Parking Lot Striping at night in the early morning hours is a tricky trade.

If you can totally prevent all foot and vehicular traffic in a given area, there is no reason why you can’t stripe just about any time.  Just keep in mind that no matter how little paint you apply, it will dry a lot slower than the same paint applied later in the day when the asphalt has a chance to heat up.  Consider these variables that affect the speed of paint drying on asphalt or concrete:

1. Sunlight/Shade
2. Wind
3. Heat in the pavement
4. Temperature
5. Relative Humidity
6. Moisture in the Asphalt

In the very early a.m., you probably won’t have the assistance of:

1. Sunlight
2. Heat in the pavement
3. Warm temperature

these are some of the things that give your paint the ability to dry quickly and avoid costly accidents.

The time span between application and the point at which it will not cause “tracking” may be as short as 15 minutes to several days.  Depending on the weather and the product used you may get very different results.  The biggest enemies of paint not drying are humidity, shade and cool air temperature.  So be mindful of them! One thing that we practice at Trueline Striping is to use rapid dry paint  products. We use these in times when we feel there is a drying risk.  Also make sure to carefully block off areas that do remain wet so nobody can wonder in to those areas.  One slip can mean BIG problems for you.

Good Luck and happy Line Painting!

Full-time striping contractors with years of experience tend to use airless machines. They also tend to agree on three primary reasons:

1. The machines themselves are very sturdy and durable. They never seem to wear out as a complete unit. Instead, various components are replaced as needed, such as tired, engines, cables, and guns.

2. They have learned all of the idiosyncrasies of the machine and know how to repair or adjust it to obtain peak performance.

3. They have substantially modified the machine. Sometimes, these modifications seem to be a radical alteration of the standard, factory made model.

Our company is personally fond of the Titan speeflow series. We find them to be durable, easy to repair and very strong pumps. They can handle epoxies and urethane’s better than other parking lot stripers. We currently have about 20 titans in our fleet. We also have some machines we have manufactured ourselves. We find that there is still a demand for good strong but small machines in the parking lot stripers arsenal.

All in all stick with a quality made product such as Titan and you cant go wrong. There piston pumps are work horses and there frame design is superior.

What do you guys think?

From time to time, a customer will want you to remove some old parking lot striping lines. Usually, their request involves changing the width of the parking stalls, especially when implementing ADA requirements or changing from straight-in stalls to angled stalls.

The quickest and easiest way to conceal old stripes is to use “blackout” (asphalt) paint or “block-out” (concrete) paint. Of course, that only delays the eventual reappearance of the offensive stripes. There are three methods used to permanently remove old stripes.

1. Pressure Washing
2. Shot Blasting
3. Sand Blasting

As with most services, each type used in removing stripes has advantages and disadvantages. Call Trueline Striping today when you need to get answers in regards to which method is best for you and your parking lot striping needs.

The Stages of Asphalt Deterioration

If you have or manage or own a asphalt parking lot in Southern California then you probably already know how expensive asphalt is to lay down.  At upwards of 1.00 to 4.00 dollars per square foot, asphalt is one of the single most costly items to install or repair on your property. With this in mind it is important for a property professional to keep maintenance up on their parking lots on an annual basis.  By seal coating and doing minimal property asphalt repairs to the asphalt once a year you greatly reduce the chances of having to do a major asphalt repair .  Take a look at your asphalt to see the what stage of damage has occurred.

Stage #1  Total Asphalt Failure

If your asphalt has become brittle and large cracks are starting to appear then you may need asphalt replacement. Once this type of damage occurs water can then permeate through the cracks, and that’s when the bad stuff really occurs. Once water is allowed to get below the surface of the asphalt massive damage can take place.

Stage #2  Advanced Asphalt Deterioration

If your asphalt parking lot has fine cracks and a worn surface, than this is where you must act to stop the true damage from occurring.  At this point in the asphalts life span you can avoid a lot of potential cost by doing some asphalt crack filling and seal-coating the parking lot with a couple of coats of slurry seal.

Stage #3  Minimal Asphalt Damage

If your asphalt driveways are smooth and have a slightly faded seal coat, this is the ideal time to get the asphalt re-sealed and re-striped. This is by far the least expensive way to keep the big damage from occurring.

There are many stages in the total life span of asphalt. So take some time to look at your parking lot asphalt  and make an evaluation. Then give us a call and we will come out to discuss your options. Trueline understands that budgets cuts and services are making things tough all over so lets up come up with a smart approach to keeping your asphalt in top shape.

Asphalt Line Striping

Are you looking for a great company that can handle all of your asphalt line striping needs?  Look no further than Trueline Striping.  We are a Southern California contractor with 18 years of experience in the parking lot & asphalt line striping industry. We place a heavy emphasis on three main things when it comes to your project. Safety, Quality & Value.  We are a small but strong company that can handle the largest to the smallest jobs throughout the state of California. Are services include most parking lot related services but also a few others. Take a look below and give us a call if there is anything we can help you out with. Are estimates are always free and we look forward to the chance to work with you.

Services offered in Southern California

• Asphalt Line Striping / Parking Lot Striping
  
• ADA Upgrades and Handicap Repairs
• Curb Painting / Stenciling
  
• Parking Lot Re- Stripes
• Sand Blasting & Shot Blasting
• Traffic Sign and Parking Lot Signs
• Truncated Domes
• Sealcoating and Minor Asphalt Repairs
• Wheel Stops and Speed bumps  installed
• Warehouse Line Striping / Warehouse Floor Markings

There are many other services we offer not listed here so give us a call if you have any questions about your project. But Asphalt line striping is the number one service we specialize in.

File under: Striping Cost, parking lot striping pricing, parking lot striping Prices.

I received this question in my email box a lot so I thought I would address it again here. It is in regards to starting a parking lot striping business and knowing where to put your parking lot striping pricing. When people are starting out they often times have no clue what to charge for their parking lot striping services. Your parking lot striping prices should be like any other project you estimate. Just use this simple formula.

Labor+ Materials+ Overhead = Pre- Mark up Total

Now,

Take that total and then next add about 20% mark-up. On smaller jobs I would even go as high as 30%. On large jobs you may want to consider 10%.  Stay away from price sheet estimating. In this day and age cost are changing rapidly and it’s important to be flexible. If your need to know about what a “single white line” cost or a “no parking” stencil should cost then it’s not a bad idea to call some competitors in the area and get their pricing. I know this sounds funny but companies have been doing it since the beginning of business. Even huge big box companies like Best buy or Wall mart use these practices and that’s a good thing. It keeps business competitive and helps out the consumer in the end. Also with the economy being so wonky lately you really want to be as competitive as possible. A lot of people ask me what I charge here in California for parking lot striping. I try to explain to them that it won’t help them because every area is a little different and that local research needs to be done. But I will give you this example.

In California our minimum charge is about $300.00 but that’s mainly because of the high cost of labor and heavy traffic we have to sit in just to get to those jobs. Also consider we are a 18 year old company that has overhead a small start up wont have. That being said we also provide a level of service a small start up can not provide.  Every area  has its own unique economy and situations.  Plus your business may have a unique situation to consider as well. Figure out what your area will bear by doing research and talking to your accounts.  Also once you get your feet wet with bidding you should start to get a better feel for your local market and where you need to be to be competitive.

Feel free to post comments and ask questions. I would love to hear from my parking lot striping, sealcoating and asphalt  friends out there.

James Farley
President
Trueline Striping Inc.