The decision to patch potholes is influenced by many factors:

1. The level of traffic and effect on your tenants or customers
2. The time until you need a scheduled rehabilitation or a complete overlay
3. Availability of a good paving contractor
4. Optimal weather conditions

Potholes are caused by moisture, freeze thaw action, traffic, poor underlying support, or combination of these factors. Pothole repair operations can be divided into two distinct periods. The winter repairs and spring repairs. Regardless of the climate conditions, highway agency, property managers and property owners must repair potentially hazardous potholes as soon as it becomes aware of them. Luckily for us in Southern California Paving is almost a year round service. If you have a pothole repair project you need looked at feel free to call Trueline today for an appointment. Our estimates can look at your project and make recommendations or provide you with a budget numbers.

Call us today toll free at 1-800-603-1116

Today in Arcadia Ca. Trueline was hired to get a parking lot in shape. because of the economy the customer had a smaller than usual budget and needed recommendations on what we though he needed to get done the most. It was a small project about 10,000 square feet and the asphalt was pretty rough. We knew his budget was too tight for any heavy repairs to the asphalt so we recommended two coats of seal. The sealcoating helped soothe out some of the rough spots and gave the parking lot the badly needed protection from the elements, water run off, traffic etc. If Asphalt is left unsealed for too long then the asphalt becomes brittle and susceptible to cracking and breaking. After we sealed the parking lot we re-striped the lines and made some basic ADA upgrades. We installed some new signs and wheel stops and repainted all the stencils such as arrows, compacts and handicap stalls. The job turned out great and the customer was very happy. If you have a parking lot repair project coming up soon please feel free to give us call today. we specialize in parking lot sealcoating, striping and basic asphalt repairs.

Few things are as embarrassing as striping a parking lot in cold weather and having your customer call a few days later to say “My stripes have disappeared.” If the customer has already paid you fore the work, he’s probably going to be angry.

In such cases, you’ll usually be better off to issue a complete refund immediately, and then wait for more favorable weather to re-stripe the lot. That could mean a few days or several months. Regardless, you’ll be much better off refunding the customer’s money, or holding back on his invoice if you haven’t billed him yet.

More importantly, oil base paint can be successfully applied at temperatures as low as 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Another thing to consider are fast dry paints available from most paint contractors. These  striping paints are designed to dry quickly in cold weather where time window opportunities are short. Also if rain is in the forecast its best to not take the chance on scheduling a job. Most paint contractors agree that paints failure rates skyrocket if precipitation is in the forecast 24 hours before or after work is completed.

If you have a striping project coming up in Southern California don’t take a chance on a contractor who is not sure of what kind of paint you should use or when you should use it. Call Trueline Striping today and we will answer any questions you can think off.

Glossary of Parking Lot Maintenance Terms (Relating To Striping)

Glossary

• Aisle, Traffic: A portion of a parking facility used for vehicle travel to and from stalls, or between street, stalls, and building(s) served.

• Aisle, Pedestrian: Those portions of a parking facility reserved exclusively for pedestrian use; also the other routes normally used by pedestrians between stalls and buildings. Exclusive-use pedestrian aisles typically are protected routes such as raised walkways and designated controlled lanes between or across rows of stalls. Nonexclusive pedestrian aisles include routes coinciding with traffic aisles.

• Angle of Parking: The angle (in degrees) between the line delineating the side of a stall and a line at the top of the stalls and parallel to the traffic aisle served by the stalls.

• Berm: A raised asphalt concrete curb-like bumper. Intended only for marking edges of an area; is not strong enough to deflect a straying vehicle.

• Controlled Parking: Permit parking, validated parking, pay parking, parking restricted to employees only, and other parking that is not for the free use of the general public.

• Capacity: The number of vehicles a parking area holds within designated stalls; or gross vehicle weight in parking structure/parking deck.

• Dead Area: A portion of a parking facility not usable for parking lot striping stalls or traffic aisles. Dead areas may be used for pedestrian aisles, lighting, landscaping, or other improvements.

• Delineation: Line marking.

• Density: The number of vehicles per area of given size. May be used to compare one parking facility’s capacity efficiency with another’s.

• Depth, Stall: The distance (at right angles to the traffic aisle) from the top of a stall to its traffic aisle edge.

• Double Row: Two single rows forming a unit. A double row is normally located in the interior area of a parking facility, where it forms an island between traffic aisles. Usually the two single rows are adjacent and vehicles in one single row are separated from those in the other by painted central division lines. Sometimes a pedestrian aisle or other physical barrier provides the separation.

• Double-Loaded Traffic Aisle: A traffic aisle with accessible stalls on both sides.

• Egress: Exiting.

