LaserTec is the UK's largest dedicated industrial laser cleaning specialist. From our HQ just outside London, we cover the whole of the UK. We remove rust, paint, coatings, pollution, graffiti and contamination from steel, stone, brick and wood, using high-powered laser systems. No grit, no chemicals and no waste stream of spent abrasive left at the end of the job.
Laser cleaning works by directing precisely controlled pulses of light at a surface. The contaminant absorbs the energy and is instantly vaporised or lifted clear, while the substrate underneath is left intact. Because the beam can be tuned to the material being cleaned, an operator can strip a paint layer or a film of corrosion without damaging the metal, stone or historic fabric beneath it, unless abrasion is required, in which case the depth can be controlled to the micron scale. The process is selective, repeatable and contactless, and it prepares surfaces to recognised standards such as Sa 2.5, ready for inspection or recoating. The only by-product is a small volume of fine residue, captured at source by extraction, rather than tonnes of contaminated grit or chemical run-off.
What sets us apart is scale. We operate a fleet of more than 50 laser systems, from compact 100-watt units for delicate heritage work up to 6-kilowatt continuous-wave systems built for heavy structural steel. That depth of equipment means we can match the right tool to each task rather than forcing one machine to do everything, and we can deploy several crews at once on large contracts. Few, if any, operators in the UK can call on that kind of capacity.
What we do
Our work spans six service lines: on-site cleaning, equipment sales, hire, training and consultancy, maintenance and automation integration. Clients come from across heritage and conservation, construction, marine, heavy industry, insurance reinstatement and the nuclear and defence sectors. We clean fire and flood-damaged buildings for insurers, prepare structural steel for principal contractors, conserve listed facades, strip historic ironwork, remove graffiti from listed and public-realm assets, and decontaminate equipment in controlled environments. For clients who want to bring the technology in-house, we also sell and hire equipment and train their teams to use it safely and effectively, while providing SLAs to keep their systems maintained and running. Our engineering department is on call.
The range of applications is wide because the underlying principle adapts so well. The same technology that lifts centuries of soiling from a listed stone facade can strip mill scale and corrosion from a steel beam, restore ancient artwork, remove failed coatings from a bridge, clean weld seams ahead of inspection, take fire residue off masonry after a building fire, or remove graffiti from sandstone, brick or painted public realm assets without damaging the surface underneath. Traditional graffiti removal often does more damage than the graffiti itself, etching stonework with chemicals or wearing brickwork down with abrasives. Laser cleaning takes the paint off and leaves the original surface exactly as it was. For local authorities, heritage bodies and listed building owners, that distinction matters.
In each case the operator adjusts a complex string of laser parameters to suit the substrate and the contaminant, which is why a single method can serve so many different sectors, why results are consistent and easy to verify and why, beyond the safety risks, using a specialist is so vital.
Measurable advantages over traditional methods
The advantages over traditional methods are practical, environmental and financial. Abrasive blasting generates large volumes of spent grit and dust. Chemical stripping leaves contaminated run-off to manage. Both can damage delicate substrates. Laser cleaning sidesteps these problems entirely.
On a recent structural steelwork project on the Broadgate estate in London, using 20 lasers in tandem, we reduced waste by 98.7 percent compared with abrasive blasting, cutting 236 tonnes of material down to just 2. The carbon saving was calculated at 257,420 kgCO2e, the equivalent of taking 56 cars off the road for a year. Because the process is contactless and produces minimal dust, it can often be carried out on occupied or sensitive sites where blasting and other traditional methods would be disruptive, hazardous or simply not permitted.
For public sector clients under pressure to meet net-zero commitments, reduce landfill, and evidence the carbon outcomes of capital programmes, those figures are not aspirations. They are measured, documented and reportable. Because every job we run is documented in detail, the data sits alongside the project's broader sustainability reporting and stands up to audit.
Safety, standards and certification
We take safety and standards seriously, an outlook we sum up as loving the technology and respecting the power. High-power lasers demand proper control. Every LaserTec technician is trained to work safely under the relevant standards, with full management of the airborne hazards that surface preparation can release. Every deployment has a named Laser Safety Officer, documented parameter logs, wavelength-rated PPE matched to the kit in use, and fume extraction at source.
This matters because the wider UK laser cleaning industry is growing faster than the standards around it are being enforced. We routinely take over from operators who have been running without formal training, without an LSO present, and without the parameter records or PPE rating that the work requires. For a public sector specifier responsible for the safety of staff, contractors and the public on or near the site, that distinction is not academic. It is the difference between procuring a service and procuring a liability.
Beyond our own projects, LaserTec is helping to professionalise the wider industry. We work directly with industry bodies including AILU (the Association of Industrial Laser Users) and TWI to raise training, safety and certification standards across the laser cleaning sector. The aim is to give clients confidence that anyone arriving on site with a laser has been properly trained, assessed and certified to use it, and to hold the whole sector to a consistent standard.
Why LaserTec
Three things separate us from the rest of the UK laser cleaning market.
Scale. A fleet of 50+ laser systems gives us the right tool for every job and the ability to deploy multiple crews simultaneously on programmes that demand it. Most UK laser cleaning operators run a single machine and a single technician. That model does not deliver a 7-storey commercial refurbishment to programme. We do.
Process discipline. Documented LSO oversight on every deployment. Parameter logs, RAMS and COSHH for every job. Audit trails that hold up to scrutiny under sustainability reporting, ESG audits and public sector procurement frameworks. The work is documented because public-facing assets, regulated environments and insurance-backed reinstatements require it to be.
Track record. Skanska on Broadgate. UKAEA in nuclear. GE Healthcare. EDF. 3M. Babcock. GKN Aerospace. Eurotunnel. The British Museum. The National Motor Museum. These are not loose associations. They are programmes we have delivered to the standards these organisations demand of their suppliers.
Working with the public sector
The public sector estate is varied, and the laser cleaning use cases are wide. Local authorities and heritage bodies manage listed buildings, monuments, bridges and public realm assets where traditional cleaning risks damaging irreplaceable fabric. Highways and rail infrastructure carry steelwork that needs corrosion removed before recoating, often on programmes where containment over live traffic or live track is not viable. The defence estate and nuclear sector have decontamination and surface preparation needs where controlling airborne hazards and secondary waste is paramount. Schools, hospitals and government buildings undergoing refurbishment, or being reinstated after fire or flood, benefit from a method that produces minimal dust, no run-off and far less waste to dispose of.
Whether you are reinstating a fire-damaged public building, preparing structural steel on a major refurbishment, conserving a listed facade, removing graffiti from a heritage stone or public-realm asset, scoping bridge or rail infrastructure work, or decontaminating equipment in a critical environment, LaserTec brings the fleet, the trained crews and the technical governance to deliver it cleanly, safely and at scale.
To discuss a project, visit our website.