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School campus cleaning is sequenced around the academic calendar and around where the wash water is allowed to go

Published May 25, 2026 · By Thrare Contracting

Summer break is the only window in a school's year when exterior restoration is possible at scale, and it is shorter than the calendar makes it look. Students, staff and daily activity leave the campus for roughly ten to twelve weeks, which opens access to walkways, courts, playgrounds and bus loops that cannot be closed during the academic year. Summer is also when athletic camps run, when custodial staff take vacation, and when administration turns to enrollment and budget. A facilities director planning summer exterior work is therefore not planning around weather. A facilities director is planning around competing occupancy, a fixed back-to-school date, and a set of rules about where wash water is allowed to go.

This guide is written for facilities directors, head custodians and operations managers at K-12 schools and campuses in metro Atlanta who are scoping a summer exterior program and need a commercial cleaning partner who can be held to it. Public districts running dozens of campuses and independent schools running one building face the same rules and the same substrate limits; only the scale differs. The sections below cover the regulatory constraint first, because the constraint decides the method, the method decides the schedule, and the schedule decides whether the work finishes before the first day of school.

Why is summer break the only practical window for school exterior cleaning?

Summer break is the only practical window because exterior cleaning removes an area from use for hours at a time, and a school in session has no area it can spare. Building washing shuts a breezeway. Court cleaning shuts a court. Bus loop degreasing shuts the loop. During the academic year each of those closures collides with arrival, dismissal, physical education, recess or an athletic schedule, and the facilities office spends more effort negotiating access than the cleaning itself takes.

The safety argument for doing the work at all is separate from the appearance argument, and stronger. Algae and biofilm on a shaded walkway, a covered breezeway or a north-facing entrance reduce traction sharply, and students run on those surfaces in the rain and in the dark before early practices. Athletic courts carry the same exposure under harder use, because a student athlete cutting laterally on a slick acrylic surface loads it in a way a pedestrian never does. Cleaning those surfaces on a documented schedule is a slip hazard control that a district can point to, and the documentation is worth as much as the cleaning.

The health argument needs to be stated carefully, because it is routinely overstated in this industry. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states, on its Indoor Air Quality in Schools guidance, that "the developing bodies of children might be more susceptible to environmental exposures than those of adults" and that "Nearly 1 in 13 children of school-age has asthma, which is the leading cause of school absenteeism due to chronic illness." Those statements are EPA's, and both concern indoor air quality. Exterior washing is not an indoor air quality measure and Thrare Contracting does not present it as one. The honest reading is narrower and still useful: a building occupied by children is a building where a district specifies materials, chemistry and methods more conservatively than an office park does, and where a contractor who cannot describe the chemistry should not be on site.

What has to happen on a school campus before any wash water is generated?

Dry cleanup happens first, and on a Gwinnett County campus that sequence is written down. Gwinnett County Storm Water Management Division publishes Water Quality Protection Guideline WQ-1, "Surface Cleaning", dated 04/05/2007, which its own text describes as "intended to provide minimum requirements for compliance with Gwinnett County's Illicit Discharge and Illegal Connection (IDIC) Ordinance". Guideline section 3.1(1) requires the cleaner to apply oil absorbents to oil and fuel, sweep or vacuum powders and loose dirt, collect litter and animal waste, and mop or soak up liquid contaminants before washing begins.

That ordering matters more on a school campus than almost anywhere else, because a school campus concentrates exactly the contaminants the dry step exists to capture. Bus loops hold fuel and crankcase drips. Cafeteria exits hold food waste. Dumpster pads hold leachate. Athletic areas and roof lines hold bird droppings. Washing any of those first converts a solid the crew could have bagged into a liquid the crew now has to contain, treat and haul, which is slower, more expensive and more likely to end in a discharge.

Guideline section 3.1(11) then states that "As the generator of the washwater the surface cleaner is considered jointly responsible with the property owner for its appropriate disposal." A district is not insulated by hiring a contractor. Gwinnett County's own consumer brochure on hiring a pressure washing contractor says the same thing to the buyer directly: "Keep in mind that as the consumer, you may also be held responsible for illegal discharges that occur on your property." A facilities director should read that as an instruction to ask about containment during procurement rather than after an incident.

Where is wash water allowed to go on a Georgia school campus?

Wash water is not storm water, and a storm drain is built for storm water only. Federal rule 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 except discharges pursuant to a NPDES permit (other than the NPDES permit for discharges from the municipal separate storm sewer) and discharges resulting from fire fighting activities." Exterior wash water is not composed entirely of storm water, so the default answer for every campus in Georgia is that wash water is captured rather than released.

