Rare Earth Ltd, doing business as Thrare Contracting, works from 8735 Dunwoody Pl, Ste R, Atlanta, GA 30350, and scopes exterior programs for commercial, institutional and multifamily portfolios across metro Atlanta.
A property manager is accountable for four things a vendor rarely puts in writing: where the wash water went, which surfaces the crew was allowed to touch, what hours the crew was on site, and whether the property file can prove all three months later.
None of those four are cleaning questions. Each one is a compliance question that arrives at the manager's desk rather than at the contractor's, because the ordinance names the property owner and the operator, and an enforcement letter goes to the address on the tax record. A vendor who arrives with a hose and no containment plan creates an exposure for the owner and leaves with the invoice paid.
The metro Atlanta complication is that the answer changes street by street. The Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District states on its own About page that the District "collaborates with 97 cities and 15 counties to conserve and protect our region's vital yet limited water resources" and that "Over 100 different jurisdictions fulfill the Resources Management Plan requirements which are enforced by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division." A portfolio of eleven properties in this region can sit under eleven separate local ordinances, and a manager who standardizes on one county document is standardizing on a document that does not reach most of the portfolio.
Thrare Contracting writes a property management scope against the jurisdiction first and against the surface second. Rare Earth Ltd has operated in Atlanta since 2020, holds DBE certification through the Georgia Unified Certification Program, holds MBE certification and small disadvantaged business status, maintains an active SAM.gov registration under CAGE 9JAV8 and UEI Z4WKS4UE8NJ6, and is enrolled in E-Verify. Rare Earth Ltd does not hold HUBZone status, 8(a) status or SOC 2 certification, and does not represent otherwise on a bid, in a vendor packet, or on this page.
A county stormwater ordinance is written to the county's own storm sewer system, and a property inside an incorporated city sits on the city's system instead. The Official Code of Cobb County, section 50-181, defines the "Cobb County separate storm drainage system" as a conveyance or system of conveyances "Owned or maintained by unincorporated Cobb County". Section 50-191(a) then makes it "unlawful for any person to throw, drain, run, or otherwise discharge to any component of the county separate storm drainage system or to cause, permit or suffer to be thrown, drained, run or allow to seep or otherwise discharge into such system any matter of any nature excepting only such stormwater or surface water as authorized in this article." The exemptions listed at 50-191(b) cover water line flushing by a government agency, diverted stream flows, rising groundwater, potable water sources, foundation and footing drains, air conditioning condensation, irrigation, lawn watering, springs, crawl space pumps, riparian habitat flows, firefighting discharges and other unpolluted water. Commercial wash water appears nowhere in that list.
Cross the line into Marietta and a different code governs the identical building. The City of Marietta Code of Ordinances, article 7-8-18, defines the municipal separate storm sewer system as a facility for collecting or conveying stormwater that is "Owned or maintained by the city", 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 names wash water directly in its illegal connection definition, which reaches any conveyance allowing "any nonstormwater discharge including sewage, process wastewater, and wash water to enter the storm drain system". The Marietta definition of a pollutant expressly includes "detergents (biodegradable or otherwise); degreasers; cleaning chemicals" and "cooking grease".
Handing a Marietta board a Cobb County document is not a small filing error. The county document describes a system that does not serve the property. The practical instruction to the crew does not change between the two, and only the authority behind it does, which is exactly why the containment method belongs in the scope and the citation belongs in the file. Federal-layer detail, the City of Atlanta ordinance and the unincorporated Fulton County split are covered on the commercial services page rather than repeated here.
The City of Sandy Springs runs its own NPDES Phase II Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System permit, number GAG610000, and its 2024 Stormwater Management Program filing states that the City "has adopted the Metropolitan North Georgia Water Planning District's (MNGWPD) Model Illicit Discharge and Illegal Connection Ordinance", an ordinance that "prohibits non-stormwater discharges into the storm sewer system and establishes appropriate enforcement procedures."
