The work

Before, and after

Surface cleaning is one of the few trades where the result photographs itself. Every photograph here is from one of Joel Sperry's own jobs.

One job, start to finish

A horse trailer, taken back to bare panel

Blasted inside a fabric shelter, panel by panel, down to clean steel. That step is what decides how long the paint on top of it lasts, because primer laid over old coating fails at the same rate the old coating does.

A two-horse trailer stripped to bare panel inside a fabric work shelter, Joel's son Michael working the blast hose in a respirator and goggles

The same trailer finished in gloss black with copper trim, opened up as a drinks stand called Saddle Up, with the owner's family in and beside it

Heavy equipment

Getting the mud out of the tracks

A dozer that has worked a season comes back with the ground packed into every roller and hinge. Washing it out is how anyone spots a leak or a crack before it gets expensive.

Pressure washing packed mud out of a bulldozer's track frame, grey slurry pooling on the ground below — Mid-wash. The grey paste on the ground is what came out of the track frame.

A Komatsu D375A bulldozer with its tracks and rollers washed back to yellow — Same site, same afternoon. A Komatsu D375A with the tracks washed back to yellow.

A hydraulic mining shovel in a rock pit, a full-size pickup parked alongside it — A hydraulic mining shovel in the pit. That is a full-size pickup parked beside it.

The back of a mining shovel on wet ground, pressure hoses run out across the mud — The same shovel from behind, hoses still run out across the wet ground.

Homes

Roof moss, gutters and decks

Moss holds water against the shingles all summer. A gutter packed with leaves sends breakup meltwater over the edge instead of down the spout. Both cost less to clear than what they eventually cause.

A roof gutter packed with birch leaves and debris, a ladder against the eave — A gutter packed with leaves, 10:19 in the morning.

Joel's son Timothy in rain gear pressure washing the shingle roof, a clear line between the washed shingles and the dirty ones — The same house that afternoon. Joel's son Timothy, halfway across the roof.

Thick green moss growing along a roof valley and between the shingles — 9:44 in the morning, moss packed into the valley.

The same house's shingle roof washed clean, birch and spruce behind it — Same house, 11:05 the same morning.

A weathered wooden deck streaked with mildew, green staining up the base of two plastic storage cabinets — A deck at 11:45.

The same deck washed back to bare wood, the storage cabinets clean — The same deck at 12:40.

Businesses

Commercial pressure washing in Fairbanks

Box stores, banks, gas stations, ball fields and city parks. Some of it gets done after closing, which is why two of these were taken in the dark.

Joel's nephew Adam washing a dealership's wall-mounted sign from a lift basket, spray hitting the sign face — Signs get done from a lift. That is Joel's nephew Adam in the basket.

A bank's stone frontage and sidewalk at night, the pavement still wet from washing — A bank frontage washed after closing. The pavement is still wet.

The Arctic Blasters box truck parked in front of a three-storey hotel, Joel up on a boom lift against the wall — A hotel job. Joel is the one up on the lift.

A fuel station pad under its canopy at night, the concrete washed and shining under the lights — A fuel station pad, washed overnight while the pumps were quiet.

A baseball field's artificial turf seen through the backstop fence, faded and patchy with dirt — The same ball field five days apart.

The same field's turf washed back to green, the yellow lettering around the infield bright again — The same ball field five days apart.

After a fire

Soot off a fuel station canopy, then paint

Joel Sperry spent 34 years in the fire service. On this one he came in after it was out. Soot had coated the canopy ceiling and run down the brick columns. Once it was clean, the ceiling and the bollards got fresh paint.

A canopy support and pump number sign blackened with soot above a brick column — Soot on a canopy support, above the brick.

A fuel station canopy ceiling stained dark grey with soot over the pumps — The canopy ceiling, before.

The same fuel station canopy with its ceiling panels back to white, two columns still wrapped for repair — Eleven days later, the ceiling back to white. The two wrapped columns are still under plastic.

Rolling fresh paint onto the canopy ceiling from a scissor lift, the painted half bright against the grey — The morning of that last photo, painting the ceiling from a scissor lift.

A steel bollard freshly painted blue-grey beside a brick column still wrapped in plastic — Three days after that, a bollard in new paint. The column beside it is still wrapped.

Downtown

Graffiti removal at Golden Heart Plaza and the river walk

Tags on the plaza pavers and curbs, on the crane cut-outs along the river walk railing, on the wooden posts by the water. At the plaza the job was taking the graffiti off and then painting the walls.

The Golden Heart Plaza sign in downtown Fairbanks, a planter of purple and yellow petunias in front of it — Golden Heart Plaza, downtown Fairbanks.

Red and blue spray paint tags across the plaza pavers beside a bike rack — Tags across the plaza pavers, August 2024.

The plaza's board-formed concrete walls taped off for paint, tags still visible on the back wall — The plaza walls taped off, tags still on the back wall.

Spraying grey paint onto the plaza walls, plastic sheeting laid along the base to protect the pavers — Painting the walls the same afternoon, plastic down over the pavers.

The river walk railing above the water, its steel crane cut-outs sprayed with tags — The crane cut-outs on the river walk railing, July 2022.

A wooden post on the river walk covered in red spray paint, the railing and river behind it — A post a few steps along, the same week.

Blasting a structural steel column. The metal below the nozzle is already back to bare steel, the red above it is where the old coating still is.

Taking the coating off a steel tank. The pale band across the middle is the line the work has reached, and the grey underfoot is spent blast media.

Spray paint over hexagonal pavers and a low retaining wall, the kind that sets hard if it is left through a winter.

Yours could be on here next.

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