The instrument that enforces that default depends on where the campus sits, and this is the detail most contractors get wrong. Gwinnett County's IDIC ordinance, at Sec. 100-23(a)(1), makes it "a violation of this article for any person to throw, drain, or otherwise discharge, cause, or allow others under its control to throw, drain, or otherwise discharge into the county separate storm sewer system anything other than stormwater", and Sec. 100-27(f) of that ordinance provides that "Upon conviction, such person shall be punished by a fine not to exceed $1,000.00 or imprisonment for 60 days or both." That fine and that jail term belong to Gwinnett's IDIC ordinance and to nothing else; they are not Clean Water Act figures and they do not transfer to another county. Sec. 100-21(e) of the same ordinance limits the article to "the unincorporated area of the county", so a Gwinnett school inside Lawrenceville, Duluth, Snellville, Suwanee, Buford, Lilburn, Norcross or Sugar Hill is governed by that city's own illicit discharge ordinance instead.

A campus inside the City of Atlanta limits is governed by Atlanta City Code chapter 74, article IX, whose section 74-436 provides that "No person shall throw, drain, or otherwise discharge, cause, or allow others under its control to throw, drain, or otherwise discharge into the storm sewer system of the City of Atlanta any pollutants or waters containing any pollutants, other than stormwater." Atlanta's definition of a pollutant expressly names "detergents (biodegradable or otherwise); degreasers; cleaning chemicals", and the exemption list at section 74-437 covers hydrant flushing, irrigation, condensate and similar clean-water sources. Exterior rinse water is not on that list.

Gwinnett's guideline sets the disposal hierarchy that a competent crew works down. Guideline section 3.2.1 makes the sanitary sewer or a permitted on-site wastewater system the default destination. Guideline section 3.2.1.3 allows discharge to a grassy area only with "a minimum separation of 50 feet between the discharge point to the grassy/vegetated area and the nearest storm drain or waterway", sheet flow with no runoff, dry weather, gross pollutants already collected, and only pollutants that biodegrade naturally. Guideline section 3.2.1.4 allows a storm drain discharge only when every one of a long list of criteria is met, including pH between 6.0 and 8.5, temperature not exceeding 90 degrees F, and no traces of detergents, degreasers or solvents, and it limits that option to "cosmetic cleaning of surfaces stained with leaves, mildew, or atmospherically deposited dusts and pollens only." Guideline section 3.1(5) closes the loophole most often proposed on a hot campus in July: evaporation is not an acceptable disposal method.

Does a biodegradable or environmentally friendly detergent solve the storm drain problem?

No, and Gwinnett County states so in one sentence. Guideline section 3.1(10) reads, verbatim: "There are NO 'environmentally friendly' or 'biodegradable' cleaning products that are approved for discharge to storm drains." A product label describing a detergent as green, plant-based or biodegradable says something about how the product breaks down over time in soil. A label says nothing about whether the product is permitted to enter a storm sewer today, and the ordinances above turn on what enters the sewer rather than on what eventually decomposes.

A facilities director can use that sentence as a screening question during procurement. A contractor who answers a containment question by naming a detergent brand has answered the wrong question. Guideline section 3.1(7) sets the actual expectation: the minimal amount of the least toxic cleaner, used only where adequate collection is employed, and cleaning with potable water and no chemicals wherever that is possible. Gwinnett County also maintains a published "List of Businesses Capable of Collecting Surface Cleaning Washwater", which operators join by application on Form WQ-1c and by demonstrating their equipment, and the county states that inclusion "does not constitute an endorsement of the operator by the county." Rare Earth Ltd is not on that list, and a district evaluating any contractor should ask for containment equipment by name rather than relying on a roster.

How should school building exteriors, breezeways and portables be cleaned?

School buildings in metro Atlanta are predominantly brick, concrete block and poured concrete, all of which are durable, porous and quick to hold biological growth in Georgia's humidity. Facades carrying algae, mildew or lichen respond to a low-pressure soft wash with a dilute sodium hypochlorite solution, applied and dwelled rather than blasted, because the chemistry kills the organism and the pressure only removes what is visible. High pressure on a masonry facade is the failure mode, not the solution, and the substrate section below gives the number that governs it.

Covered walkways and breezeways deserve separate line items rather than inclusion in a facade price. Breezeways combine heavy foot traffic with low ultraviolet exposure, which is what suppresses algae on open surfaces, and they usually sit close to planting beds. Those three conditions together make a breezeway the fastest-fouling concrete on a campus. A district that cleans breezeways once a year is cleaning them at half the rate the surface demands; twice a year, once in the summer program and once in early spring ahead of the pollen season, holds the surface.

