New technologies can feel transformative, like the first time you realize that a power washer can clean the siding on a building far faster than taking a brush and bucket of water to the task.

In case you or a maintenance crew is still mired in the twentieth century, laser cleaners appear to be all the range. Multiple companies like Laser Photonics Corporation in the U.S. and P-Laser Industrial Laser Cleaning in Belgium make portable equipment that allows cleaning of rust, oxides, oil, or other contaminants from a range of materials, including concrete, ceramics, glass, stone, and plastic.

The systems work using laser ablation. High-energy lasers are pulsed onto the contaminant at specific wavelengths and pulse lengths. The energy either turns the surface contaminant into a vapor or breaks particles up and eliminates their molecular bond to the surface.