Exterior cleaning for Marietta and east Cobb office parks, retail centers, restaurants and industrial properties, and for the general contractors who carry exterior cleaning inside a larger scope
Thrare Contracting pressure washes commercial property across Marietta and Cobb County for facilities managers, retail and office property owners, restaurant operators, and general contractors carrying an exterior cleaning line inside a larger scope. Marietta is a service area worked from Atlanta, not a branch office.
Rare Earth Ltd, doing business as Thrare Contracting, is based in Atlanta at 8735 Dunwoody Pl, Ste R, Atlanta, GA 30350, and has operated since January 19, 2020. Rare Earth Ltd holds DBE and ACDBE certification, holds MBE certification, qualifies as a small disadvantaged business, uses E-Verify, and is registered in SAM under UEI Z4WKS4UE8NJ6 and CAGE 9JAV8. Rare Earth Ltd does not hold HUBZone, 8(a) or SOC 2 status and does not represent otherwise.
A Marietta commercial property runs two clocks against an exterior contractor: the hours the tenants trade, and the hours the city permits noise. The City of Marietta publishes sound level limits by receiving property category, and the overnight limit tightens rather than lifts. Marietta lists 65 dBA and 84 dBC from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. for a commercial, business, residential, public space, institutional or noise sensitive receiving property, 60 dBA and 79 dBC for those categories from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., and 70 dBA and 89 dBC at all times for an industrial or manufacturing receiving property (City of Marietta, Noise Ordinance, read 2026-09-02).
The measurement point decides who the rule protects. Marietta states that "sound level readings will be measured at or within the real property line of the receiving property", so the category governing an overnight wash on a Cobb Parkway retail strip is whatever sits across the property line, not the strip itself.
The second constraint is that exterior cleaning is a wet trade run on surfaces the public walks on. A washed sidewalk outside a Marietta Square restaurant is a slip surface until it dries, a coned parking bay is a lost space at lunch, and a wet dock apron blocks a delivery window.
A commercial pressure washing scope covers every surface a customer sees on approach and every surface staff work on behind the building, named as separate sub scopes so two bids can be compared line by line.
A commercial pressure wash on an occupied property is sequenced zone by zone, so the only area out of service at any moment is the zone the crew is standing in.
A commercial pressure washing quote in Marietta is priced on six inputs: surface area by type, cladding and access height, contamination level, the working window, the water source, and visit frequency. A quote naming all six lets a facilities manager check the arithmetic instead of comparing two numbers built differently.
Thrare Contracting publishes no square foot price here. A number quoted before anyone has seen the cladding, the contamination and the drainage path is a guess wearing the costume of a bid.
Wash water on a Marietta commercial property stays out of the storm drain. A parking lot inlet is not connected to a treatment plant, and the rule that governs an address inside the city limits is the City of Marietta's own illicit discharge ordinance.
The City of Marietta Code of Ordinances, Part 7, Chapter 7-8, Article 7-8-18, Illicit Discharge and Illegal Connection, defines an illicit discharge as "any direct or indirect nonstormwater discharge to the municipal separate storm sewer system, except as exempted in Section 7-8-18-030 of this article", and defines that system as one "owned or maintained by the city". Section 7-8-18-030 states that "no person shall throw, drain, or otherwise discharge, cause, or allow others under its control to throw, drain, or otherwise discharge into the municipal separate storm sewer system any pollutants or waters containing any pollutants, other than stormwater." The article names wash water directly: an illegal connection includes any conveyance that allows "any nonstormwater discharge including sewage, process wastewater, and wash water to enter the storm drain system" (City of Marietta Code of Ordinances, Article 7-8-18, sections 7-8-18-020 and 7-8-18-030, read 2026-09-02).
The city's pollutant definition is broad enough to catch ordinary exterior cleaning, listing "detergents (biodegradable or otherwise); degreasers; cleaning chemicals" and "cooking grease" among others. The exemptions the public works director may allow at 7-8-18-030 cover water line flushing by a government agency, other potable water sources, landscape irrigation, diverted stream flows, rising or uncontaminated pumped ground water, foundation or footing drains, crawl space pumps, air conditioning condensation, springs, riparian or wetland flows, firefighting, and any other water source not containing pollutants. Commercial pressure washing wash water is not among them.
Cobb County Water publishes the county's written guidance for pressure washing contractors, which applies to an unincorporated Cobb County address rather than to one inside the Marietta city limits. It states the prohibition directly: "The discharge of contaminated wash water to the storm drainage system is strictly prohibited and a violation of state and local regulations." The same page warns that a contractor in violation "can be heavily penalized with fines and prohibited from doing business in Cobb County" (Cobb County Water Education, Pressure Washers, read 2026-09-02).
That county guidance splits the requirement by contamination rather than by whether soap was used. Where a surface carries "no visible contaminants or detectable pollutants such as petroleum products, chemicals, or sewage", Cobb County states that "wash water runoff does not have to be collected but must be screened", using "filter fabric catch basin inserts, oil absorbent socks, or other types of screening devices". Where a surface is contaminated, collection becomes mandatory "whether using soaps/detergents or just plain water", by "a sump pump, wet vacuum, or similarly effective device", and the collected water goes "to the sanitary sewer system or disposing of the wash water at the appropriate disposal facility".
