MARCH 2004

NMD 80 provides the right cleaning solution for hotel’s complex facade design

An architect’s dream can often turn into a contractor’s nightmare when it comes to cleaning building surfaces. That was especially true in the case of the CambridgeSide Hotel project. The CambridgeSide Hotel is a $61 million, eight-story, 236-room luxury hotel and restaurant adjacent to the CambridgeSide Galleria in East Cambridge, MA. It features a circular, European-style courtyard and its rooms overlook the Lechmere Canal, the Charles River and the Esplanade. The hotel’s elegant facade was designed to echo the Cambridge area’s architectural design and featured a combination of red waterstruck brick with light buff colored N-type mortar, light precast stone and Arriscraft synthetic block. From a cleaning standpoint, this project was particularly challenging since it involved three different masonry surfaces. In addition, waterstruck brick can be some of the most difficult brick to clean and Arriscraft block is a particularly sensitive surface. Facing such an immense challenge, the contractor decided to forgo his traditional cleaning method, opting instead to take a new approach using EaCo Chem’s NMD 80 new masonry detergent. Originally, a competitor’s new masonry product was specified to clean the brick but there was a fear that the product would cause streaks on the precast and block. The competitor suggested a weaker alternative that it claimed could be used to clean all the surfaces. But even with this weaker product, streaking the Arriscraft block remained a concern. After all, Arriscraft had recommended that only soap and water be used on its block. NMD 80 was given an opportunity to demonstrate on all three surfaces and worked beautifully without damaging any of them. In fact, it worked so well that, not only was it used to clean the CambridgeSide Hotel, but the contractor – who previously used only the competitor’s products – began using NMD 80 for all his new masonry projects. The bottom line is that NMD 80 is a powerful detergent-based solution for safe and effective cleaning of efflorescence and mortar smears from all types of masonry surfaces including red brick, buff brick, precast, limestone, burnished block, colored mortar, synthetic stone and more. In addition, with its “spray-on/spray off” application process, NMD 80 can create substantial increases in productivity and profitability for contractors.

NMD 80 provided the perfect solution for the complex cleaning challenges presented by the CambridgeSide Hotel (above left). Above right, a close-up of the waterstruck brick, precast and Arriscraft block used on the hotel’s facade after it was cleaned with NMD 80.

Stripper Cream solves black crust

Stripper Cream is a thickened multilayer paint remover with excellent consistency that can be sprayed or rolled on with equal ease. The stripper is ready to use right out of the container and the cream has a very pleasant odor. When applied to paint, this alkaline product is very slow to dry out and can remain on the surface for days. Stripper Cream makes an excellent graffiti remover for porous unpainted masonry surfaces. The product also removes black crust from limestone and brick; the worst blackness from sandstone, caps, sills and foundations; and easily removes vine stems from stone or brick. An advantage of EaCo Chem’s products is that they have all been developed in Pittsburgh which, at one time, was one of the dirtiest cities in the world. In fact, EaCo Chem was invited to test on the Cathedral of Learning at the University of Pittsburgh along with several other competitors. This building had black crust that was up to a quarter of an inch thick in some areas. We were told not to neutralize after removing this heavy buildup with a single, one-hour application of Stripper Cream. Yet, no damage was done to the limestone surface and it cleaned very nicely.

Black crust on limestone, removed with Stripper Cream.