What is Sandblasting – Difference Between Wet And Dry Sandblasting

What is Sandblasting?

Sandblasting is a procedure in which pressurized sand grains or other abrasive media are thrown at a surface to clean the rust, paint, or most sticky and tough stains. The removal of graffiti, rust and caked grease are some of the cleaning chores at home that can use a high-pressure sandblasting spray.

What is Sandblasting

Sandblasting Types

How Sandblaster WorksThere are two types of sandblasting. Both vary a lot in their power to clean stubborn stains as well as the precautions required to perform them. One type is wet sandblasting, a type that is performed by mixing sand with high-pressure water using a pressure washer. A specialized sandblasting kit has to be attached with a pressure washer for this purpose. It has less effectiveness compared to dry sandblasting, but it is much easier to achieve.

Dry sandblasting, on the other hand, is much more efficient and powerful. It uses only dry sand or silica, and it sprays that with a very high level of pressure at surfaces to be cleaned or molded. It is mostly undertaken by professionals in the field, and it is dangerous at a domestic level.

The sand spray can be of different sizes and pressures. Dry blasting is used for aesthetic purposes too, and it can also help you remove any kind of surface imperfections including rust and paint from any metal that you might powder afterward. Glass is often subjected to sandblasting for aesthetic perfection – that says a lot about its preciseness.

Dry and Wet Sandblasting – Comparison

Let us compare a few top benefits and disadvantages of wet versus dry sandblasting. They have their own differences causing their widely varying pros and cons.

wet vs dry sandblasting

Material Used

Tungsten, silicon, or boron carbide are the most commonly used materials for dry blasting. On the other hand, wet sandblasting uses silica sand contemporarily – it can be washed and dried river sand. It also uses soda, steel grit, glass bead, or other abrasive media.

Health hazards

While dry sandblasting is much better at getting those unwanted stains off, it is also much harder to control in terms of the sand spray getting into your eyes, nose, or mouth. Any particle that gets into your respiratory passageways both nasal and oral will cause great damage to the lungs.

Silica is greatly harmful to the lungs, and it can cause a fatal lung disease called silicosis. That is why dry sandblasting is recommended to people who have sufficient experience and can take the required security measures.

On the other hand in wet sandblasting, the spray becomes much easier to control, and there are hardly any granules flying here and there fast enough to cause significant damage to your airways and lungs. Wet granules don’t penetrate the body as fast or as easily because they don’t mix with air.

Time 

Using water in your blasting procedure increases the momentum and makes it easier to manage by making it slower. While dry sandblasting requires extra care and a more strict environment to perform the job that takes a lot of time and energy.

Affordability

While you need a specialized apparatus for dry sandblasting A to Z, wet sandblasting can be done simply by attaching a sandblaster attachment for a pressure washer. That makes wet sandblasting much more economical.

Ease of use

Dry blasting may have accurate results than wet sandblasting but it is extremely difficult to set up at home. The apparatus and precautions are not easy to manage and follow simply.

However, wet sandblasting is a great method to remove stains that do not take a lot of effort. It is easy to arrange and can be done with a few simple attachments at the end of a pressure washer too.

For domestic cleaning chores, wet sandblasting is the easiest and the most highly recommended choice.

Flinn Milan

Flinn Milan is the content director at Washwith. He is responsible for developing helpful content in collaboration with other hard-working team members. Over several years, his content strategy is mainly focused on describing and highlighting every product with its positive and negative points

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