• Entrance; Exit: An area used for vehicle ingress/ egress from a parking facility. Usually located on public property and connecting with a street or road.

• Esthetics: Considerations of attractiveness and good taste.

• Exit; Entrance: An area used for vehicle egress/ingress to a parking facility. Usually located on public property and connecting with a street or road.

• Ingress: Entering.

• Layout: The placement of stalls, aisles, fixtures, and improvements within a parking facility.

• Ninety-Degree Parking: Head-in or rear-in parking in which the vehicle body is at right angles to a line across the top of the row of stalls.

• Overhang: The distance from the striking face of a wheel stop to the property line or wall. Similarly, a vehicle would extend this distance over a curb.

• Overlap: The distance gained at the centerline of a double row of vehicles where the alternate traffic aisles are intended for vehicle traffic in opposite directions.

• Parallel Aisles: Two or more aisles which run in the same direction. For example, if two aisles both run east and west, they are parallel.

• Parking Angle: The angle (in degrees) between the line delineating the side of a stall and a line at the top of the parking lot striping stalls and parallel to the traffic aisle served by the stalls.

• Pedestrian Aisle: Those portions of a parking facility reserved exclusively for pedestrian use; also the other routes normally used by pedestrians between stalls and buildings. Exclusive-use pedestrian aisles typically are protected routes such as raised walkways and designated controlled lanes between or across rows of stalls. Nonexclusive pedestrian aisles include routes coinciding with traffic aisles.

• Permit Parking: Parking in which authorized users possess permits.

• Seal Coating: A coating which seals a pavement’s surface.

• Single Row: A row of adjacent stalls. Usually located on the perimeter of a parking facility.

• Single-Loaded Traffic Aisle: A traffic aisle with accessible stalls on only one side.

• Stacked Parking: Parking in which the first-in vehicle in a given chain of vehicles may not be removed without first moving one or more later arriving vehicles in the chain. Used to increase capacity in a parking facility where space is at a premium.

• Stall: A portion of a parking facility designed to hold one vehicle, and marked, usually by lines painted on pavement, for that purpose.

• Stall Depth: The distance (at right angles to the traffic aisle) from the top of a stall to its traffic aisle edge.

• Stall Width: The distance between the two side lines of a stall, measured at right angles to the two lines.

• Traffic Aisle: A portion of a parking facility used for vehicle travel to and from stalls, or between street, stalls, and building(s) served.

• Traffic Flow: The pattern of traffic movement through an area or through a parking facility.

• Turnover: The number of vehicles which use a given space of facility in a given time period.

• Validated Parking: Parking in which a user’s parking ticket must receive an official stamp to waive parking fees.

• Wall to Wall Dimension: The distance (passing across a traffic aisle at right angles to the aisle) from the farther end of a vehicle parked on one side of the traffic aisle to the farther end of a vehicle parked on the other side.

• Wheel Bumper: A block installed at the end of a parking stall to provide tactile identification of the end of the stall when the driver feels his wheel contact the block.

• Width, Stall: The distance between the two side lines of a stall, measured at right angles to the two lines.

This in an incomplete list of parking lot striping terms. This list will continue to grow over time. If you have suggestions for terms to add please feel free to comment or E-mail me.

Parking Lot Striping Cost and What you Need to Know!

Part 2

Different Types of Price Structuring.

Getting back to the basics of parking lot striping cost and pricing… the first question asked is how is parking lot striping billed?  Most companies I have come across over the years, carry a price list that uses the ala carte approach to billing.  Meaning that if you want 1 single white line painted than the price would be X.xx.   If you want 100 single white lines painted then the price would be XXX.xx, and so on, which is  similar to a McDonald’s menu. The reason for this was because, in the past many parking lot striping companies would mainly work for paving companies in a sub contractor relationship. This made it necessary for the striping companies to simplify their pricing list.  Now, the paving companies’ estimators could bid their projects without having to rely on the striping contractor to provide pricing so often.  A practical solution for the time.

However, some parking lot striping companies do still go by a linear foot price.  Meaning if you have 1 single white line and it is ( 20′ )  long, than your price is .XX per foot.  It is in my opinion that this method of parking lot striping pricing is obsolete because of standardized parking requirement and designs.  Most parking lot stalls fall under a basic design.  Furthermore, the ones that do not, such as truck stalls for big rigs should be measured and divided by the average stall price.  The same holds true for all other aspects of the parking lot striping filed.  Most items are standardized (I.E.) handicaps, arrows, stops and so on.

