Preparing your site for a blasting job

Before the day

• Confirm the item is where we think it is. The number of times a boat has been moved to a different yard between quote and job would surprise you.
• Tell us about anything that has changed since the quote — more area, a second item, a coating you have since discovered underneath. Better a revised quote than a variation.
• Sort out access permissions. Landlord, strata, site induction, gate codes, security escort. This is the single most common cause of a lost morning.
• Check the forecast with us if you are outdoors. We will call if it looks marginal.
• Book your painter. If the steel is being coated, the coating window starts the moment we finish. See flash rust.

Parking and access

The rig is a truck, often with a trailer. We need somewhere to put it, ideally within 30 metres of the work — that is a comfortable hose run. Further is possible but slower.

• Reserve the space. On a suburban street that might mean parking your own cars there overnight and moving them in the morning.
• Check overhead clearance for low branches, carport beams and awnings.
• Soft ground matters. A loaded truck on wet lawn or sand does not end well; tell us if that is the only option.
• If a gate needs to be wide enough for equipment, measure it before the day rather than on it.
• On commercial sites, confirm the loading dock, the induction requirement and who signs us in.

Clearing the work zone

We need clear access all the way around whatever is being blasted, plus room to work. As a rule of thumb, allow about two metres of clearance around the item.

Please move: vehicles, bikes, tools, furniture, pot plants, bins, hoses, kids' equipment, anything on the wall being blasted, and anything stored against it. If it cannot be moved, tell us in advance so we can allow masking time in the quote rather than discovering it at 7am.

What to protect

Dustless blasting has a fall-out zone of a few metres, not a plume. Even so, within about ten metres of the work, move or cover:

• Vehicles — including the neighbour's, if it is parked close.
• Windows and flyscreens, unless we are masking them.
• Air conditioning units and evaporative coolers.
• Solar panels, pool equipment, and open pools.
• Outdoor furniture, barbecues, washing lines.
• Vegetable gardens and prized plants — particularly for soda blasting, where alkaline runoff is genuinely harmful.
• Pets. Keep them inside for the day; the compressor is loud and the yard is not a safe place while we are working.

We mask what needs masking as part of the job. This list is about the things you would rather were simply out of the way.

Water, power and facilities

The rig carries its own compressor, water tank and media. We do not need your power or your water, and we do not plug into anything of yours unless it has been agreed beforehand.

What does help: somewhere for the slurry to drain that is not a stormwater grate, and a toilet on longer jobs. On sites where runoff must be captured, we bring containment — tell us at quote stage so it is allowed for.

Neighbours and notifications

A knock on the door the day before prevents most complaints. Tell them the date, roughly how long, and that it is a dust-suppressed process rather than open sandblasting. Ask them to move cars and bring washing in.

Noise is worth mentioning honestly: the compressor runs at construction-site levels for the duration. Perth councils generally permit noisy work from 7am on weekdays and from 9am on Saturdays, with no Sunday or public holiday work without approval. We work inside those hours unless a permit says otherwise.

Strata, body corporate and commercial sites

Allow more lead time than you think. Typically required:

• Written approval from strata or the building manager.
• Our certificate of currency for public liability — ask and we will send it.
• A Safe Work Method Statement, which we provide.
• Site induction for the crew, sometimes on a separate earlier day.
• Agreed working hours, which on retail and hospitality sites often means nights.
• Notice to other tenants.

Start this two to three weeks out. It is almost always the paperwork that delays a commercial job, never the blasting.

On the day

Someone should be available at the start to confirm the scope, point out anything sensitive and agree where the rig sits. After that you are free to leave, provided we have access and a phone number.

If we find something unexpected — rust holes, filler, asbestos risk, a substrate that will not take the process — we stop and call you before continuing. Nothing gets decided without you.

After we leave

We collect spent media and remove it from site. The work area gets swept or washed down. What we cannot do is remove the fine residue that settles on nearby surfaces during the day — a hose-down of adjacent paving or the car is occasionally warranted, and it comes off easily.

If the item is bare steel awaiting coating, keep it dry and coat it inside the window we give you. That is the one thing that will cost real money if it slips.