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Graffiti Removal
Every year, building owners, neighborhood groups and public agencies spend millions of dollars dealing with graffiti in public places. In the urban landscape, indifferently matched rectangles of new paint are common — and just about as unattractive as the graffiti itself.
by Gail Elber
If you’re advising a property owner about graffiti coatings, consult manufacturers about whether their permanent or sacrificial product is suitable for that application. Many manufacturers make products with several degrees of permanence, and they can help you figure out the economics of their products in different situations of square footage and vulnerability to graffiti, taking into account initial cost of application and frequency of maintenance. Here are some things you’ll need to know.
Wear and tear on the surface. Greg Keiser, support rep for Graffiti Master, notes that paraffin-based coatings can collect dirt and rub off on clothing if people lean on them. Permanent polyurethane-based surfaces hold up better in these settings and give the underlying surface some protection from impacts and abrasions.
Circumstances of application. Polyurethane coatings require plenty of ventilation while you’re painting. One exception is Genesis Coatings’ GCP-1000, which, though it is a two-component polyurethane, is waterborne, so it doesn’t produce a strong smell while you’re painting. If you’ve never worked with a two-component system before, be prepared to follow the manufacturer’s directions for thoroughly mixing the two or three components. Then be prepared to apply all the paint you’ve mixed within a few hours before it hardens.
How much graffiti is expected, and how it will be cleaned up. Permanent coatings lend themselves to spot cleaning with solvent. Some sacrificial coatings can be spot cleaned, too; Genesis Coatings’ Graffiti Melt can be quickly reapplied with a spray bottle, an easy task for a janitor on his or her daily rounds. Others must be applied with a brush or a roller.
Hy Dubin, president of Dumond Chemical, recommends his company’s sacrificial coating, SC-101, for big projects of 30,000 square feet or more that get a lot of graffiti. In situations like this it’s simpler to just periodically pressure-wash the whole area and reapply the coating than to spot-clean it. All the makers of sacrificial coatings assert that the residue of their product that washes off the wall is biodegradable, but proper disposal methods should be followed.
If there’s really a lot of graffiti, Dubin points out, it’s quicker to spray than to scrub. Repainting a whole wall with inexpensive paint may be a more efficient solution than applying a coating and then trying to scrub off each mark. You may need to apply a stain-blocking primer such as Masterchem’s Kilz over the marks.
Removing graffiti from permanent coatings requires a solvent. Xylol or methyl ethyl ketone are often used, or there are less toxic removers, such as Krud Kutter from Supreme Chemicals of Georgia and Genesis Coatings’ Graffiti Terminator. These require fewer precautions and can be used indoors while people are around because they don’t smell as bad as solvents.
In contrast, sacrificial coatings wash off with water, taking the graffiti with them.
When choosing an anti-graffiti coating, it’s important to keep in mind who will be removing the graffiti. A trained maintenance employee may be willing to don neoprene gloves and goggles and scrub graffiti off a coated surface with xylol. In some communities, volunteers will be doing the cleanup. They may be safer with a water-based sacrificial coating that they can spot-wash off and quickly reapply.
The urge to redecorate. Sacrificial coatings are easy to remove if the customer wants to repaint, but permanent coatings are — well, permanent. New paint won’t stick to them, and solvents won’t budge them. So be prepared to remove permanent coatings mechanically if repainting is necessary.
“Graffiti is a subject that’s uncomfortable to talk about,” says Nanette Schwartz of Genesis Coatings. “Someone is coming on your property and doing something without your permission.”
Fortunately, as a professional painter, you can start a conversation about graffiti that has a happy ending. If you familiarize yourself with anti-graffiti coatings, you can approach businesses and agencies with a long-term solution to the graffiti problem that will benefit not only them but also the whole neighborhood.
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