Four numbers from that filing tell a property manager what the City is actually doing in the field. The City reports "There are currently 636 MS4 outfalls." The City commits to "perform screening of MS4 outfalls within its current inventory at the rate of approximately 20% per year but at least 5% each year", rotating so that "100% of the inventoried MS4 outfalls are screened over a five-year period". The City sets a complaint goal to "Investigate illicit discharge complaints within three (3) business days." The receiving water is named in the filing as the "Chattahoochee River Basin". A three business day complaint response is short enough that a tenant photograph of foam at a curb inlet becomes a site visit inside the same week the work happened.
The Sandy Springs filing also records that "Fulton County currently fulfills the City's bacteria and analytical monitoring requirements for Long Island Creek, Marsh Creek, and Ball Mill Creek" under a Memorandum of Agreement, which is the kind of shared arrangement that makes a single-document answer wrong. Property-specific detail for that submarket sits on the Sandy Springs commercial page.
DeKalb County states on its Public Works, Roads and Drainage stormwater page that "DeKalb County operates under NPDES Phase I MS4 permit", a different and larger permit class than the Phase II permits that the metro's smaller cities hold. The same page records that the County's stormwater utility was "Established in 2004" and "funds essential infrastructure maintenance and improvements to protect residents from flooding and maintain water quality."
The fee structure on that page is a direct operating line item for a commercial property manager, because DeKalb County charges by impervious surface rather than by building. Under the heading "Current Rates (Effective 2025)", the County publishes a "Base Rate: $120 per Equivalent Residential Unit (ERU) annually", against previous rates of "$108 (2024), $96 (2023)". Under "How Fees Are Calculated", the County states "Commercial/Other Developed Land: 1 ERU per 3,000 sq ft of impervious surface", "Multi-Family (Apartments/Condos): 0.5 ERU x number of units", "Single Family Homes/Townhomes: 1 ERU per year", and that "Undeveloped property is not charged a stormwater utility fee." Under "Fee Credit System", the County states that "Property owners can receive up to 40% credit for" on-site detention facilities, water quality treatment systems and green infrastructure installations.
Two cautions belong beside those numbers. Paying a stormwater utility bill authorizes no discharge at all, because the ERU formula is a funding rule and the illicit discharge prohibition is a separate rule that still applies to every wash. And the County's page does not state whether the utility and the MS4 reach the incorporated cities inside DeKalb, so a property inside Decatur, Brookhaven, Dunwoody, Chamblee or Doraville needs that city's own ordinance pulled rather than a county page printed. Submarket pages carry the local detail for Decatur, Brookhaven and Dunwoody.
The City of Roswell has run a stormwater utility fee "since 2011 to finance the replacement and repair of the City's aging stormwater infrastructure", and the City states that the fee "is based on the amount of impervious surface area on each developed property in the City" and that "Commercial properties will receive a bill based on their actual impervious surface area." The City's published fee table gives a Non-Residential and Commercial monthly rate of $5.99 as of July 1, 2024, and the table's own footnote sets the calculation: "Rate calculated by multiplying total amount of impervious surface times the monthly rate divided by 4,100 square feet." A commercial bill in Roswell is therefore a rate per 4,100 square feet of impervious surface, not a flat monthly charge, and a manager who budgets $5.99 a month for a shopping center will be short by orders of magnitude.
On the regulatory side, the City of Roswell defines illicit discharge as "any discharge to a storm sewer that is not composed entirely of storm water", states that the City "is part of the 15-County Metro North Georgia Planning District (MNGWPD)", and reports that "Big Creek, Hog Waller Creek, and Foe Killer Creek watersheds in the City of Roswell are listed as not supporting their designated use", with Rocky Creek and Willeo Creek "partially supporting their designated use", attributing those listings to "elevated levels of bacteria specifically fecal coliform". A property that drains to a stream the City has already characterized as impaired is a property where a complaint is taken seriously on the first call. The City also reports that its Drainage System Investigator's work order list "is currently backlogged approximately 9 months", which is a statement about the City's own public drainage maintenance queue and not about permit or inspection response times.
