The single most common question we get is “what does this cost?” and the honest answer is “it depends.” Dry ice blasting pricing depends on contamination level, access, time on site, dry-ice consumption, and the safety and documentation requirements of your facility. There’s no flat hourly rate that fits every job — but there are ranges that hold up, and there are factors you can use to estimate your own project before you ever pick up the phone.
Here’s the full picture.
The short answer: typical ranges in 2026
| Job type | Typical range | Most common pricing model |
|---|---|---|
| Industrial equipment cleaning | $2,400–$3,200 CAD/day, 1 operator | Day-rate |
| EV battery / automotive line | $2,800–$3,800 CAD/day, 1 operator | Day-rate |
| Food plant production line | $2,400–$3,200 CAD/day | Day-rate or fixed-price per line |
| Fire restoration — brick | $3–$8 CAD/sq ft | Fixed-price after site review |
| Fire restoration — framing / interior | $2–$5 CAD/sq ft | Fixed-price |
| Heritage brick / masonry | $4–$12 CAD/sq ft | Fixed-price |
| Marine / boat hulls | $60–$120/linear ft (typical hull) | Fixed-price |
| Mould remediation | $3–$7 CAD/sq ft | Fixed-price or day-rate |
| Fin-fan / heat exchanger | $2,400–$3,800 CAD/day | Day-rate |
| Greenhouse structural cleaning | $2,200–$3,000 CAD/day | Day-rate |
Note: These are typical ranges for Southwestern Ontario in 2026 based on our own work and a survey of competitor public pricing. They don’t apply to every job — particularly tight access, hazmat scope, or out-of-hours work pushes prices higher.
What you’re actually paying for
A day-rate quote isn’t just an operator standing on your floor. It bundles a complete mobile operation:
- Operator labour — trained and certified, with safety credentials
- Cold Jet dry ice blaster (capital equipment, $30,000–$60,000)
- Diesel air compressor (capital equipment, $25,000–$50,000)
- Dry ice pellets — typically 200–800 lbs per day depending on aggression
- Hoses, nozzles, PPE, ground sheets, containment
- Insurance — $5M general liability, WSIB, additional insured naming as needed
- Travel time inside the standard service radius
- Documentation — JSA, COI, before/after photos, scope sign-off
The four factors that move price the most
1. Contamination type and depth
Soot on smooth brick lifts in one pass at moderate nozzle pressure. Carbon build-up on a forty-year-old oven needs more passes, more aggressive nozzles, and more dry ice. A square foot of “fire restoration” can cost twice as much on a thick, multi-layer surface as a thin one — same square footage, different work.
2. Access
Ground-floor work with truck-side access is the floor. Add scaffolding, lifts, height work, parking restrictions, or shutdown windows requiring out-of-hours scheduling, and the price climbs. A heritage brick job at street level might cost $6/sq ft; the same brick on a 4-storey facade with a boom-lift requirement could be $10–$14/sq ft.
3. Time window
Work scheduled over standard business hours during a planned shutdown costs less than work scheduled at 2 AM Sunday morning during a holiday weekend. We’ll do either — emergency and shutdown windows are common in our work — but you’re paying for the schedule.
4. Safety, documentation and compliance
A food plant that needs CFIA-compliant documentation, validated cleaning swabs, and additional-insured certificates costs more than a yard clean of an excavator. Same hours, more paperwork. EV battery plants typically need ESD training documentation and may require nights-and-weekends only.
Day-rate vs fixed-price vs per-square-foot
Day-rate
Used when scope is uncertain or open-ended. A typical day-rate is $2,400–$3,800/day for one operator with a full mobile rig in Southwestern Ontario. Includes dry ice up to a typical daily consumption — heavier consumption is usually billed at-cost over the cap.
Fixed-price
Used when scope is well-defined and access is known. Most of our brick restoration, marine hull work, and individual production-line cleans are quoted fixed-price. Includes everything: labour, equipment, dry ice, travel, insurance.
Per-square-foot
Used on brick restoration, fire restoration, and large interior cleans. Per-sq-ft prices typically come down as square footage grows — there’s a fixed mobilization cost that gets amortized across more area.
How to estimate before you call
If you want a rough number to budget against before bringing us in for a site review, follow this sequence:
- Identify the job type from the table above.
- Apply the contamination factor: light (×0.7), moderate (use the midpoint), heavy (×1.4).
- Apply the access factor: ground-level open access (×1.0), lifts required (×1.3), scaffolding required (×1.5), height + scaffolding + restricted hours (×2.0).
- Apply the time-window factor: normal hours (×1.0), planned shutdown (×1.1), out-of-hours / weekend (×1.3), emergency response (×1.5).
- Multiply the base range by each factor.
A fire-restoration brick job at the midpoint of the range ($5/sq ft) with moderate contamination, lift access, and weekend scheduling would estimate at: $5 × 1.0 × 1.3 × 1.3 = $8.45/sq ft. That’s a rough check — your actual quote will be inside that range, but it won’t be precise until we’ve walked the site.
Why we don’t quote sight-unseen
You can find dry ice blasting companies that will quote off a phone call. We won’t, for a simple reason: every single time we’ve tried, we’ve been wrong by at least 30%. Either we under-quoted and ate the loss, or we over-quoted and lost the job to someone who under-quoted and ate the loss. Neither helps anyone. The free site review takes 30 minutes, gives you a real number, and gives us a real scope.
What about hourly rates?
Hourly rates exist (typical: $250–$400/hr for one operator with equipment) but they’re a poor fit for most work. The minimum cost is mobilization — we have to load the truck, drive to your site, and unload, regardless of whether the work is 90 minutes or 9 hours. For jobs that genuinely take less than half a day, we use a half-day rate. For anything longer, day-rate or fixed-price is cleaner for both sides.
Comparing to alternatives
Dry ice is more expensive than the alternatives per hour. It’s often less expensive than the alternatives per finished job, because of the downtime, cleanup, and substrate damage you avoid. The full comparisons are in our blog posts on dry ice vs sandblasting and dry ice vs soda blasting.
How to get an exact number
Send us a description, address and a few photos. We’ll come out for a free site review and follow up with a written quote within 48 hours. Call 226-627-4878 or email scott@ontariodryiceblasting.com.
FAQ on pricing
Do you charge for the site review?
No. Site reviews are free, inside our standard service radius (Southwestern Ontario).
Are travel and dry ice included in the quote?
Yes — every quote is “fully loaded.” If we’re heading well outside our standard radius (north of London / east of Sarnia) we’ll discuss mileage up front before we send the quote.
Do you give discounts for repeat work?
Yes. Quarterly contract cleaning, scheduled shutdowns, and multi-day projects are priced lower per-day than one-off work. Tell us your cadence and we’ll write a rate that reflects it.
Do you do free demos?
For larger prospective customers we do — typically a half-day demonstration on a representative piece of equipment, with the cost folded into the first paid engagement if you book within 30 days.