Portable classroom areas foul faster than the permanent plant for the same reason and get budgeted less often. The wooden decks, ramps, ground-level transitions and concrete pads around portables sit in shaded, humid microclimates and carry the most-walked route on many campuses. A summer scope that stops at the main building and leaves the portable path untouched produces a visible split that the district then explains at open house.

Which school building materials cannot be cleaned at high pressure?

Three of the most common school cladding materials carry a published pressure ceiling, and all three ceilings come from the body that makes or represents the material rather than from a contractor. The Brick Industry Association, in Technical Notes on Brick Construction 20, "Cleaning Brickwork", instructs cleaners to "Do not use water pressures higher than 400 psi (2800 kPa) as measured at the nozzle tip unless permitted by brick manufacturer", and states plainly that "High-pressure water cleaning is not appropriate for brick and may damage the brickwork." That association's figure is stated for brick and it does not transfer to any other surface.

James Hardie Building Products, in Technical Bulletin #20 covering cleaning of its primed and ColorPlus siding, writes that "Using wide fan tips that are kept a minimum of 6 feet from the wall and at pressures under 1500 psi will minimize the chance of damaging the siding", and adds that "Damage to siding arising from improper cleaning or maintenance may not be covered by the James Hardie warranty." That ceiling is more than three times the brick figure, which is precisely why a crew cannot carry one setting across a campus that has both.

According to Sto Corp., whose repair and maintenance guide covers its EIFS assemblies, a cleaner should "keep the pressure at approximately 200-500 psi" and must "not exceed 500 psi" because "the EIFS surface integrity can be destroyed with higher pressure washing." Sika Corporation's Senergy bulletin for EIFS and stucco sets the same ceiling and adds the sentence that summarizes the whole subject: "The chemicals provide the cleaning, not the water pressure." Sto Corp. and Sika are manufacturers writing about their own products, so a building with a different EIFS supplier needs that supplier's bulletin. The practical consequence for a school is that a single campus with brick classroom blocks, a fiber cement addition and an EIFS gymnasium facade requires three different settings and three different standoff distances, and any quote that does not distinguish them has not been walked.

What does a school walkway program actually address?

A campus accumulates a surprising linear footage of pedestrian concrete: main entrance walks, building-to-building routes, athletic paths, bus loop sidewalks and perimeter paths. Those surfaces collect a full academic year of soiling and there is no practical way to address them comprehensively while school is in session. School walkway restoration through professional pressure washing addresses four distinct problems, and each one needs a different method:

What governs cleaning around playground equipment?

Playground protective surfacing is governed by its impact performance, not by its appearance, and cleaning that changes the surfacing changes the protection. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's Public Playground Safety Handbook, Publication 325, which is guidance rather than a regulation, the loose-fill instruction reads "Never use less than 9 inches of loose-fill material except for shredded/recycled rubber (6 inches recommended)", because "Shallower depths are too easily displaced and compacted". The same handbook records that loose-fill "requires frequent maintenance to ensure surfacing levels never drop below the minimum depth", with special attention under swings and at slide exits.

Two consequences follow directly for a summer cleaning scope. First, a pressure rinse aimed at or across a loose-fill bed displaces material out of the use zone, and displaced loose-fill surfacing is an entry on the handbook's own routine inspection table. A crew that hoses down a mulch bed has created an inspection finding. Second, the handbook lists "Holes, flakes, and/or buckling of unitary surfacing" as another routine inspection issue, and those are the exact defects excessive pressure produces on poured-in-place rubber and rubber tile. The Consumer Product Safety Commission publishes no pressure figure at all, and no honest contractor will quote one on its behalf.

The pressure ceiling for a specific unitary surface therefore belongs to the company that manufactured it, which is where the handbook itself points when it says the manufacturer's maintenance instructions and inspection schedules "should be strictly followed." A district should hand its surfacing manufacturer's data sheet to the contractor before the work is priced. The handbook also notes that "Good drainage is essential to maintaining loose-fill surfacing", so a washing plan that leaves standing water in a use zone has degraded the surfacing even when nothing was displaced. Equipment itself, metal and plastic, cleans at low pressure with attention to horizontal surfaces, joints and connection points where growth establishes below normal inspection height.

How should outdoor athletic courts be cleaned, and when?

Outdoor basketball, tennis and multipurpose courts foul faster than any other paved surface on a campus, because they are large, flat, frequently shaded at one end and prone to pooling. Algae on a court is a traction problem before it is an appearance problem, and early-stage biofilm reduces traction while still being nearly invisible, which is the dangerous case.