That split is why a dumpster pad and a shaded office sidewalk are not the same job: a grease loaded enclosure slab sits in the collection category, and a north facing office walkway carrying algae ordinarily does not.
Cobb County's illicit discharge ordinance is written around the county system, and the county system is defined by ownership. The Official Code of Cobb County, Chapter 50, Article V, Stormwater Quality/Illicit Discharge and Illegal Connections, defines the county separate storm drainage system as conveyances "owned or maintained by unincorporated Cobb County", and section 50-191 makes it "unlawful for any person to throw, drain, run, or otherwise discharge to any component of the county separate storm drainage system ... any matter of any nature excepting only such stormwater or surface water as authorized in this article" (Official Code of Cobb County, sections 50-181 and 50-191, read 2026-09-02). The exemptions at 50-191(b) cover water line flushing, unpolluted groundwater, potable water sources, foundation drains, air conditioning condensation, irrigation water, street wash water and firefighting. Commercial pressure washing wash water is not among them.
The City of Marietta sits inside those county boundaries as a separate jurisdiction with its own drainage system and its own stormwater engineer, so a property inside the city limits works to Article 7-8-18 rather than to the unincorporated county definition. The practical answer does not change either way: water that never reaches an inlet never becomes a discharge to anybody's system.
The federal definition is narrow enough to quote rather than paraphrase. Under 40 CFR 122.26(b)(2), an illicit discharge is "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" (40 CFR 122.26, via the Cornell Legal Information Institute, read 2026-08-31). The United States Environmental Protection Agency states that the program "regulates some stormwater discharges from three potential sources: municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s), construction activities, and industrial activities" (EPA, NPDES Stormwater Program, read 2026-08-31), and Georgia's program is administered by the Environmental Protection Division's Watershed Protection Branch (Georgia EPD, Stormwater, read 2026-08-31).
Wash water off a Marietta dumpster pad or dock apron carries sediment, food residue, oil and grease, so that water is not composed entirely of storm water, and no retail center in Cobb County holds an NPDES permit for washing its own sidewalk. Thrare Contracting publishes no penalty dollar figure, because the figures circulating on contractor blogs are not traceable to the statute.
Pressure damages a building exterior, and the damage is usually invisible on the day it happens. For brickwork the Brick Industry Association publishes a hard ceiling in Technical Notes on Brick Construction 20, "Cleaning Brickwork", dated August 2018: "Do not use water pressures higher than 400 psi (2800 kPa) as measured at the nozzle tip unless permitted by brick manufacturer" (Brick Industry Association, read 2026-09-02). That document classes 400 to 800 psi as medium pressure, to be used "only if permitted by the brick manufacturer", and rules out the band above it: "High-pressure water cleaning is not appropriate for brick and may damage the brickwork."
Technique is specified as tightly as pressure. The Brick Industry Association directs the operator to "use a 25 to 50 deg. fan-shaped stainless steel nozzle tip, and maintain a distance of 12 in. (305 mm) minimum between the nozzle tip and the brick surface", and to measure pressure "at the tip of the nozzle" rather than at the pump. Cleaning solution runs lower still, at a "maximum 30 to 50 psi (200 to 350 kPa)", and the standard calls for a test first: "Perform trial cleaning on a 20 sq ft (2 m2) sample area."
Marietta's older commercial stock makes those numbers operational rather than academic. Eroded mortar is not a cosmetic result: mortar removed from a joint is a water path into the wall assembly, and the repair costs a multiple of the wash that caused it. One question separates two bids, and it is what pressure the bidder runs at the nozzle tip on brick. Other cladding carries its own limits: painted CMU sheds coating, EIFS delaminates at the edges, composite panel drives water behind the joint, and wood loses fiber. The correct answer on most painted or synthetic cladding is soft washing, where chemistry does the work and the pressure only rinses.
Two full cleanings a year is the base cycle for a Marietta commercial property, with dumpster pads, drive through lanes and high footfall entries on a shorter interval than the building elevations.
Rainfall sets the interval, and Cobb County is wetter than the Atlanta station most contractors quote. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration puts the 1991 to 2020 annual precipitation normal at 53.48 inches for station US1GACB0016, "MARIETTA 8.3 NE, GA US", and 51.06 inches for station US1GACB0002, "SMYRNA 2.3 NE, GA US" (NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Monthly Climate Normals 1991-2020, read 2026-09-02). Both figures are NOAA's published 1991 to 2020 normal for the named station, not a city average and not any single year. Neither is a 30 year average of that station's own observations: the NCEI daily record for US1GACB0016 begins 2009-03-04 and the record for US1GACB0002 begins 2008-04-01 (NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Global Historical Climatology Network daily station inventory, read 2026-09-02).
