Exterior cleaning programs for Perimeter Center mid rise and high rise communities, Roswell Road garden stock and City Springs mixed use, quoted building by building and deck by deck
Thrare Contracting cleans apartment community exteriors across Sandy Springs for regional management companies, institutional ownership groups, condominium boards and on site managers. Sandy Springs rental stock splits three ways and the split decides the bid: elevator buildings with structured parking around Perimeter Center and Hammond Drive, garden style walk ups along the Roswell Road corridor, and denser mixed use blocks near City Springs and the MARTA station.
The legal entity is Rare Earth Ltd, trading as Thrare Contracting, and one office covers the whole service radius: 8735 Dunwoody Pl, Ste R, Atlanta, GA 30350. Sandy Springs is a service area worked from that office rather than a second location, and Rare Earth Ltd has operated since January 19, 2020. A Sandy Springs vendor file asks for the same short list every time. Rare Earth Ltd holds DBE and ACDBE certification, MBE certification, small disadvantaged business status, E-Verify enrollment, and a SAM registration under UEI Z4WKS4UE8NJ6 with CAGE code 9JAV8. HUBZone, 8(a) and SOC 2 are not held by Rare Earth Ltd, are not claimed anywhere on this site, and will not appear in a submitted vendor packet.
The City of Sandy Springs Code Enforcement Division publishes the window plainly: construction and commercial landscaping activities are permitted only from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, with no permitted hours on Sundays and holidays (City of Sandy Springs, Code Enforcement, Common Violations, read 2026-09-02). The same page adds that "Anyone seeking to work outside of these permitted hours must first obtain a variance from the Community Development Department."
Two qualifications belong beside those hours, and a bidder who leaves them out is claiming more than the City has published. The Code Enforcement page presents itself as a summary of the most common residential code violation complaints, it cites no section number of the City Code, and it does not name pressure washing, power washing or exterior cleaning anywhere. Thrare Contracting therefore holds its Sandy Springs crews inside the published window as a scheduling policy rather than as a citation, and reads the ordinance text itself as the governing authority whenever a property needs a definitive answer.
The Saturday and Sunday edges change a schedule here more than the weekday hours do. A Sandy Springs Saturday runs nine hours against twelve on a weekday, Sunday closes outright, and a two night garage wash cannot borrow a Sunday to finish what Saturday did not reach. At a Perimeter Center community whose residents leave for offices a mile away, the emptiest deck hours and the permitted hours only partly overlap, so the sequence is written against resident parking occupancy and against the City window at the same time rather than against either one alone.
Structured parking is the difference, and it drives more of a Sandy Springs bid than building count does. A wrap deck, a tuck under level or a below grade garage is a covered surface that rain never rinses, so tire rubber, drip staining and dust build up on a schedule of their own while the open lot at a garden property partly self cleans. A garage also has a ceiling, columns, a drain system and a resident parking count that cannot drop, which is why deck work is bid by bay and by level rather than by total square footage.
Elevator buildings add the second difference. A five or eight story elevation puts most of its surface above ladder reach, so the access method is decided before the chemistry is, and the cost of reaching a fourth floor breezeway soffit is a lift line rather than a rate. Roswell Road garden stock sits at the other end of the same market and reads more like the rest of metro Atlanta: two and three story walk ups, exterior stairs, open lots and a shorter mobilization.
Turnover economics is the operating pressure exterior condition actually reaches, and the arithmetic behind that does not change between cities. The National Apartment Association's turnover rate, its move-out cost figure and the annual bill at a 200 unit community are quoted in full, with the survey year stated, on the metro Atlanta apartment pressure washing page, which is the hub for the material shared across every city in this family.
A Sandy Springs scope is written surface by surface, and the cladding mix on a Perimeter Center elevation usually decides more of it than the elevation area does.
Sequencing keeps a Sandy Springs community leasable and parked while the wash runs: one bay or one stack is out of service at a time, and the leasing path never is.
A Sandy Springs quote is built from seven inputs and names all seven, so a manager can compare it line for line with the next bid: building count, stories, cladding by elevation, deck levels and bay count, walkway and plaza area, access method, and visits per year.