Court cleaning is governed by the coating, not by a generic setting. An acrylic color coat is a thin sacrificial layer over asphalt or concrete, and the resurfacing manufacturer that warrants that coating sets the cleaning method for it. Thrare Contracting requests the court's coating system and its manufacturer before pricing, and cleans to that manufacturer's instruction. Sequencing against the resurfacing cycle matters as much as method: cleaning a court that is scheduled for resurfacing this same summer wastes the money, while a freshly resurfaced court should be cleaned before students return to remove application debris.

Summer is also the right time to read the court, because a clean surface is the only surface that can be inspected honestly. Staining and organic growth hide cracks, low spots and coating failure. A district that cleans in July and inspects in the same week gets a defensible list for crack sealing, line repainting and resurfacing in the next budget cycle, rather than a guess made through a layer of algae.

What do school parking lots and bus loops need that the rest of the campus does not?

School parking areas take an abuse pattern that no office lot matches: two compressed traffic surges a day, extended bus idling, and drip accumulation from a fleet that is often older than the pavement. A bus loop therefore carries more petroleum contamination than any other paved surface on the campus, and general detergent washing does not touch cured petroleum deposits. Hot water with an alkaline degreaser, adequate dwell time and full containment is the method, and the containment is not optional for the reason the wash water section already gave: oil-bearing wash water is the clearest case of a prohibited discharge there is.

Parent drop-off and pickup lanes foul differently. Those lanes collect exhaust particulate, tire marking and light oil drips from very high vehicle density in a narrow time window, and they are the most closely observed surface on the campus because every family drives them twice a day.

Striping inspection belongs in the same visit. Accessible space markings, access aisles, fire lane markings and crosswalk striping have to remain legible, and a summer wash is the moment the district can see what is left of them. Parking lot striping that has faded past legibility is a compliance exposure and not a cosmetic one, which the accessibility section below states with its source.

What changes when school exterior work happens at height?

Elevated work on a campus, meaning gymnasium walls, stadium structures, canopies, upper facade elevations and roof-adjacent areas, brings fall protection into the scope. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration sets two different thresholds, and which one applies depends on how the work is classified. Under 29 CFR 1910.28(b)(1)(i), covering general industry, an employer "must ensure that each employee on a walking-working surface with an unprotected side or edge that is 4 feet (1.2 m) or more above a lower level is protected from falling" by a guardrail system, a safety net system or a personal fall protection system. Under 29 CFR 1926.501(b)(1), covering construction, the same protection is required at "6 feet (1.8 m) or more above a lower level."

Those two numbers are not interchangeable and neither is "the OSHA rule" on its own. A second qualifier matters just as much on a school campus: 29 CFR 1910.28, paragraph (a)(2)(i), states that the section does not apply to portable ladders, which is where a large share of real exterior exposure sits. Thrare Contracting's practical answer is to design school scopes so that reach-from-grade methods cover as much elevation as the building allows, and to state in the proposal which elevations require access equipment rather than discovering it during the work.

What does a public school district have to keep accessible after the work is done?

A public school district is a public entity under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and 28 CFR 35.133(a) provides that "A public entity shall maintain in operable working condition those features of facilities and equipment that are required to be readily accessible to and usable by persons with disabilities by the Act or this part." Accessible parking spaces, access aisles, curb ramps and the accessible routes connecting parking to entrances and to play areas are those features. Maintenance is a continuing obligation and not a one-time construction test.

The same rule carries its own qualifier, and it should travel with the quote: 28 CFR 35.133(b) states that the section "does not prohibit isolated or temporary interruptions in service or access due to maintenance or repairs." A crew that closes an accessible route for an afternoon to clean it is squarely inside that paragraph. A district that leaves an access aisle unreadable for a school year is not.

Independent and parochial schools sit under Title III of the same statute rather than Title II, in 28 CFR part 36, so a private school scope should not cite the Title II rule. Thrare Contracting names the title that applies in the proposal rather than writing that "the ADA requires" something without saying which part.

What does a workable summer timeline look like against an academic calendar?

The most common failure in a school summer program is starting in August. August is consumed by classroom setup, technology deployment, deliveries and staff return, and exterior work scheduled into it gets cut rather than compressed. Working backward from the first day of school, and treating the last two weeks as unavailable, produces a sequence that finishes:

What is included in a school exterior cleaning price, and what is not?

A school exterior price from Thrare Contracting includes the following, and a district should expect each item to be named in the proposal rather than assumed:

The following are not included in an exterior cleaning price, and naming them up front is what prevents a change order in the last week of July:

What does Thrare Contracting need from a school district before mobilization?

