IT was the most exciting international break in memory – Sterling v Gomez, Kosovo’s love for England, Poch sacked, the Special One back…and Crystal Palace steam-cleaned their roof.
Not to be out-done with the blockbuster stories breaking this week, Palace delivered a sparkling 938-word report on their website of the cleaning job done on the top of the ‘iconic’ Holmesdale stand.
The Holmesdale Road stand at Selhurst Park looks sparkling after the roof was cleaned for the first time everCredit: https://www.cpfc.co.uk/news/2019/november/holmesdale-stand-selhurst-park-roof-cleaned-since-1995/
Before the steam clean, millions of bacteria spores turned the roof a dirty colourCredit: https://www.cpfc.co.uk/news/2019/november/holmesdale-stand-selhurst-park-roof-cleaned-since-1995/
It includes such nuggets as how the specialist cleaners spent “all week, steaming”.
Palace fans on social media were clearly blown away by the story with one saying: “At least it’ll help Christian Benteke’s shots come back quicker.”
Another quipped: “Cleanest roof in the Premier League..you’ll never sing that.”
Meanwhile, Palace’s website team will be hoping their system can cope with the numbers that will be flocking online for the next gripping story.
Still, it’s the best clean-up job at a Palace this week.
Since their curved Holmesdale Road Stand was built 24 years ago it has never been cleaned.
That allowed millions of spores of organic bacterial growth to build up and multiply so they effectively turned the roof a dirty grey colour.
The Mossy robot cleaner got to work in areas too dangerous for workmen to reachCredit: https://www.cpfc.co.uk/news/2019/november/holmesdale-stand-selhurst-park-roof-cleaned-since-1995/
But fans who show up this weekend to watch Palace take on leaders Liverpool will be in for a bit of a surprise – with the roof now back to the original colour of off-white.
The new-look stand is all down to the workmanship of a crack team of cleaning experts drafted in the from the Valleys in South Wales – and a robot called The Mossy.
They abseiled up and down the 45m-high roof with their specialist power steamers painstakingly dislodging each and every spore or bacteria.
But there were some sections that were too dangerous for the workers, so they set The Mossy to work steaming and scrubbing using remote control.
Wayne Nyland, from Abergavenny-based company H20 Cleaning said: “The cladding was covered in 20-odd years of organic bacterial growth which appear as little black dots.
“They look awful and are hard to get off, as they stick and multiply.
“We removed it all using steam – 150 degree heat, and really low pressure. It literally burns it off, but in a non-aggressive way, so as to not damage the paintwork or the metal.
“The roof is about 45 metres high – so it’s high risk, dangerous work. The guys were abseiling up and down all week long.
“We spent all week steaming – ha ha – not steaming like that, but steaming! We all worked our socks off up there.
“We all had steam pressure washers on our backs like Ghostbusters – two lances at one end, two at the other – and we met in the middle.
A crack team of four from Wales painstakingly removed the millions of spores from the surfaceCredit: https://www.cpfc.co.uk/news/2019/november/holmesdale-stand-selhurst-park-roof-cleaned-since-1995/
“We covered the whole roof in anti-fungus spray too, which sprays into the steel and kills off any remaining spores.”
The difference is amazing – and has already proven to be a winner with supporters who have seen pictures.
The before and after shot shows the difference madeCredit: https://www.cpfc.co.uk/news/2019/november/holmesdale-stand-selhurst-park-roof-cleaned-since-1995/
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