No per unit or per square foot figure appears on this page. A number quoted before anyone has seen the cladding, the deck drains and the water source is a guess wearing a decimal point, and a Sandy Springs manager comparing two such numbers is comparing two guesses.
EIFS and acrylic stucco carry the lowest published pressure ceiling of any cladding common on a Sandy Springs elevation, and two manufacturers put the same number on it. Sto Corp., headquartered in Atlanta, writes in its StoTherm EIFS Reference Guide that where a pressure washer is used a cleaner should "keep the pressure at approximately 200-500 psi (1.4-3.4 MPa), and keep the nozzle several feet from the surface", and should "not exceed 500 psi (1.4 MPa) pressure, as the EIFS surface integrity can be destroyed with higher pressure washing" (Sto Corp., StoTherm EIFS Reference Guide: Repair and Maintenance, Cleaning EIFS 1.01, document S707B, read 2026-09-02).
The same Sto guide lists what not to do at all. Sto instructs a cleaner not to "Use high pressure washing (in excess of 500 psi [3.4 MPa]), or sandblasting, since the EIFS laminate can be damaged with excess pressure or abrasion", not to use solvent based cleaners such as acetone, gasoline, ketones, mineral oils or turpentine "since solvent can penetrate the EIFS finish and base coat materials and damage the EPS insulation board", and not to use "steam cleaning or other high temperature cleaning methods, since the EPS insulation board in the EIFS has a service temperature limit of about 165°F (74°C)". Sto closes the same procedure with a runoff instruction: "Always check local regulatory requirements for disposal of cleaning solution and waste water."
Sika publishes the ceiling with a standoff distance and a tip angle attached. Its Senergy technical bulletin for cleaning EIFS and stucco states: "Never use water pressure more than 500 psi or allow pressure nozzles to come within 2 feet of the wall. Excessive pressure may damage textured finishes and EIFS lamina. Use fan type tips (30-45° or greater) on the pressure washer." (Sika Corporation, Senergy Technical Bulletin, Procedure for Cleaning Finish and Removing Efflorescence in EIFS and Stucco, revised February 2024, read 2026-09-02). The same bulletin makes the working principle explicit, "The chemicals provide the cleaning, not the water pressure", warns that "Frequent power-washing should be avoided, it may result in premature deterioration of the Senergy finish", and asks that lower elevations be kept wet "to prevent run-off from above from causing streaking".
Three limits belong beside those numbers. Sto's own guide prints two different metric conversions for 500 psi, 1.4 MPa on one line and 3.4 MPa on another, so the psi figure is the one both documents actually agree on. Both are manufacturer literature written for the manufacturer's own products rather than a code, and a property with a different EIFS supplier should read that supplier's bulletin. Neither document reaches brick, fiber cement, poured concrete or metal panel, and the Brick Industry Association's far lower nozzle tip ceiling for brick veneer is quoted verbatim on the metro Atlanta apartment pressure washing page. On a Sandy Springs building with brick at the base and EIFS above, one machine setting cannot be correct for the whole wall.
Wash water stays on the property, and at a Sandy Springs address the governing program belongs to the City rather than to the county. Fulton County Government states in its Stormwater Services publication that "The purpose of the Stormwater Management Program is to manage the surface water resources of unincorporated Fulton County, including administration, maintenance, operations, regulation, and enforcement. For all other areas of the County, stormwater management is the responsibility of the individual cities." (Fulton County Government, Stormwater Services, read 2026-09-02). Sandy Springs is incorporated, so a county guidance document handed to a Sandy Springs board is the wrong authority even when its practical instruction is right.
The City of Sandy Springs runs its own small MS4 under NPDES general permit GAG610000 and files a Stormwater Management Program describing it. That program states that the City "has adopted the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District's (MNGWPD) Model Illicit Discharge and Illegal Connection Ordinance", that the ordinance "prohibits non-stormwater discharges into the storm sewer system and establishes appropriate enforcement procedures", and that the adopted ordinance sits at Division 9.8 of the City code, last updated August 15, 2017 (City of Sandy Springs, Stormwater Management Program, NPDES Phase II MS4, 2024, read 2026-09-02).
