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.

You’re at home when suddenly there is a knock on the door. It is someone standing there asking if you’d like to have curb painting done in front of your home. They only want to charge you $25 or so and, since it seems like such a slight amount of money, you decide to agree to have the curb painting done and pay the fee. The person promises to put you in the books for tomorrow morning. But when tomorrow morning comes and there’s no one there. What happened?

You have likely been scammed. There are a number of scam artists who have decided to start telling home owners or business people that they will be doing curb painting in their area and charge each home money. In one neighborhood they could earn a few hundred dollars or more, never letting on that they are scamming the people who live there. So, how do you avoid this? To begin with, never agree to let someone who contacts you, do your curb painting. Instead, go to someone that you trust and that you hire for your curb painting needs. This way you will never have to worry about being scammed.

Curb painting sounds like an easy business to get into, but there have been those who discovered that it was not as easy as it looked. In 2006, residents of Oakland, CA, discovered that they were lucky to not be in trouble. They received fliers in their mail boxes by a company that was offering to repaint curbside house numbers. Something, however, seemed strange, so the residents contacted the local police, who said that they were right to contact the police.

The fliers that offered the curb painting services was not from a genuine curb painting company, but was instead from a company that was looking just for money. The flier asked residents to leave a donation by the curb and that the curb painting would be done and the donation picked up. There was no contact information and it was discovered that, in Oakland, you needed to have a special permit in order to paint the sidewalk. This is why curb painting is not something that just anyone can get into, and needs to be done by a qualified company.

Curb painting looks easy, right? You just buy some stencils, a few cans of spray paint and go at it. The problem, however, is that there are specific requirements that have to be met and upheld. Those who violate the terms can find themselves in a great deal of trouble. It’s like putting in truncated domes: it looks easy and simple  like something anyone can do, but there is much more to it.

Like truncated domes, curb painting needs to be done by a professional. A professional will know exactly what should be done and where everything should be placed in your area. They will know what type of paint should be used and what colors will be best seen from the road. They will also know all of the rules in the area and will make sure that they get things correct for you the first time. Remember: if you try to paint the curb by yourself and make a mistake, it’s almost impossible to fix it without having it look absolutely horrible.

Not many people have the ability to work at home, but  few who do, find that it is like nothing else. They love being able to work in their pajamas or to take a few hours here and there to do their errands. One of the problems with having a home business, however, is that you may have a hard time getting delivery people or customers to find where you live. When you’re in an office, you never have to worry about that. Living and working out of your home, however, can make things much difficult, which is why curb painting is often a good idea for a person who works at home.

When you have curb painting done, you are essentially painting the curb of the street with the number of your house and possibly even the name of the street. This allows those who are driving by you to be able to tell easily which house you have and exactly where you live. Curb painting, however, should be done by professionals, as there are a number of rules and tricks of the trade that only a professional would have knowledge of.