So assuming your contractors are using the a la cart pricing, the next thing you need to know is, what their minimum to do a job is.  A minimum job is basically the smallest amount of money a company will send a crew to your facility or business to get the job done.  Our company is located in Orange County, California so our minimum goes up  more with each hour we have to drive away from our office. The reason for this is simply based on three factors.  First, more gasoline is used and that adds up. The second reason is wear and tear on the vehicles.  Lastly, the employees get paid  for that drive time going to and from the job.  The average striping crew is about three men, so three men times the hours needed to get to and from the job.  The average employee hourly rate of pay is from 16.00 dollars all the way up to 25.00 dollars.

Stay Tuned for part 3 of parking lot striping cost and pricing and what you need to know.

This will be a Four part guide to learning more about parking lot striping prices.   I hope to explain the range in which parking lot striping costs can vary. Also, I hope to illustrate the different types of billing methods that are used, the factors that can determine a parking lot striping cost and the short cuts that can be taken by a shady contractor  in order to provide a cheaper bid. Please read through it and if you have any comments or questions let me know and if its good, I will modify this blog to show it.

Recently, I have noticed that more and more people are turning to the Internet to find answers to every day questions. One of the questions I am seeing asked alot is :

“How much does it cost to get parking lot striping done?

This is a honest question that doesn’t have a easy answer, so I thought I would take a moment to explain how much striping should cost. Please keep in mind that this blog is purely based on our 18 years in the businesses and by no means should qualify as anything other than opinion backed up by experience. So, here we go.

Part One:

What all is Considered Striping?

First off, parking lot striping is like most trades, a multiple set of services that are branched under the title of “striping”. However, in its simplest form, parking lot striping is the painting of lines.

Other services commonly grouped under parking lot striping would include painting curbs, painting handicap stalls, painting stencils, sign work such as handicaps, stops etc, as well as wheel stops installed.

Many other striping professionals such as Trueline have branched into other fields in attempts to increase and diversify their work load. These other services might include things such as truncated domes, warehouse striping (a cousin to parking lot striping done on concrete surfaces such as a warehouse floor),  shot blasting, sandblasting, bollard installation and so on.

Stay Tuned for part 2 of parking lot striping pricing and what you need to know.

Parking Lot Maintenance is a yearly responsibility that many property managers and owners face. Year after year, they have their asphalt repair done such as their potholes filled, parking lots sealed, and their lines repainted because they know its important to keep their image of their parking lots up to par. However, parking lot maintenance requires much more then that. One key reason to keep your parking lot maintenance up to date annually is to increase the life span of your asphalt. After all, asphalt is one of the biggest investments a property owner faces over the years. When asphalt is first placed, it contains a lot of oil and this helps the asphalt to stay flexible. You should definitely get new asphalt seal-coated within six months of installation. This helps with the oils not being allowed to dry out to quick which can cause the asphalt to become brittle and crack. When seal coating asphalt, you should always try to apply 2 coats of seal coat on your parking lot  and do this process every two years. This maintenance can greatly increase the lifespan of your asphalt to up to 30 years depending on your local weather and driving conditions. At a bear minimum, we recommend 1 coat of seal once a year preferably done in the summer when the weather is above 75 degrees. If this basic asphalt maintenance schedule is adhered to, your problems with your parking lot repairs will be greatly reduced. If your parking lot maintenance is fallen behind over the years and your parking lot has gotten to a point where you need more then just annual maintenance, we recommend that you remove and replace the old asphalt with new asphalt. This can be expensive, so you may want to consider dividing your parking lot in to sections and repairing the sections one at a time starting from one side of your lot working towards the opposite side. This will allow you to tackle the project as your budget allows and will help the contractor to maintain a certain level of structural integrity. If you try to repair the parking lot from different sides, you can end up with high areas in your parking lot, and poor water drainage problems. An experienced asphalt contractor can and should be able to maintain proper elevations from where ever they start.  If done incorrectly, this can create draining issue for your parking lot down the road.  So if you are starting to look at your parking lot maintenance budget for the next few years, try to keep enough in it to at least get the basic asphalt repair such as seal and stripe. Then if you have funds left over from there, consider doing some pothole repairs or even driveway repairs. Remember that Asphalt Maintenance is the key to longevity of your asphalt parking lot.

Last week Trueline Striping was hired to place some new handicaps on a large parking lot of a church in Los Angeles. This is a typical parking lot striping job that we preform in Southern California for parking lot managers and parking lot owners every day.

Other services we offer include:

• Seal Coating
• Asphalt Patching
• Pressure Washing
• Warehouse Striping
• Sandblasting
• Traffic sign and pole installations
• Truncated domes
• plus many more.

If you have an upcoming parking lot striping or parking lot maintenance project coming up soon and would like up to provide you with a bid for no charge, please feel free to give us a call.

