What Is DOFF Cleaning and What Can It Be Used For
DOFF cleaning is a steam cleaning system that achieves very high temperatures and pressure. DOFF cleaning can reach up to 150 degrees at the nozzle end!
What is DOFF steam cleaning?
DOFF cleaning is a cleaning process that allows the cleaner to regulate the temperature and pressure of the steam cleaning. The nozzle end gets to very high temperatures in order to remove paint coatings, biological matter, and other substances that have bonded to other surfaces. The heat of the water and steam used in the DOFF cleaning system helps to kill spores of organic growth, allowing the internal and external surfaces to go longer between cleaning.
Due to the nature of the DOFF steam cleaning system, it is very gentle and soft on the substrate that it is cleaning during the cleaning process.
What are the advantages of DOFF cleaning system?
DOFF cleaning is a wonderful steam cleaning process, and it has a number of advantages to it. The advantages of the DOFF cleaning process are:
- DOFF cleaning does not require the use of any chemicals
- DOFF cleaning is not messy, it uses only a very small volume of water
- The steam cleaning is able to remove most stains and is perfect for the removal of discolouration
- DOFF cleaning aids in the removal of organic matter
- DOFF cleaning can remove graffiti and paint without damaging the substrate
- The cleaning system is very environmentally friendly
- When DOFF cleaning is used, the results are visible on the same day
- Architects recommend DOFF cleaning for things like stone cleaning and building cleaning
- DOFF cleaning has been approved by the English Heritage team to clean historical buildings
What can DOFF cleaning be used on?
DOFF cleaning sounds great - plenty of people may think it'd be perfect to use in and around the home. But that's not the case. So what is DOFF cleaning really used for and what can it not be used for?
DOFF cleaning can be used for:
- stone cleaning
- restoring brick colour
- metal cleaning
- tile cleaning
- wood cleaning
- concrete renovation and cleaning
- tile cleaning
DOFF cleaning can be used to remove all sorts from surfaces. For example, DOFF steam cleaning can help to remove fungi, algae, moss, spores, graffiti, bird fouling, wax coatings, grease and bitumen, oil build up and chewing gum or other biological matter.
These can all cause discolouration, and they build up on masonry and stone over time. As a result, many historical buildings appear dirty or old. To fix this, and to restore such buildings to their former glory, DOFF cleaning can be used.
Who invented DOFF cleaning?
DOFF cleaning was developed by Stonehealth. They developed it specifically for use on delicate surfaces, and have continued to supply the DOFF steam cleaning equipment to people across the UK for use on stone cleaning and historic buildings.
Those in the market for a DOFF system can get one from Stonehealth. Otherwise, they can hire a DOFF system and someone who knows how to use the DOFF steam cleaner and can do the DOFF steam cleaning for them by contacting various experts in the restoration process and how to use these stone cleaning systems.
How DOFF cleaning works
The system works by blasting the items off of the substrate at high temperatures. Sometimes this means hitting temperatures of even higher than 150 degrees. The cleaning systems remove moss, fungi, plant varnish and other impurities relatively easily without leaving any marks or traces on the easily damaged materials.
In some cases, with extreme discolouration or staining, DOFF cleaning may need to be done alongside some chemical treatment. But for most stone cleaning, DOFF stone cleaning will do just fine with hot water.
The DOFF steam cleaning is so effective at cleaning stone and removing surface coatings that it is even used sometimes to disinfect surfaces. The superheated steam has been used in hospitals and schools as a form of high pressure washing to remove any dangerous bacteria without the use of harsh chemicals.
What's the difference between DOFF steam cleaning and normal steam cleaning?
Normal steam cleaning is much lower temperature and lower pressure than the super heated steam that the DOFF machine creates. Whilst this low pressure steam works for things like clothes and fabric, it does not work effectively when cleaning brick or removing wax coatings. The superheated steam made by the DOFF integra, though, does.
Why does English Heritage support the use of DOFF on listed buildings?
A lot of the listed buildings in the UK have a large amount of masonry or stone. As a result, they eventually get discoloured or stained over time. This might be darkening caused by exhaust fumes, green colouration caused by algae or anything else. At some point or another, most every listed building will become discoloured.
The DOFF system protects these buildings and their building materials while it cleans. This is important when cleaning delicate older buildings as often there are little details in the stone and woodwork that might otherwise disappear if harsher cleaning products were used.
DOFF steam cleaning has proved itself as safe for these surfaces, and has shown that it is not going to be causing harm unlike other methods. It was specially designed for this purpose, and as a result, is approved for the restoration process and can be safely used to return a surface to its former glory.
This is why DOFF steam cleaning is important, and why so many heritage sites hire a cleaning company to help with paint removal or to provide extra attention to organic matter on brick and concrete.
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