Kuyavia and the area around Bydgoszcz is a region built of red brick. Tenements, former factory buildings, granaries, churches, walls. Add the wooden joinery in old houses and the steel structures in plants that have been running for decades. All of it has one thing in common: sooner or later it has to be cleaned, and the cleaning method decides whether the material survives the next years or starts to crumble.
Our branch is in Topola near Inowrocław, so we bring the laser to sites in Inowrocław, Bydgoszcz and Toruń. Below we describe what clients from the region most often come with, what a job looks like and when a laser really makes sense.
What clients from the region call us about
Brick facades and walls. Soot from years of coal burning, atmospheric deposits, graffiti, remains of paint or plaster. Brick is porous, so dirt goes deep, and a building owner usually hears two proposals at once: sandblasting or chemicals.
Wooden joinery. Doors, windows, stairs, ceiling beams and roof frames painted several times over the decades. Under the layers of paint there is often wood in very good condition, but nobody knows how to get to it without destroying the profiles.
Sandstone and stone details. Cornices, portals, ornaments, church elements and gravestones. A black crust on stone looks like ordinary dirt, but it is harder than the stone itself and bonds with its structure.
Steel structures and production parts. Rust on structures, injection moulds, machine parts, surface preparation before painting or welding. What matters here is not changing the dimension of the part and not covering the hall in abrasive.
Why not sandblasting or chemicals
Sandblasting is fast and cheap, but it removes everything at once, together with the top layer of the material. On brick that means wearing off the hard, fired outer layer. What is left underneath is soft, open material that from then on absorbs water much faster and deteriorates faster. On wood, sandblasting rounds off the edges of profiles, on stone it takes away detail.
Chemicals soak into the pores, need rinsing and neutralising, and on a wall they can come back after a few months as white salt efflorescence.
A laser works differently. A pulse of light vaporises the layer of dirt, and we set the parameters so that it stops at the boundary of the original surface. Nothing touches the material, and there is no abrasive, water or reagents. The coating can be removed layer by layer and stopped at any moment.
We write more about the method itself here: laser cleaning
Laser cleaning in Inowrocław and the surrounding area
Inowrocław and the nearby towns are closest to us, so this is where it is easiest to arrange a test on site. The Topola branch (Rojewo municipality) is about 12 km from Inowrocław, and Bydgoszcz and Toruń are about 35 km away, roughly 40 minutes by road. Most often we work on brick tenements and outbuildings, wooden joinery in older houses and steel elements in local plants.
For smaller items that can be dismantled, such as doors, fittings or machine parts, it is often more convenient to bring them to us. That saves the cost of travelling to the site.
Laser cleaning in Bydgoszcz
Brick buildings dominate in Bydgoszcz: tenements in the centre, former industrial buildings and buildings along the Brda. On such buildings the problem is rarely the dirt itself, more often that earlier cleaning attempts left their marks. Brick worn down by sandblasting, streaks after chemicals, discolouration.
On brick facades a laser cleans the wall without further damaging the face and without chiselling out the joints. On steel structures in plants it removes rust and old coatings without abrasive dust in the hall.
Laser cleaning in Toruń and buildings under a conservator
Toruń is above all historic architecture, and the Old Town complex is on the UNESCO list. On such buildings the conservator decides the cleaning method, and often rules out sandblasting and chemicals.
The laser is accepted on historic buildings precisely because it does not damage the original substance and lets us control the depth of cleaning. Before work we always run trials on a sample area that the conservator assesses.
We carry out some of these jobs as a subcontractor of renovation and conservation companies. The company runs the contract, and we come on site with our own equipment and qualifications and do the laser part. Details: cooperation with renovation and conservation companies.
How a job works, step by step
1. Photo. You send us a photograph of the surface, close up and from a distance. On that basis we make a first assessment of the material, the type of dirt and whether a laser makes sense at all.
2. Sample test. We come and clean a small area. You see the result on your own material, and we measure the real working time.
3. Quote and date. Only after the test do we give a quote and a realistic completion time. We also agree what we provide and what the site provides, for example power or scaffolding.
4. Work and handover. We work on site or at our workshop. When finished, we check the result together and hand the surface over for further work.
How much laser cleaning costs
We charge by the hour for a laser system with an operator, and the rate is lower on longer projects. We do not give a price per square metre without a test, and that is deliberate.
The same brick can take twice as long depending on what is on it and for how long. A layer of soot comes off quickly, six layers of oil paint from profiled joinery much more slowly. A quote without a test would be guesswork, and then either we do extra work for free or the client pays more than agreed.
More on what the price depends on: how much does it cost?
When a laser does not pay off
We say it openly, because we would rather lose a job than a client.
On large steel surfaces with powder coating a laser works very slowly, and sandblasting will be faster and cheaper. Likewise for parts that are going to be replaced anyway or covered with a thick layer of new plaster, the precision of a laser adds little.
A laser is not the fastest cleaning method. It is the most precise one. It makes sense where the material underneath matters more than speed: on historic buildings, exposed brick, wood with detail and parts that must not be damaged.
Frequently asked questions
Do you travel to Bydgoszcz and Toruń? Yes. Our branch is in Topola near Inowrocław, so Inowrocław, Bydgoszcz and Toruń are our core area. For larger jobs we also work across Poland.
Is scaffolding needed? For work at height yes, but a lift is often enough. If scaffolding is already up on site, we work from it.
Can you clean without dismantling? Yes. We clean joinery in place in the openings, roof frames on site and facades without taking anything off. On historic buildings this lowers the risk of damaging original joints.
Is much dirt left behind? Far less than with sandblasting. There is no abrasive to haul away and no water in the wall. The fine dust from the removed coating is collected by extraction, so we can also work inside buildings.
Have a building that needs cleaning?
Send a photo of the surface to biuro@omme.pl or call: +48 570 471 653. We will tell you whether a laser makes sense and arrange a sample test. We serve Inowrocław, Bydgoszcz, Toruń and the surrounding area, and from our head office in Plewiska also Poznań and Greater Poland. For larger jobs we travel across Poland.
Or simply ask: Send an enquiry
