Build or Buy a Blast Room – A Decision Guide

Whether you’re a fabricator, manufacturer, or a job shop you may be considering a sandblast room be able to process larger parts or to be able to blast large volumes of products at a given time. As you consider your options, one critical factor you’ll have to consider is whether you will build or buy the room you will do your sandblasting in.This guide will cover whether or not building or buying a sandblast room maybe better for your particular need.

Benefits to Buying a Premade Blast Room

Premade Blast Rooms offer a variety of benefits over a sandblast room that you may design and build. First, a premade blast room will be engineered to achieve the best possible airflow. What this means practically is that your sandblast operator will be able to have better visibility during his sandblasting than if you were to be using a blast room you build.

A second factor that is a benefit to a premade blast room is the overall durability of the blast room. A pre-manufactured blast room will typically be made of heavy gauge steel, for example Clemco Industries typically uses 10 gauge steel to make their blast rooms. Heavy gauge steel will provide greater durability when compared to lighter gauge steel or other materials that are often used when someone makes their own blast room. The lighter gauge steel is often used because it is difficult to bend heavier gauge steel in the format to effectively create a sandblast room. In addition to the heavy gauge steel, the pre-built blast room design has features that limit the amount of blast media that is introduced into your dust collector for your blast room. Limiting the amount of blast media that enters into your dust collector, will improve the life of your dust collector. Additionally, it can help keep their blast media costs down because you will not be sucking out good blast media excessively from your sandblast room, although this will typically be a relatively small amount of media that you would potentially be wasted.

An additional consideration of a premade blast room can also be the cost of the room. While often a premade blast room will be more expensive, there are times when a room is of a certain size that is usually more economical to consider a premade sandblast room than to make your own.

A final benefit to a premade blast room, is potential labor savings. By going with a premade blast room you will not have to dedicate a handful of employees to potentially cutting, welding, and designing a sandblast room. If you buy a pre designed sandblast room from a reputable manufacturer you will receive engineered construction drawings making it fast and efficient to build the room.

Drawbacks of Buying a Pre made Blast Room

A premade blast room can be more expensive compared to making your own sandblast room. Additionally, a pre made blast room may not allow you to take advantage of your existing facility design that may already have a room that is well suited for a sandblast room

Benefits of Building Your Own Blast Room

Making room blast room also has benefits comparison to buying a premade blast room. First, you could potentially save significant money by using an option like an used paint booth, which will be made of relatively decent strength steel, and can be protected with proper wall and floor coverings to limit the amount of damage that is done to the underlying steel. A solution like this, can often be a lot more affordable, than buying a  blast room.

Additionally, depending on the size of your building and the configuration of the room you may be considering to be used for sandblasting, making your own blast room may allow for custom designs easier and more affordably that will match your needs.

Drawbacks of Building your Own Sandblast Room

A downside to making a blast room is that without proper protection, you can easily wear out your blast room creating holes in walls and even holes in your roof or similar issues. Additionally, making your own blast room can make it harder to achieve highly effective airflow, which can result in reduced visibility during sandblasting. Finally, making your own blast room you have to consider if your from meeting all the national safety codes that are pertinent to sandblast rooms like those set forth by OSHA and other safety organizations where as a pre built sandblast room will have been preapproved and designed to meet all pertinent safety standards.

Ultimately building or buying a sandblast room requires a lot of thought. The pros and cons of both options mentioned should help you better decide which is a better choice. It can also often make sense to evaluate the price of a premade blast room compared to making the blast room yourself to see if a pre built blast room would be better for your needs.  If you need estimated pricing for a pre made sandblast room you can contact us today.