The measurable goals in the same document tell a manager how closely the City is watching. The City of Sandy Springs Stormwater Management Program reports 636 MS4 outfalls in the current inventory, commits to dry weather screening of approximately 20 percent of them per year and at least 5 percent each year so that 100 percent are screened across the five year permit cycle, and sets the goal to "Investigate illicit discharge complaints within three (3) business days". Those outfalls discharge to the Chattahoochee River Basin, and Fulton County fulfills the City's bacteria and analytical monitoring requirements for Long Island Creek, Marsh Creek and Ball Mill Creek under a memorandum of agreement.
The federal definition underneath all of that is one sentence long. 40 CFR 122.26(b)(2) defines an illicit discharge as any discharge to a municipal separate storm sewer that is not composed entirely of storm water, setting aside discharges made under an NPDES permit and discharges resulting from fire fighting activities (40 CFR 122.26, via the Cornell Legal Information Institute, read 2026-08-31). Breezeway, compactor pad and garage deck runoff carries sediment, food residue, oil and grease, and no apartment community holds an NPDES permit to wash a stairwell, so containment is part of the scope rather than an upsell. A below grade garage adds a question a surface lot never asks: the deck drain runs to a sanitary connection, to an oil water separator or to the storm system, and which one it is gets confirmed with the property before a hose is turned on.
Fulton County's pool rules govern a Sandy Springs apartment pool, and the state chapter does not. According to the Fulton County Board of Health Rules and Regulations for Public Swimming Pools, Spas, and Recreational Water Parks, approved October 2018, section 1(71) brings "apartment complex pools" and "associations, including but not limited to Property Owners Associations and Homeowners Associations" inside the definition of a public swimming pool, section 2(3) drops the apartment, country club and subdivision exemptions the state chapter grants, and section 18(11)(a) sets the barrier at forty eight inches above grade with no more than four inches of vertical clearance beneath it (Fulton County Board of Health, read 2026-09-02).
The Georgia state chapter reads the other way, which is the trap. Georgia Department of Public Health Rule 511-3-5-.02(3) states that its rules "shall not apply to private swimming pool and hot tubs or spas serving a single-family dwelling and used only by the residents of that dwelling and their guests, apartment complex pools, country club pools, subdivision pools which are open only to residents of the subdivision and their guests", and Rule 511-3-5-.02(4) applies the chapter only to counties where local rules were not in effect on 31 December 2000 while allowing a county or municipality to elect to bring apartment pools in. Quoting the state barrier figure at a Sandy Springs apartment pool cites a chapter that exempts that pool, so the Fulton County document is the one a manager should hand a vendor.
What that changes on a wash day is small and specific. The barrier, the self closing gate and the self latching hardware are inspected features rather than decoration, so a crew that props a pool gate open to run a hose has disabled a code feature for the length of the visit. Thrare Contracting books Sandy Springs pool deck work inside posted amenity hours, closes and latches the barrier gate behind every trip, and runs coping and the wet deck at a lower pressure than the walkway outside the fence.
Fall protection thresholds come from OSHA, and there are two of them rather than one. 29 CFR 1910.28(b)(1)(i) requires that each employee on a walking working surface with an unprotected side or edge 4 feet or more above a lower level be protected by a guardrail system, a safety net system or a personal fall protection system, and 29 CFR 1926.501(b)(1) sets the equivalent construction requirement at 6 feet (OSHA, read 2026-08-31). Which threshold governs depends on how the work is classed, so no single number should be quoted to a board as the OSHA rule for exterior cleaning.
OSHA also writes, at 1910.28 paragraph (a)(2)(i), that the section "does not apply: To portable ladders", and a large share of real exterior cleaning exposure sits exactly there. On a Sandy Springs property the surfaces that raise the question are the top level of an open deck with a knee wall, a podium or rooftop terrace, and an open stair landing on a wrap deck, and each of those gets looked at during the site walk rather than on the morning of the wash. Work above ladder reach is quoted as a separate access line, which is also why the price section above refuses to fold lift access into an area rate.
