# Blasting Media for Plaster



## Stretch67 (Oct 7, 2013)

Doing a fairly large room in a big warehouse complex. Have to blast one wall clean and brush blast the other three. Also brush blast the ceiling. The walls are a mix of concrete block and plaster. Not sure what kind of paint is on the wall, a mix I imagine. It's all in varying states of "falling off". Anybody have a recommendation for a media?

Slag is fast, but wondering if it might blow right through the plaster? Cob/walnut is more money, and slower from what I gather. Going to try a few different things later this week.


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## kdpaint (Aug 14, 2010)

Maybe 2 types of media, to match the substrates you are blasting? A harder one for the block? Might be better for speed, plus, blast pots don't care much what you put in them.


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## PRC (Aug 28, 2014)

Let us know what works best on each substrate. 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk


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## Stretch67 (Oct 7, 2013)

Going to try slag, glass, cob, and walnut tmrw.


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## NACE (May 16, 2008)

bryceraisanen said:


> Going to try slag, glass, cob, and walnut tmrw.


Have you thought about dry ice?


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## Stretch67 (Oct 7, 2013)

Yeah, thought about it, thats it.

Ended up using good ol 20/40 coal slag. The industry workhorse that seems to work about the best for everything. It was dusty lemme tell ya!! Visibility literally down to arms length and less. We had to re-invent all our hand signals into "bang on the lift" signals lol! I couldnt see to the ground and the helper couldn't see me and I only was up 22' feet at the most.

Tricky work though, and you end up losing a good quarter inch of plaster. They are gonna spend a day or two patching in the areas that went to deep, and then we'll paint it.


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## CApainter (Jun 29, 2007)

Yikes! I can only imagine the clean up.


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## Stretch67 (Oct 7, 2013)

Ha! I'm not too old to run a square shovel yet. Got it all out yesterday. Maybe put about 5 yards into a 10 yard container.


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## CApainter (Jun 29, 2007)

bryceraisanen said:


> Ha! I'm not too old to run a square shovel yet. Got it all out yesterday. Maybe put about 5 yards into a 10 yard container.


Cleaning up was always the hardest part of blasting. I've shoveled tons of col tar mixed with spent slag.

Do you use Kleen Blast?


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## Stretch67 (Oct 7, 2013)

No, local supplier.


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## PRC (Aug 28, 2014)

bryceraisanen said:


> Ha! I'm not too old to run a square shovel yet. Got it all out yesterday. Maybe put about 5 yards into a 10 yard container.





CApainter said:


> Cleaning up was always the hardest part of blasting. I've shoveled tons of col tar mixed with spent slag.
> 
> Do you use Kleen Blast?


I didn't know painters ran shovels! Glad I stuck with commercial and residential, haha! 
But really though I did a couple small "industrial type" projects and did enjoy them, no blasting involved. One was for the art college, MICA, in Baltimore. Had to paint the tube steel structure from boom with tnemec zinc primer and 2 part topcoats with rollers before glass was installed. 

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Brown_Center_MICA_interior_MD1.jpg

http://poster.4teachers.org/imgFilePoster/353286.jpg

I give you guys alot of credit, blasting sounds like bull work!


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## Stretch67 (Oct 7, 2013)

PRC said:


> I didn't know painters ran shovels! Glad I stuck with commercial and residential, haha!
> But really though I did a couple small "industrial type" projects and did enjoy them, no blasting involved. One was for the art college, MICA, in Baltimore. Had to paint the tube steel structure from boom with tnemec zinc primer and 2 part topcoats with rollers before glass was installed.
> 
> https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Brown_Center_MICA_interior_MD1.jpg
> ...


Looks like a fun one!

Yep we run shovels all the time, hand shovels, hydraulic shovels, mexican backhoes, skid steers, you name it. Gotta do what you gotta do... Was just commenting the other day that the painting portion of industrial work seems to be less and less everyday. This particular job less than 10% of the man hours will be physically applying the paint. 
Hauling/rearranging equipment, mobilization, surface prep, cleanup making the other 90%.

Fwiw, the bigger the tool, the more it bills out at :thumbup:


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## CApainter (Jun 29, 2007)

We used vacuum truck contractors, whenever possible, to help suck up the mess. It's also very difficult to open blast in California without a containment. Fortunately, I have accesss to a diesel powered dust collector. The ventilation from those things are amazing! You can be creating a dust up like an Iraqi sand storm and still have the visibility of a blue bird day on an Icelandic coast line.


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