Thomann-Hanry’s façade gommage is proving popular in London.
Since Mark Styles’ won the contract to clean the Grange Hotel at Holborn two years ago using the French Thomann-Hanry façade gommage cleaning system, it has been specified for cleaning 12 other buildings in London – including the Portland limestone and granite of the Ritz – and there are 13 more buildings waiting to receive the treatment.
The system was considered for the cleaning of Crown Estate properties in Regent Street in 2006. The Crown Estate monitor the use of water in their projects and as façade gommage is a dry cleaning system it ticked one of their boxes. In the end, however, they chose a different method.
It was also considered for Threadneedle Street, home of the Bank of England, but there a simple water wash was used as they had to have scaffolding up for repairs anyway.
There appears to have been some hesitance initially to use an unfamiliar system – even though it has been used for many years in France to clean the most sensitive of heritage buildings, including the Louvre. There were hoops to jump through for the planners, but once the Thomann-Hanry UK subsidiary had the Grange Hotel under their belts the reticence started to dissolve.
Cleaning using the Thomann-Hanry system is carried out in enclosed cabins on heavyweight cherry- pickers – a 100-tonne machine was used for one side of the Ritz, although elsewhere a 13-tonne machine was employed to reduce the weight on the roof of the Ritz Casino it was standing on.
The use of cherry pickers obviates the need for scaffolding, which is one of the system’s major advantages, especially in London. There is less disruption, both to the use of the building and vehicular and pedestrian traffic, there are no security risks and it is quicker. A 3,600m2 facade in Piccadilly was cleaned last month (February) in just three weeks. And to cap it all, the price is about the same as cleaning using scaffolding.
Another advantage is that it is a dry system, with the abrasive (which is aluminium oxide) captured by large fans in the cabin for recycling so it does not end up all over the surrounding buildings, streets, vehicles and people.
Mark says that, as with any cleaning system, the skill of the operator is vital, although because it is a dry system it is easier for the operator to see what level of cleaning has been achieved without wet stone to confuse the issue.
Mark says the experience of his French partners has been instrumental in the success of his contracts. Jean Delaporte, from the parent company in France and Marketing Director of the Thomann-Hanry UK subsidiary, says the system is gentle on the fabric of the building because of its abrasive rather than impact action using particles of less than 100microns.
Gommage in French means exfoliating. It is a word adopted by Thomann-Hanry in 1984. It is associated with women’s beauty treatments and in facade cleaning has the obvious connotations of that association.
Some readers may recall the system being introduced to the UK in the 1990s. It has undergone continued development in the intervening years resulting in some patented innovations since then. It certainly seems to be the solution some clients are looking for.