Drone cleaning footage · Coral Gables

A soft wash drone at work on a Coral Gables high-rise facade

43 sec · Filmed on site at Belmont Village, Coral Gables · Vista Drone Cleaning

Play video: Soft-washing a Coral Gables high-rise facade by drone in flight

Soft washing means cleaning with chemistry and low pressure instead of force. In this clip the drone lays a fan of heated solution across the upper facade of Belmont Village in Coral Gables. The solution loosens the dirt and growth, and the rinse carries it away.

This clip is part of our drone facade cleaning work in Miami.

What soft washing means on a high-rise

That matters on South Florida buildings because most of what dulls a facade here is not loose dirt. It is algae, mold and mildew that grow in the humidity, bound up with salt haze in a thin film that plain water does not lift. Blasting that film off with high pressure risks driving water into joints and damaging stucco, paint and sealant.

A soft wash removes the growth without attacking the surface it grows on. The drone holds a steady distance from the wall, so the pressure at the surface stays the same across the whole elevation, and the rinse runs from the top of the building down.

When you compare quotes, ask each contractor what pressure reaches the wall and what they rinse with. Those two answers tell you more about the result than the equipment list does.

What you are seeing

A working soft-wash pass across the upper facade. The fan pattern leaving the nozzle is heated soft-wash solution at low pressure, enough to lift salt haze and biofilm off stone and stucco without driving water into joints.

The chemistry is the customer's choice: bleach-free sodium percarbonate, an oxygen bleach that breaks down to water and oxygen, or sodium hypochlorite. Either one goes on at low pressure and is rinsed off with purified water.

About this project

This footage was filmed at Belmont Village Coral Gables, an occupied senior-living high-rise. Vista Drone Cleaning cleaned more than 130,000 square feet of exterior (facade, windows, floor surfaces and the parapet) at $0.20 per square foot, all in, in seven days, with no scaffolding, swing stages, rope access or lifts and no closures. Management asked Vista back on a semi-annual schedule, twice a year. Read the Belmont Village case study.

Watch this clip on YouTube

See the full Coral Gables high-rise case study