Sand Blasting in Mississippi
Strip it to bare metal — and leave the profile a coating needs.
Removal and profile, in one pass.
Media driven by compressed air does two jobs at once. It strips the coating, rust or scale off, and it cuts an anchor profile — measured in mils — that the next coating mechanically grips. Clean without profile is an incomplete spec.
Coating datasheets call out both a cleanliness standard and an anchor profile
Media
| Media | Aggressiveness | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Coal / copper slag | High ~7.5 Mohs | Fast, economical single-use strip and etch |
| Garnet | High ~7.5–8 | Low dust, recyclable, low free silica |
| Crushed glass | Medium 5–6 | Silica-free, recycled, economical stripping |
| Aluminum oxide | Very high 8–9 | Sharp, reusable, fast etch and profile |
| Steel shot / grit | Very high | Grit strips at 2–4 mil profile; shot peens and polishes |
| Soda | Very low ~2.5 | Non-destructive, water-soluble, no profile |
| Walnut / corn cob | Low | Delicate stripping without cutting |
What your customers write into a spec
| Standard | What it means |
|---|---|
| SSPC-SP 1 | Solvent clean. Degrease first, always — blasting over oil drives it in. |
| SSPC-SP 5 / NACE 1 | White metal. 100% free of everything. Immersion, tank linings. |
| SSPC-SP 10 / NACE 2 | Near-white. Staining on 5% or less. The marine workhorse. |
| SSPC-SP 6 / NACE 3 | Commercial. Staining under 33%. Most structural steel. |
| SSPC-SP 7 / NACE 4 | Brush-off. Loose material off, tight material can stay. |
| ICRI CSP 1–10 | Concrete surface profile for coatings and overlays. |
ISO equivalents: SP 5 ≈ Sa 3 · SP 10 ≈ Sa 2½ · SP 6 ≈ Sa 2 · SP 7 ≈ Sa 1
Right for
Wrong for
Wet vs dry. Wet blasting adds water at the nozzle for dust control, with matching standards — SP 10(WAB) / NACE WAB-2 — at the same cleanliness. The variable is flash rust, graded none to heavy and managed with inhibitors. Choose wet when dust cannot travel: occupied plants, adjacent equipment, silica or lead, spark risk.
Standards & compliance
Typical jobs
- Tank exterior to SP 10 before recoat
- Trailer frames and dump bodies
- Structural steel during a shutdown
- Barge deck prep
- Slab profiled to CSP 3 for epoxy
Questions we get
What SSPC standard do I need?
The coating specification decides. SP 10 is common for marine and industrial work, SP 6 for structural steel, SP 5 for immersion and tank linings.
Do you wet blast for dust control?
Yes, where dust cannot travel. Wet blasting has matching standards at the same cleanliness — the variable is flash rust, and the acceptable level is agreed before work starts.
Can you blast lead paint?
Lead changes the whole work plan: exposure assessment, respiratory protection, containment, hygiene facilities and characterized waste disposal, all before blasting starts.