Two full property washes a year is the base cycle at a Sandy Springs community, and the covered surfaces run on a shorter interval than the buildings do. Tree pollen loads every horizontal surface from late February into April, so a wash finished in February is undone by the middle of March and a late April visit is the one that holds through the leasing peak. Hardwood leaf drop runs into November and stains concrete wherever wet leaves sit, so the second visit follows the drop rather than leading it.
Structured parking is the reason a Sandy Springs interval is not simply the metro Atlanta interval. A garage deck is never rinsed by rain, so tire rubber, brake dust and drip staining accumulate continuously instead of being partly washed away, and a covered breezeway on a north elevation stays damp long enough to hold biological growth that an open walkway sheds. Compactor pads, enclosure slabs and the garage entry lane are therefore quoted on their own frequency, and a building tight against a wooded buffer earns a tighter interval than a building on the open side of the same property.
A wash costs less per building when the trailer is already on site for something the property had scheduled anyway.
The City of Sandy Springs Code Enforcement Division publishes permitted hours for construction and commercial landscaping activities of 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, with no permitted hours on Sundays and holidays, and states that working outside them requires a variance from the Community Development Department. That page is the City's own summary of common residential code violations, it cites no section number, and it does not name pressure washing, so Thrare Contracting holds its crews inside the window as a scheduling policy rather than presenting it as a citation for this trade.
Two manufacturers publish the same ceiling. Sto Corp. directs that a pressure washer be kept at approximately 200-500 psi with the nozzle several feet from the surface and states that exceeding 500 psi can destroy EIFS surface integrity. Sika's Senergy bulletin says never to use water pressure more than 500 psi or to allow pressure nozzles within 2 feet of the wall, and calls for fan type tips of 30-45° or greater. Both documents are manufacturer literature for their own products rather than a code, and neither covers brick, fiber cement, poured concrete or metal panel.
The City of Sandy Springs, not Fulton County. Fulton County Government states that its Stormwater Management Program manages unincorporated Fulton County and that stormwater management in all other areas of the county is the responsibility of the individual cities. The City of Sandy Springs runs its own MS4 under NPDES general permit GAG610000, has adopted the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District model illicit discharge and illegal connection ordinance at Division 9.8 of the city code, reports 636 MS4 outfalls, and sets a goal of investigating illicit discharge complaints within three business days.
The Fulton County Board of Health rules govern it. Those rules, approved October 2018, bring apartment complex pools and homeowner and property owner associations inside the definition of a public swimming pool, drop the exemptions the Georgia state chapter grants to apartment and subdivision pools, and set the barrier at forty eight inches above grade with no more than four inches of clearance beneath it. Georgia Department of Public Health Rule 511-3-5-.02(3) expressly exempts apartment complex pools, so quoting the state chapter at a Sandy Springs apartment pool cites a rule that does not reach it.
Two full washes a year is the base cycle, with covered surfaces on a shorter interval. A late April visit lands after tree pollen finishes and before the leasing peak, and a second visit follows hardwood leaf drop in late November. Structured parking runs on its own frequency because a garage deck is never rinsed by rain, so tire rubber, brake dust and drip staining accumulate continuously, and compactor pads, enclosure slabs and the garage entry lane come round more often than the buildings do.
Held and verifiable: DBE and ACDBE certification, MBE certification, small disadvantaged business status, E-Verify enrollment, and SAM registration under UEI Z4WKS4UE8NJ6 with CAGE code 9JAV8. Not held, and claimed nowhere: HUBZone, 8(a) and SOC 2. The legal entity behind the Thrare Contracting name is Rare Earth Ltd, at 8735 Dunwoody Pl, Ste R, Atlanta, GA 30350.
Send the building count, the units in each, the garage level count and the cladding by elevation, or just the site plan. Sandy Springs is served from the Atlanta, GA 30350 office.