Sand blasting is becoming a thing of the past, due to its harmful environmental impact. But a new, safer media is taking its place.
“Media blasting is essentially sand blasting, but we’re using different types of media that are all eco-friendly,” said Troy Stelmach, owner of Eco Media Blasting.
“We’ve chosen to only use eco-friendly media because sand blasting is quite harmful to the environment. Just the sand itself, they use silica sand, that’s really bad to breathe. There are respiratory issues that arise in people using those materials.”
There are several different medias that can be used including corn cob, walnut shells, recycled glass, and baking soda, which is often called soda blasting.
The method was originally developed in New York. Engineers were trying to clean the Statue of Liberty, but were worried about the effect on the environment, and about protecting the exterior of the Statue. They came up with soda blasting.
“The big thing is that the Ministry of Environment doesn’t allow sand blasting anywhere near waterways. Essentially you don’t want sand blasting anywhere near the public,” said Stelmach.
Soda/media blasting can take care of any job that sand blasting can. Eco Media Blasting performs countless jobs including automotive restoration, the cleaning of aircrafts or farm and industrial equipment, mold removal, graffiti removal and cleaning up flood or fire damage.
“I’m really focusing in on the log home restoration. There’s a lot of different applications for media blasting, but I’m trying to focus in on that. And I do the full service. I blast it then I can stain it, and possibly chink it as well,” said Stelmach.
Stelmach has been working with media blasting for several years, originally working for someone in Alberta.
“I bumped into a person who was involved in it, and I started working for him and helping him. It just evolved from there. He just got so busy in Alberta that be couldn’t come to B.C. anymore. So he sold me his extra equipment, and I started the business in B.C.,” he said.
He has owned the business for a year now, and does jobs all over British Columbia and western Alberta.
“In the market that I’m going for, there’s maybe three other companies in British Columbia. But none in this immediate area, so no one in the Kootenays or Columbia Valley,” said Stelmach.
For more information about the benefits of media blasting over sand blasting, or for a full list of applications, go to www.ecomediablasting.com.
Several factors go into the cost of a job, so for quotes you can contact Stelmach at 344-1340, or troy@ecomediablasting.com.
