Dry ice blasting is a cleaning method that fires pellets of solid carbon dioxide at a surface using compressed air. The pellets are cold, about -78°C, and the moment they hit, they flash from solid straight to gas. That combination of impact, thermal shock and rapid gas expansion pops contamination off the surface: soot, grease, mould, adhesive, carbon buildup, paint overspray. The pellets themselves vanish into the air as CO2 gas, so unlike sandblasting there's no spent media to shovel up afterward. The only thing left on the floor is whatever you removed.
That's the whole trick, and it's why dry ice cleaning has become the go-to method anywhere water, chemicals or abrasive grit would cause more problems than the dirt itself.
How dry ice cleaning works, step by step
1. The pellets. Liquid CO2 is compressed into dense, rice-sized pellets. Dry ice sublimates even in storage, so pellets are delivered fresh for each job, which means full blasting power on site.
2. The blast. A specialized machine meters the pellets into a compressed air stream and accelerates them through a nozzle at high velocity, similar to sandblasting equipment but running frozen gas instead of abrasive.
3. The impact. Three things happen at once: kinetic energy knocks the contaminant loose, the extreme cold makes it brittle and breaks its bond with the surface, and the instant solid-to-gas expansion, roughly 800 times in volume, blows the debris clear.
4. The cleanup. There isn't much. The CO2 is gone, the contaminant is lying dry on the floor, and it gets swept or vacuumed out. No wash water to recover, no grit packed into every crevice of your equipment.
Non-abrasive: the key difference
Dry ice is soft compared to sand, glass or slag. It removes what's on the surface without eating the surface itself, which is why it's trusted on electrical panels, machinery with tight tolerances, wood framing, moulds and dies, and food-contact equipment. That's also its limit: dry ice won't cut through heavy rust or thick multi-layer coatings back to bare metal. That's a job for dustless sandblasting. If you're not sure which your project needs, our comparison of sandblasting vs. dry ice vs. laser breaks it down, or send us photos and we'll tell you straight.
Where dry ice blasting earns its keep
Fire and smoke restoration. Soot and char off framing, brick and steel without driving water into already-damaged material.
Food and beverage plants. Ovens, mixers, conveyors and packaging lines cleaned with no water, no chemicals and no media residue near product-contact surfaces.
Electrical equipment. Panels, switchgear, transformers and motors, degreased and decontaminated with a completely dry process.
Production machinery. Cleaned assembled and in place, no teardown. We covered when that pays for itself in our guide to clean-in-place dry ice blasting.
Heritage wood, brick and log structures. Grime, smoke staining and grey weathering lifted off without the etching that abrasive media leaves behind.
Our crews run mobile dry ice blasting across Toronto & the GTA every week; everything arrives on the truck, so all we need from you is access and standard power arranged in advance.
What does dry ice blasting cost?
It's priced on time on site plus pellet consumption rather than square footage alone. Light contamination on open surfaces moves fast; baked-on carbon in tight machine cavities takes longer. Because the process eliminates disassembly, drying time and cleanup, the all-in number is often lower than the traditional approach even when the hourly rate is higher, especially once avoided downtime is counted. The fastest way to a real number: send a few photos of the surface and what you want removed, and we'll come back with a firm quote and an honest recommendation, usually within one business day.