A Thrare Contracting property management program covers six recurring scopes, each written as a named sub-scope with its own frequency, its own acceptance standard and its own photo record.
Property types served under these scopes include office parks, retail strip centers, anchored shopping centers, medical campuses, industrial warehouses, distribution centers, government buildings, school facilities, apartment communities and mixed use developments. Portfolio-level program structure sits on the commercial property programs page, and multifamily-specific detail sits on the property managers page.
Thrare Contracting sequences a property management program in six steps, and the order is fixed because each step produces the input the next one needs.
Process is the part of exterior work a manager cannot verify from a photograph after the fact. Two contractors hand over identical after pictures, and only one of them knows where the water went.
Synthetic stucco, EIFS and interlocking pavers are the three surfaces most frequently damaged on managed commercial properties, because each carries a published manufacturer or trade limit that sits far below the pressure a crew uses on a drive lane.
Sto Corp., whose EIFS repair and maintenance guide is the reference for its own systems, instructs that "If a pressure washer is used, keep the pressure at approximately 200-500 psi (1.4-3.4 MPa), and keep the nozzle several feet from the surface. Do not exceed 500 psi (1.4 MPa) pressure, as the EIFS surface integrity can be destroyed with higher pressure washing." The same guide lists three prohibitions worth reading into a scope: do not "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"; do not "Use solvent based cleaners - acetone, gasoline, ketones, mineral oils, or turpentine - for example, since solvent can penetrate the EIFS finish and base coat materials and damage the EPS insulation board"; and do not "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 deg F (74 deg C)."
Sika Corporation's Senergy technical bulletin on cleaning finish and removing efflorescence, revised February 2024, sets the same ceiling from a second manufacturer and adds a standoff distance: "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 deg or greater) on the pressure washer." The bulletin states the operating principle in one line that settles most arguments on site: "The chemicals provide the cleaning, not the water pressure." The bulletin also warns that "Frequent power-washing should be avoided, it may result in premature deterioration of the Senergy finish", which is a reason to write an annual cycle into a program rather than a monthly one.
Interlocking concrete pavers carry a different published range. The Concrete Masonry and Hardscapes Association, in PAV-TEC-005-22, states that "A high pressure sprayer applies cleaner and water between 1,000 and 4,000 psi (6.9 and 27.6 MPa), and at a rate between 2 and 6 gallons/minute (7.6 and 22.7 liters/minute)", that "Cleaners to remove efflorescence are applied with a low pressure pump spray 30 to 100 psi (0.2 to 0.7 MPa)", and that "A low angle of attack from a wide nozzle spray will also reduce the risk of dislodging joint sand." Joint sand washed out of a plaza is a repair the property pays for, not a cleaning defect the vendor absorbs.
Two limits govern how any of these figures are used. Each number belongs to the substrate its publisher names and transfers to no other one, so an EIFS ceiling never crosses to brick and a paver range never crosses to a stucco wall. And 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 manufacturers agree on. Brick and fiber cement limits are published by their own bodies and are set out on the commercial services page.
Working hours are a scheduling decision a property manager owns, and the local ordinances that bracket them are written for construction and landscaping rather than for exterior cleaning, so Thrare Contracting treats them as the outer edge of its own scheduling policy rather than as a rule issued to this trade.
The City of Sandy Springs publishes on its Code Enforcement common violations page that "Construction and commercial landscaping activities are permitted only during the following hours", listing Monday to Friday 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and "Sundays and holidays: No permitted hours". The City adds that "Anyone seeking to work outside of these permitted hours must first obtain a variance from the Community Development Department", and states more broadly that "Noise that is excessively loud or disturbing and that interferes with the comfort, peace, health, or safety of others may be considered a nuisance." That page is the City's own summary of common complaints and cites no section number, and exterior cleaning is not named on it.
