Six representative Carolina projects — the situation we walked into, what we did differently, and what the client got at the end of it. Names are abbreviated and identifying site details generalized at client request.
01
Multifamily / Fire & Smoke
Dilworth, Charlotte, NC
Grease fire in a 1926 fourplex with no room for demolition
Framing cleaned
3,400 sq ft
On site
4 days
Wood replaced
0 linear ft
The situation
A second-floor grease fire pushed smoke through balloon-framed wall cavities into all four units. The heart pine framing and original beadboard were character-defining, so the owner's insurer had approved cleaning but not replacement. Two units still had tenants in place.
What we did
REDI set negative-air containment on the burn unit, sealed the stairwell, and ran two techs on 3mm shaved-ice media at low pressure to lift soot and char without cutting into the pine grain. Joist bays and blocked cavities were reached through existing access holes rather than new demo. No water was introduced at any point.
The outcome
Char and soot removed to bare wood across roughly 3,400 sq ft of framing, with odor knocked down enough that the sealer coat went on two days early. Tenants in the untouched units never relocated.
02
Residential / Mold
Apex, Wake County, NC
Crawlspace mold that kept coming back after two sanding attempts
Crawl footprint
1,850 sq ft
Work window
2 days
PRV result
Pass, first try
The situation
A 2004 vented crawlspace had been sanded twice in three years by other contractors. Growth returned each August. Subfloor and joists showed heavy staining, and the homeowner was mid-sale with a 30-day due-diligence clock.
What we did
Rather than abrading the wood again, REDI blasted the joists, subfloor, and band board, then documented the encapsulation and dehumidification gaps that were driving the recurrence. Because sublimation adds no moisture, the crawl never got wetter during the work.
The outcome
Post-remediation verification passed on the first attempt. The buyer's inspector cleared the space, and the sale closed inside the original due-diligence window.
03
Manufacturing / Production Line
Spartanburg County, SC
Weld smoke and carbon on a tier-one automotive line that could not shut down
Production lost
0 shifts
Secondary waste
None
Cells cleaned
6
The situation
Years of weld smoke had baked onto robot arms, tooling fixtures, and overhead structure at an I-85 automotive supplier. Solvent cleaning meant a full lockout and a multi-shift outage the plant could not schedule against its customer's build rate.
What we did
REDI worked the two-shift weekend gap, cleaning fixtures and cell structure in place with dry ice at controlled pressure. Sensitive control cabinets were masked rather than dismantled. No grit, no rinse water, no wipe-down crew behind us.
The outcome
The cell was returned for Monday first shift with no production loss and no post-cleaning debris in the pits or drains. Maintenance now runs the same scope on a quarterly cadence.
04
Coastal / Marine Environment
Daniel Island, Charleston County, SC
Salt-air corrosion and mold on exposed structural steel and electrical
Steel treated
9,000 sq ft
Rinse water used
0 gallons
Downtime
Weekend only
The situation
A waterfront maintenance building carried a decade of salt film, surface corrosion, and mold on structural steel, conduit runs, and panel enclosures. Anything involving water risked pushing chloride deeper into the connections.
What we did
Dry ice blasting stripped salt film and biological growth from steel, conduit, and enclosure exteriors without introducing a drop of moisture. Electrical was de-energized only where required, and the crew documented substrate condition as they went for the facility's corrosion log.
The outcome
Clean steel ready for inspection and coating, no chloride-carrying rinse water in the yard, and a photographic baseline the facility now uses for annual comparison.
05
Storm Response / Sequencing
New Hanover County, NC
Post-hurricane sequencing where drying and cleaning fought each other
Timeline saved
~7 days
Floors treated
2
Moisture added
None
The situation
After a coastal storm, a commercial property had water intrusion across two floors. Standard practice was to dry, then clean, then dry again — with ambient humidity in the seventies, every wet cleaning step reset the drying clock.
What we did
REDI slotted dry ice cleaning between structural drying phases. Because the process adds no water, the dehumidifiers never lost ground, and framing cleaning happened while the drying equipment stayed running.
The outcome
Cleaning and drying ran concurrently instead of in series, pulling roughly a week out of the restoration timeline and shortening the tenant's business-interruption claim.
06
Historic Preservation
Durham, NC
Soft brick and lime mortar in a 1920s tobacco warehouse conversion
Masonry cleaned
12,000 sq ft
Repointing added
Minimal
Test panels
3, approved
The situation
An adaptive-reuse developer needed a century of soot, paint, and adhesive off soft brick and original heart pine. Sandblasting would have eaten the brick face and blown out the lime mortar joints, and the project was under preservation review.
What we did
REDI ran low-pressure test panels for the reviewer's sign-off, tuned media flow to the softest substrate on the wall, and worked panel by panel so mortar joints stayed intact. Interior finishes below stayed in place under containment.
The outcome
Brick face and mortar profile preserved, original tool marks in the pine still legible, and the review board approved the test panel approach for the remaining phases.
In their words
Feedback from the people who had to live with the result.
"I had two other companies sand my crawlspace and it came back both times. REDI showed up, did it dry in two days, and then handed me a folder explaining why it kept returning. We passed clearance on the first try and closed on the house on schedule."
Marcus D.
Homeowner
Apex, NC
"We had a weekend and that was it. They showed up Friday night, cleaned six weld cells, and were gone before Monday first shift. No grit in the pits, nothing for my team to clean up behind them. That's the part that sold my plant manager."
Angela R.
Maintenance Manager, automotive supplier
Spartanburg County, SC
"The insurer approved cleaning, not replacement, and I honestly didn't think that pine was coming back. It did. Two of my four units never even had to move out. Best call I made on that claim."
Tom W.
Property Owner
Charlotte, NC
"What sold the review board was the test panels. They didn't argue with us, they just showed us three panels at different settings and let us pick. The mortar joints on that building are still original."
Priya N.
Project Architect, adaptive reuse
Durham, NC
"In August here, anything you clean with water you're going to be drying for a week. Running REDI between drying phases is the only reason we hit the tenant's reopening date."
Dale F.
Restoration General Contractor
Wilmington, NC
"No rinse water in the yard was the whole reason we picked them. Salt water going back down onto the steel and into the storm drain was a non-starter for us. They cleaned nine thousand square feet of steel bone dry."
Chris B.
Facilities Director, waterfront campus
Charleston County, SC
Keep Going
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Send photos and a rough square footage and we'll tell you honestly whether dry ice is the right tool for the job — or whether something else will serve you better.