Shaded damp concrete is what turns a walkway green between visits, so an elevation tight to a wooded buffer earns a shorter interval than the open side of the same building. Tree pollen coats every horizontal surface from late February into April, so a February wash is undone by March and a late April wash holds, and hardwood leaf drop runs through November. Food service properties run on their own clock, because a grease loaded pad does not wait for a season.
A Marietta commercial property can be washed outside business hours, and the limit belongs to the receiving property rather than the property being cleaned. Marietta's overnight limit of 60 dBA runs from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. and is measured at the receiving property line, so an overnight schedule works cleanly where the neighbors are industrial or commercial and needs care where residential lots sit across it. The three usable answers are an overnight wash, an early morning wash finishing before the first tenant opens, and a zoned daytime wash on a property large enough that a coned section never blocks the trading area.
Cobb County publishes the vendor path, and the step most contractors miss is the last one. A vendor registers through the county's online Vendor Self Service system, and Cobb County states that "your vendor application is not complete, and will not be activated, until a completed W-9 is emailed to vendor.enrollment@cobbcounty.gov". Cobb County adds that vendors "will not be activated in the system until verbal verification is completed", and that "all vendors, contractors and subcontractors are required to provide proof of eligibility of their employees to work in the United States upon request" (Cobb County Procurement Services, Vendor Registration, read 2026-09-02).
Dollar thresholds decide which door a scope comes through. Cobb County Procurement Services states that "all purchases of goods and/or services estimated to be in excess of $50,000.00 are advertised by the Cobb County Procurement Services Department and in the Marietta Daily Journal", that responses to quotation requests "under $10,000.00 may be responded to verbally", and that responses "greater than $10,000 but less than $50,000 must be submitted in writing" (Cobb County Procurement Services, Bidding Information, read 2026-09-02). Recurring exterior cleaning on a single county building frequently sits in that informal band, so an activated vendor record matters more than a bid calendar.
A private landlord runs a shorter list, and the same documents clear most of it: a W-9, a certificate of insurance naming the additional insureds the property requires, a business license, a written scope with the exclusions named, and a safety approach for work at height and around traffic. Coverage limits are set by the property's own risk management and belong on the certificate.
Thrare Contracting works Marietta Square, the I-75 corridor along Delk Road, Franklin Gateway and South Marietta Parkway, the Cumberland and Galleria district at the Smyrna boundary, the medical and professional offices on Roswell Street and Roswell Road, the industrial properties near Dobbins Air Reserve Base, the US-41 and Cobb Parkway retail corridor, and east Cobb centers on Johnson Ferry Road, plus Smyrna, Vinings, Kennesaw, Acworth, Powder Springs and Austell.
Wash water stays out of the storm drain. Inside the city limits the governing rule is the City of Marietta Code of Ordinances, Article 7-8-18, Illicit Discharge and Illegal Connection, which defines an illicit discharge as "any direct or indirect nonstormwater discharge to the municipal separate storm sewer system" and names wash water directly in its illegal connection definition. Cobb County Water publishes the county's pressure washer guidance, which applies to unincorporated Cobb County addresses, and it requires a water collection device such as a sump pump or a wet vacuum where a surface carries detectable pollutants, with collected runoff going to the sanitary sewer or an appropriate disposal facility. The crew method is the same either way: contain and collect the water so it never reaches an inlet.
Thrare Contracting sets pressure by cladding and stays inside the published limit for brick. The Brick Industry Association, in Technical Notes on Brick Construction 20 dated August 2018, states "Do not use water pressures higher than 400 psi (2800 kPa) as measured at the nozzle tip unless permitted by brick manufacturer", and classes anything greater than 800 psi as not appropriate for brick. That document also calls for a trial clean on a 20 square foot sample area.
A Marietta property can be pressure washed overnight, and the governing limit belongs to the neighboring property. The City of Marietta lists a sound level limit of 60 dBA and 79 dBC from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. for a commercial, business, residential, public space, institutional or noise sensitive receiving property, and 70 dBA at all times for an industrial or manufacturing receiving property, measured at the real property line of the receiving property.
Two full cleanings a year is the base cycle, with dumpster pads, drive through lanes and high footfall entries on a shorter interval. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration puts the 1991 to 2020 annual precipitation normal at 53.48 inches for the station named MARIETTA 8.3 NE, GA US, so shaded concrete regrows algae between visits. Late April and late November are the two dates that hold longest.
Each visit closes with a zone by zone report: timestamped before and after photographs organized by zone, a scope summary naming what was cleaned, and a punch list of anything found outside the cleaning scope, such as a failed sealant joint or a trip hazard at a slab joint. Certificates of insurance naming the additional insureds the property requires are issued at vendor setup.
Rare Earth Ltd, doing business as Thrare Contracting, holds DBE and ACDBE certification, holds MBE certification, qualifies as a small disadvantaged business, uses E-Verify, and is registered in SAM under UEI Z4WKS4UE8NJ6 and CAGE 9JAV8. Rare Earth Ltd does not hold HUBZone, 8(a) or SOC 2 status and does not represent otherwise.
Send the surface types, the approximate square footage and the business hours, or the site plan. Serving Marietta and Cobb County from Atlanta, GA 30350.