The City of Alpharetta Code of Ordinances, chapter 26, article V, sets a comparable window in ordinance text. Section 26-116(3) states that "Construction and demolition activity shall not be performed between the hours of 7:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. on weekdays, before the hour of 9:00 a.m. or after the hour of 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, or at any time on Sunday, unless such activities are deemed emergency work as defined in section 26-113." Section 26-116(2) applies a matching window to "Commercial or industrial power tools used for landscaping and yard maintenance", barring motorized equipment "on a residential property, or within 250 feet of a residential property line" inside the same hours. Neither paragraph names pressure washing or exterior cleaning. Alpharetta's sound level table at section 26-114(a), measured at or within the receiving property line, sets 65 dBA for commercial or business property between 7:00 a.m. and 11:00 p.m. and 60 dBA overnight, and 60 dBA daytime with 55 dBA overnight for residential or noise sensitive property.
The City of Roswell places its noise ordinance at "City Code 5.1.13 & 8.8.3 (s)" and states that the ordinance "prohibits sounds that exceed established decibel thresholds, particularly during nighttime hours, and outlines restrictions on sources such as animals, construction, landscaping equipment, amplified music, and outdoor performances", with exemptions "including emergency work, public safety operations, permitted events, religious services, school-related performances, and daytime construction or landscaping." The City's public summary publishes no decibel figure and no hour range, so no number is quoted here for Roswell.
The practical policy Thrare Contracting applies across the metro is narrower than any of those windows. Occupied retail and office properties get work before tenant open or after tenant close where the property approves it. Residential-adjacent properties get daytime work only. Overnight work is scheduled where a property demands it and priced as overnight work rather than absorbed, and it is written into the scope in advance rather than agreed on the night. Every submarket page carries its own ordinance detail, including Alpharetta, Roswell and Marietta.
A Thrare Contracting property management price includes mobilization, the jurisdiction check, cleaning at the pressure and chemistry each substrate tolerates, containment and disposal of wash water, a verification walk, and the documentation package. A Thrare Contracting price excludes repair, coating, sealing, striping and any promise that a stain will vanish.
Naming the exclusions inside the scope is what keeps a change order from becoming an argument in front of an owner. A manager who reads at the walk that penetrated rust will lighten rather than vanish makes a different decision than a manager who reads it in an email after the crew has left.
Thrare Contracting needs seven items from a property before a crew mobilizes, and a scope that arrives without them slips.
Managers adding a new vendor to an approved list can start at vendor registration, and agencies and public buyers can start at government contracting services.
Recurring exterior cleaning is an operating expense rather than a reserve item, and the distinction matters at any property whose budget is reviewed by a lender, an owner or a board.
The Foundation for Community Association Research, in its 2025 U.S. National and State Statistical Review, estimates 11,400 community associations in Georgia, housing an estimated 2,326,000 residents in an estimated 889,000 units, which places Georgia ninth on the Foundation's state table. Nationally the Foundation estimates 373,000 community associations covering 29.6 million housing units and 78.1 million residents, with $124.2 billion in assessments collected in 2025 and $31.1 billion of that contributed to reserve funds. The Foundation also estimates that 30 to 40 percent of community associations are self-managed, meaning the association employs no professional manager or management company and buys professional help project by project. The Foundation publishes those numbers as its own curated estimates drawn from Census and housing data rather than as an official count, and the Foundation's category covers condominiums, cooperatives and planned communities together.