What is a defensible back-to-school readiness standard?

A readiness standard gives facilities staff an objective benchmark and gives the district a dated record that the campus was prepared for student occupancy. Each line below is observable by a person walking the site, which is what makes it defensible:

Is Thrare Contracting already approved to work for a school district?

Yes, in one district, through a competitive procurement, and the precise terms matter. Gwinnett County Public Schools awarded Bid B-2622LM, On Demand Pressure Washing, Softwash and Window Cleaning, on 2026-08-31, with a term running 2026-09-01 to 2027-06-30. That award is a multi-award on-demand vendor pool rather than an exclusive contract: 12 of 12 responsive bidders were awarded, the district published no dollar value, and the award document states that participation "does not guarantee any minimum amount of work." No work has been performed under it as of this writing.

For a district evaluating a new vendor, the registrations that carry across agencies are these: Rare Earth Ltd, doing business as Thrare Contracting, is registered in SAM with Unique Entity ID Z4WKS4UE8NJ6 and CAGE code 9JAV8, is certified DBE, ACDBE, MBE and as a small disadvantaged business, and is enrolled in E-Verify, which Georgia public employers and their contractors are required to confirm. The company operates from 8735 Dunwoody Pl, Ste R, Atlanta, GA 30350 and works across metro Atlanta, including school pressure washing in Atlanta and the surrounding counties.

To scope a summer program, call (678) 748-3578 or email admin@thrarecontracting.com and send the campus address with the cladding inventory. Thrare Contracting will walk the campus and return a surface-by-surface method statement with the containment plan named.

Frequently asked questions about school campus cleaning in summer

How early should a school district book summer exterior cleaning?

A school district should book summer exterior cleaning before students leave in May, with dates confirmed in writing. Contractors that carry wash water containment equipment fill their summer school schedules early, and the substrate inventory, playground surfacing data and court coating system all have to be reviewed before a real price exists. A district that begins calling in June is choosing from remaining capacity rather than from the best fit.

Can wash water from a school campus go into a storm drain?

No, not as a default. Federal rule 40 CFR 122.26(b)(2) defines a discharge to a municipal separate storm sewer that is not composed entirely of storm water as an illicit discharge, and exterior wash water is not composed entirely of storm water. Gwinnett County guideline WQ-1 makes the sanitary sewer or a permitted on-site system the default destination and allows a storm drain only for cosmetic cleaning that meets a long list of criteria, including pH between 6.0 and 8.5 and no traces of detergents or degreasers.

Does a biodegradable detergent make a storm drain discharge acceptable?

No. Gwinnett County's surface cleaning guideline states, verbatim, that "There are NO 'environmentally friendly' or 'biodegradable' cleaning products that are approved for discharge to storm drains." Atlanta City Code names "detergents (biodegradable or otherwise)" in its own definition of a pollutant. A product label describes how a chemical breaks down over time and says nothing about whether the chemical is permitted to enter a storm sewer.

What pressure is safe on a school building exterior?

The safe pressure depends entirely on the cladding, and three common school materials carry published ceilings from the body that makes or represents them. The Brick Industry Association instructs cleaners not to exceed 400 psi measured at the nozzle tip on brick. James Hardie specifies fan tips kept a minimum of 6 feet from the wall at pressures under 1500 psi on its fiber cement siding. Sto Corp. and Sika both cap EIFS and acrylic stucco at 500 psi.

How should playground areas be cleaned without affecting the safety surfacing?

Playground cleaning is governed by the surfacing manufacturer's instructions, and the pressure ceiling belongs to that manufacturer rather than to the contractor. The Consumer Product Safety Commission's Public Playground Safety Handbook lists displaced loose-fill surfacing and holes, flakes or buckling of unitary surfacing as routine inspection findings, which is exactly what a careless rinse produces. The handbook also requires loose-fill depth of at least 9 inches, or 6 inches for shredded rubber, so any method that displaces material out of a use zone has degraded the protection.

Is Thrare Contracting approved to work for a school district?

Gwinnett County Public Schools awarded Thrare Contracting a place on Bid B-2622LM, On Demand Pressure Washing, Softwash and Window Cleaning, on 2026-08-31, for a term of 2026-09-01 to 2027-06-30. That award is a multi-award on-demand vendor pool in which 12 of 12 responsive bidders were awarded, the district published no dollar value, and participation does not guarantee any minimum amount of work. Rare Earth Ltd is registered in SAM with Unique Entity ID Z4WKS4UE8NJ6 and CAGE code 9JAV8.

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