The service goes by many names such as Warehouse Floor Striping, Warehouse Floor Painting, Floor Painting, Warehouse Line Striping, plus many more. Its similar to painting parking lots in that you are basically measuring out lines and painting them down.  However, the similarities end there.  Warehouse Striping is a far more complex project to undertake then parking lot striping with factors to consider such as, product choices, product pot life, timing, drying times, product compatibility, and many many more.

There are a lot of contractors that will take these projects on with little to no experience or worse, they are unlicensed or un-insured. A good indicator of an unlicensed contractor is not seeing it posted on there web site or stationary. Many times, contractors will actually use another companies’ license. The easiest way to know who it belongs to is to do a search on your local state license board. In California, ours is at http://www2.cslb.ca.gov/OnlineServices/CheckLicense/LicenseRequest.asp . You can check a license by company name, personal name ( i.e. owners name) or by contractor license number that they provide. Insurance is even easier. Simply ask for proof of insurance and then call their provider to make sure their policy is current and reflects coverage for their company.

Here are a few other State License Board Search web addresses.

• Nevada           https://www.nvcontractorsboard.com/datamart/nvscbSearchType.do
• Florida            https://www.myfloridalicense.com/wl11.asp?mode=0&SID=
• New York       http://www.op.nysed.gov/opsearches.htm
• Washington   http://www.dol.wa.gov/business/checkstatus.html

Basically, if you need to do a search for a license, just paste the following line into your search engine and you should find your local agency.

Search Query:

(” state name” + “state license board”)

So. California would look like this:

(California State License Board)

Also, there are some states that do not have a state license board because they do not require a license to preform work.  At last, look the number was around thirteen. However, its changing a lot, so keep checking.

If you need a licensed contractor for your Warehouse Striping project, please give us a call. Not only are we licensed and insured, but we have 18 years of experience and  great customer service.

If your a property owner or manager, you may want to consider getting your curbs painted. After all, this is a fairly inexpensive way to add a ton of curb appeal to your property. Many of our customers use curb painting to add some last minute appeal to their properties before a big event starts or visiting executives come into town. Whether you plan on doing this in house or hiring a professional, consider these basic do’ s or don’ts for curb painting.

Do’ s  & Don’t s of Curb Striping

Do: Always prep your curbs before painting. If they look pretty good with little to no flaking, then go ahead and just hose them off with a garden hose or pressure washer. At the bare minimum, take a broom and sweep them well. This helps insure the bond between the paint and the curb. If the curbs are showing medium to heavy wear then consider scraping those areas till no more paint flakes off. If the paint continues to come off during the scraping process then you may want to have them sandblasted. When paint is already flaking from curbs and you add a coat of fresh paint to them the drying process often causes the old paint to peel and flake even more.

Don’t: Use the wrong paint over existing paint. Always be aware of what paint was used on the curbs before. Curbs should always be painted in a water based product. The reasons for this are based on two factors. First, is when you use an oil base paint, future striping contractors are more than likely to use the water based paint. Once water based paint goes over oil base paint the chances of paint failure skyrocket. When in doubt, do a small test area.

Do: Consider using high end paints on curbs, however be aware of the increased cost, increased dry times and increased technicalities.

Don’t: Forget when considering a enamel based paint for curbs that these paints are slippery when dry and even more so when wet. If you do consider a enamel based paint then you should consider a non skid additive thrown on the top part of the curb for a non skid finish. Though this process can be expensive, the cost involved doesn’t come close to comparing to the cost of a lawsuit. Trust me on this as I’ve served as an expert witness on several cases of curb painting related slip and falls, and it rarely ends well for the property owner/ manager.

Do: Use signs, barricades, string and ribbon on EVERY FOOT of freshly painted curb at your facility. This is the one I can’t recommend enough. Don’t count on common sense because often it is not there. In the last twenty years of working in this industry, I have seen at least a hundred times where people will walk up to you and ask “hey what ya doing?” then proceed to walk through your wet paint never being aware of what they just did. Its not that they are completely clueless as much as the information doesn’t process fast enough to stop them. Some are completely clueless.

Don’t: Be afraid to warn people about a wet paint even if you feel that they are aware. People don’t mind the reminder, just don’t be rude about it. Saying something like ” Sir, this red paint is still wet so please be careful near it” should be enough to get across the message. In California with our diverse population, we have learned to say Wet paint in 15 different languages . Just kidding!  However, visual cues can help when there is a language barrier. Like pointing to the sign or fresh curb painting.

Do: Call a professional if your having any reservations about painting your own curbs.

Don’t: Be afraid to try painting curbs if you feel it will save you some money or just like having the control of the project in house. Consult with a paint rep and take proper cautions around the general public.

If you have any curb painting projects that you need a proposal for or any questions that you need answered, please feel free to contact us here.