On the reserve side, the Fannie Mae Selling Guide at B4-2.2-01, effective 2026-08-05, requires that a project budget "provide for the funding of replacement reserves for capital expenditures and deferred maintenance that is at least 10% of the budget", calculated by dividing "the annual budgeted replacement reserve allocation by the association's annual budgeted assessment income". The same section requires that a reserve study address "all major components and elements of the project's common areas for which repair, maintenance, or replacement is expected" and "the condition and remaining useful life of each major component". The 10 percent test is a lender eligibility rule for units in projects Fannie Mae will buy, not a Georgia statute and not an obligation on any association, and the test is the reason a board benefits from keeping recurring cleaning inside the operating budget where it does not consume the reserve allocation. Association-specific scopes sit on the HOA pressure washing page.
Rare Earth Ltd, doing business as Thrare Contracting, holds DBE certification through the Georgia Unified Certification Program, holds MBE certification, holds small disadvantaged business status, maintains an active SAM.gov registration under CAGE 9JAV8 and UEI Z4WKS4UE8NJ6, and is enrolled in E-Verify. Rare Earth Ltd does not hold HUBZone status, 8(a) status or SOC 2 certification. A vendor packet from Thrare Contracting names the certifications held and says plainly which ones are not, because a diversity spending report built on a misstated certification is a problem the property manager inherits.
On public past performance, Rare Earth Ltd has supplied $198,000 in recycled aggregate to Fulton County Public Works. The Fulton County aggregate total is the single performance figure Thrare Contracting publishes, and no other volume, crew count or client name appears on this site.
Each scheduled visit produces the same records, because a property file that is complete at the visit is a file nobody has to reconstruct at audit.
No. The Official Code of Cobb County, section 50-181, scopes the county separate storm drainage system to conveyances owned or maintained by unincorporated Cobb County, and the City of Marietta Code of Ordinances, article 7-8-18, scopes the city system to what is owned or maintained by the city. A Marietta address answers to the Marietta ordinance, and a county document handed to a Marietta board describes a system that does not serve the property.
The City of Sandy Springs sets a goal in its 2024 Stormwater Management Program filing to investigate illicit discharge complaints within three business days. The same filing records 636 MS4 outfalls in the City inventory and a screening rate of approximately 20 percent per year, with 100 percent of inventoried outfalls screened over a five-year period.
DeKalb County publishes a base rate of $120 per Equivalent Residential Unit annually under the label Current Rates, Effective 2025, and calculates commercial and other developed land at 1 ERU per 3,000 square feet of impervious surface. Multi-family property is calculated at 0.5 ERU times the number of units, and property owners can receive up to a 40 percent credit for on-site detention, water quality treatment or green infrastructure. Paying that fee authorizes no discharge, because the illicit discharge prohibition is a separate rule.
Sto Corp. instructs that a pressure washer be kept at approximately 200 to 500 psi and states that 500 psi must not be exceeded, because the EIFS surface integrity can be destroyed with higher pressure washing. Sika Corporation's Senergy bulletin sets the same 500 psi ceiling, tells cleaners never to allow a nozzle within 2 feet of the wall, and specifies fan tips of 30 to 45 degrees or greater. Both limits belong to those manufacturers' own products and transfer to no other cladding.
Thrare Contracting schedules occupied retail and office work before tenant open or after tenant close where the property approves it, and daytime only at residential-adjacent properties. The City of Sandy Springs publishes permitted hours for construction and commercial landscaping of 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday to Friday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, with no permitted hours on Sundays and holidays. Neither that page nor the Alpharetta ordinance names exterior cleaning, so those windows bracket a Thrare Contracting scheduling policy rather than stating a rule issued to this trade.
Rare Earth Ltd holds DBE certification through the Georgia Unified Certification Program, holds MBE certification, holds small disadvantaged business status, maintains an active SAM.gov registration under CAGE 9JAV8 and UEI Z4WKS4UE8NJ6, and is enrolled in E-Verify. Rare Earth Ltd does not hold HUBZone status, 8(a) status or SOC 2 certification, and states that plainly in every vendor packet.
Send the property list and the addresses. Thrare Contracting resolves each address to its governing jurisdiction, walks the sites, and returns a scope with the ordinance, the containment method and the exclusions written on the same page.