Façade cleaning company WGL Stoneclean have made the headlines in the respected regional newspaper, the Yorkshire Post, with an acid-steam stone cleaning system they call Steamacc.

In the Business section of the newpaper covering SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) Greg Wright, Deputy Business Editor, is credited with the story under the heading: ‘Firm steaming ahead to make sandblasting a thing of the past’.

Bernard Coleman, who took over WGL Stoneclean six years ago, sent NSS a cutting of the newspaper report saying: “We’re not rich, but we have a little bit of fame.”

And he says he has been delighted with the enquiries he has received as a result of the latest publicity for the acid and super-heated Doff pressure washing system he has been using for the past four years.

The publicity arose from a press release sent out by the University of Leeds as the result of a study they carried out into the cleaning process used by WGL Stoneclean.

The study was carried out as the result of WGL taking advantage of funding made available by Business Link Yorkshire to help businesses connect with colleges.

When Bernard was unable to get to sites, let alone carry out any work on them, because of the snow at the beginning of last year he decided to use the time to have the study carried out.

The nine-page report the university produced can be downloaded as a PDF from the company website at the address below. The results are helping WGL Stoneclean to convince clients of the merits of sand-free cleaning. Bernard says having the report has proved exceptionally successful.

He emailed the results from the report to the architects and contractors he knew in the North and says: “We went from scratching around trying to keep three people employed to having 22 people on sites in October.”

The report puts customers’ minds at rest, showing the acid causes less corrosion than sandblasting and that it is inert, so no danger to water courses, by the time it is washed off a building using the Doff system from Stonehealth.

Bernard says the real skill is knowing the strength of acid to use for the clean required and the length of time to leave it on the stone before washing it off.

He has been so impressed with the benefits the report has given him that he is now working with the university on a report on a system he has for removing paint from masonry and he has three other projects lined up for them.

However, he says the headline in the Yorkshire Post suggesting sandblasting will become a thing of the past is not quite right because sandblasting is still the right cleaning solution in some circumstances. In fact, one of the projects he has in the pipeline for the university involves abrasive cleaning.