Why anti-graffiti coating will improve your neighborhood

For many, seeing graffiti in a neighborhood is a signal of social chaos and even possibly gang-related activity. Whether or not that’s the case in your neighborhood, graffiti tends to scare potential customers away.

This form of vandalism not only has a monetary cost to the property owners directly impacted, but to the entire community.

Communities blighted with graffiti see lower property values and have a harder time attracting new business to the area.

Knowing this, municipalities spend substantial time and resources cleaning up graffiti. Each year, government and private property owners spend millions of dollars cleaning up the mess.

Prices to have a professional remove graffiti can range between $1 to $3.50 per square foot. I’ve written a little about the different options for graffiti removal before, but I want to go a little more in-depth about the two different options available to you.

Removing graffiti from your building (and protecting your building against graffiti in the future) will improve the appearance of not just your building, but your whole neighborhood.

Sacrificial coatings

Just as the name suggests, sacrificial coatings create a barrier between graffiti paint and the item being vandalized that can be sacrificed during cleanup.

The paint adheres to the sacrificial coating. Removing the graffiti is as simple as washing down the affected area with a high-pressure washer, which removes the graffiti along with the coating.

Once completed, the area can be reapplied with the sacrificial coating. This coating is used for surfaces with ground-level access, such as bridges and some building exteriors.

Permanent coatings

Though more expensive than sacrificial coating, permanent coating offers a long-term solution for the investment. This coating is only applied once.

Permanent coating creates a barrier which prevents paints from adhering to the coating structure. Removal is simple as wiping down the surface.

Permanent coatings are excellent options for hard-to-access structures such as water towers and billboards, or for building owners and managers who don’t want to keep paying for multiple sacrificial coatings.

Many homeowner’s associations along with businesses and municipalities are taking proactive steps to address the graffiti issue with these coating options. Please contact us for more information about graffiti removal and prevention.