Line Painting

[Mike Brown]

Hi Martin…

I’ve done a few bits and pieces in my time. I always found it a LOT cheaper buying the paint from the builders merchants (cus it’s used on site to mark the ground etc) than from the specialist sign/trade suppliers.

I’ve marked out things in various ways before – including using the wheelie machines. I’ve used duck tape and large cardboard sheets with slots cut into them too!

If there is no wind, the stuff doesn’t acutally drift too far and if you marked out parking bays with tape (maybe 2″-3″ wide) and then as you spray between these lines of tape just move some card along with you to protect the tarmac either side of where your spraying – it’ll be fine.

Be warned – to cover rough tarmac takes 2 or 4 or 5 passes sometimes, maybe 2 or 3 passes on smooth stuff. It’s this that uses up the tins. It’s only a very very rough guess but if I was doing lines between parking bays then I might get 3 full car-length lines per tin?…it doesn’t go that far?

The wheelie machine was ok – but gets gummed up a lot – I found tape and/or card guides a lot faster, easier and gave a far better ‘edge’ to the work too!…no cleaning, just dispose of them. Don’t forget to advise the customer that, unlike road painting machines, the edge will be slightly ‘broken’ too but it’d look fine from a couple of feet away…

One other thing, the nozzles of these tins gum up quick too – some makes are supplied with a second free nozzle inside the lid for this reason….so, once you start using the can then carry on till it’s empty…

All said and done – I would certainly do the job – it’s a doddle, but pick a calm day, sweep the area well and I would be inclined to price it as ‘your time’ + materials + consumables (card/tape/etc) and warn them that the costs of the paint can be high!!!

Excuse the rambling on – hope it helps a little…

more soon

mikethesign

[Martin C]

We (my former employer) once had the car park lined at an office in town using the spray cans and the overall finish was patchy. This was done by a reputable builder who should have known his stuff. The lines lasted but the general opinion was that we’d been given a cheap alternative.

Why don’t you try and sub it to the local Tarmacers?

OR……

If you come down here you’ve only got to do a couple of miles and you can help yourself to one of the machines in all the xxxxxxx roadworks!

[Kevin Flowers]

quote martin:

I have done a quote for a local residence association for various signs, the chap has now asked me if we can paint/mark out their car park. I have told him that we havent done this sort of work before but I would look into it. It is a private road and car park so there will not be a problem with planning permission or insurance.
Does anyone have any experience in line marking ? How difficult is it and is there any specialised equipment required ?
looking through some safety brochures I know you can buy cans of line marking paint and you can buy/hire a machine to use with the cans. But I dont know how long this sort of marking lasts and how far a can of paint goes.
Any help from anyone who has any experience with this sort of work would be appriciated.

Hi Martin
With regards to above have done a large car park in the past with easy line paint and a 2 wheeled applicator run along a straight edge fairly easy and quick to do. Needs to be fairly flat tarmac/concrete for it to hold and last. there is also another product which i looked into at the time and that is Scotchlane Road Marking. It comes on a roll in various widths and in either white or yellow you prime the road surface and then apply the line. This is used by councils, highway agencies etc I only know of it being avaliable from a company called Stock Signs on 01737 764764. Never tried it myself but may be worth while you considering it. Car park I originally did has still got visable lines 2 years on but it was fairly new tarmac when applied.

Best of Luck

Kevin

P.S use a straight edge and wheeled application tool you use less paint and the lines look straight

[Simon Clayton]

I agree with Martin, I have seen someone do this type of work at my sons primary school.
He was marking out snakes and ladders ,numbers and letters, in the play ground.
All the work was free hand using the road marking spray paint in a wheelie machine. (not sure what it would have been like if it was straight lines)
Within a few months the paint started to rub off, leaving it patchey.
I would try the local council, believe it or not they are somtimes cheap….price that is!
Then again it depends on what the residents association expect,
do they want line like the multi-storey carparks, thick white paint that lasts forever?

[signscript]

try Parker Merchanting theve got loads of solutions for line marking

[Robert Lambie]

Martin I think KTF is closest to the best way I know for road markings.
Haven’t used this but looked into it once. What you get was basically a roll of encapsulated marking paint.
What I mean is… it was a roll of something like 4 inches wide by half inch thick white stripe. The roll about 5 metres I think long. You rolled it out alone the area you wanted to mark. And cut it. Because its all encapsulated you could move it about on the ground until all your lines lay right where you needed them… once happy all is in place you took a long industrial blow torch and slowly run it over the strips. This melts the soft bin bag type material and the paint escapes but is now in place. All easy done… well looked it anyway.
Now some of what I said may be out a little as i’m going back more than a year but the idea of how it’s done on a small scale is there. In the brochure I looked at, it showed a guy cutting the strips up to form a cycle route marking on the road. Looked the business.
😉

[Kevin Flowers]

quote robert:

Martin I think KTF is closest to the best way I know for road markings.
Haven’t used this but looked into it once. What you get was basically a roll of encapsulated marking paint.
What I mean is… it was a roll of something like 4 inches wide by half inch thick white stripe. The roll about 5 metres I think long. You rolled it out alone the area you wanted to mark. And cut it. Because its all encapsulated you could move it about on the ground until all your lines lay right where you needed them… once happy all is in place you took a long industrial blow torch and slowly run it over the strips. This melts the soft bin bag type material and the paint escapes but is now in place. All easy done… well looked it anyway.
Now some of what I said may be out a little as i’m going back more than a year but the idea of how it’s done on a small scale is there. In the brochure I looked at, it showed a guy cutting the strips up to form a cycle route marking on the road. Looked the business.
😉

Hi Checked up on the Scotchlane for you according to the book its avaliable in 50mm & 100mm widths- yellow or white and also reflective. All you do to apply it, is to primer surface and leave to dry lay line and roll with a small roller to flatten. Can be applied straight or on curves etc.
Prices quoted in book are (50mm x 46m £40.29) (100mm x 46m£80.57) primer (5litres £40.77). This is a 3M product so if you know any 3M dealers you may get a result on the price
Hope this helps

Kevin

[Martin Pearson]

Thanks for all the advice people,I will look into this a bit further and then hopefully be able to quote for the work. The surface is monoblock which has just been done and is pretty flat so that should be a bonus.