conservation and heritage building façade cleaning at a cost effective price point. The Thomann-Hanry® team can assist you in understanding any requirement your listed building may have. It is also recommended to undertake a façade clean before any façade restoration work to allow for a better match for any repairs which are undertaken.
Façade gommage® is a bespoke system globally operated by Thomann-Hanry® trained façade cleaning experts with no third-parties involved.
Call our team today on +44 (0) 20 8453 1494 or contact us to find out how a Commercial Building Façade Cleaning from Thomann-Hanry® can help your business.
“Thomann-Hanry®’s façade gommage® system is the perfect solution for cleaning the hotel exterior. Their unique system meant we were able to clean three elevations, including the main entrance, without disruption to our guests and we were able to keep all our rooms available. The setup and cleaning process is remarkably quick as they do not use scaffold and, most importantly, the results are outstanding.”
Learn more about the façade cleaning systems on the market from our façade cleaning guide. The guide offers an in-depth look at the traditional façade cleaning methods. For RIBA-approved CPD seminars on façade cleaning, click here. For the façade gommage® COSHH datasheet, click here.