So somebody has chosen your walls to express his artistic skills and understandably, you are not pleased with it! Like it or not, graffiti has become an integral part of urban social culture and is here to stay. The best to do is to remove the graffiti from your walls immediately on detection.
However, if you have already tried it out unsuccessfully, you will vouch for the difficulty of graffiti cleaning without damaging your walls or its paint. In fact, a badly done graffiti removal job can leave your wall surface looking uglier than before and can even damage the underlying masonry.
How is graffiti applied?
Graffiti is typically spray painted on wall surfaces. However, vandals also use adhesives, stencils, etching materials, shoe polish, lipstick; in fact anything and everything to make the graffiti more colorful and difficult to remove.
Why is it difficult to clean graffiti?
Graffiti cleaning is no child’s play. It requires time, knowledge, skill, patience and years of practice to successfully separate the offending paint from your walls.
Along with all these, you will require in-depth information about the sophisticated machinery to be used, specific graffiti removal products to be sourced and typical removal processes, which make graffiti removal a job best left to the experts.
How is graffiti removed?
- Depending on the graffiti material used and the duration of the painting on the walls, different surfaces respond to different graffiti cleaning methods and products.
- Graffiti cleaning comprises three vital steps. First step is to identify the surface and substance to be removed. Next, the most ideal graffiti removal product is chosen. And finally, a protective coating is to be applied on your newly rescued walls.
- Apart from concrete walls, graffiti can deface surfaces made of stone, metal, wood, glass, or fibers with smooth or textured feel. Some of these will be painted while others are naked. Identifying the right surface requires a trained eye and years of experience of removing graffiti effectively.
- Selecting the ideal graffiti remover can be frustrating as most home improvement dealers will stock removers suitable for removing basic paint from your walls. For anything more complicated like adhesive, stencils or etching materials, you require exclusive industrial grade solvents and chemicals, which are usually sold in bulk. Small containers available in your local store are hardly adequate to clean an entire wall.
- Thirdly, apply the protective anti-graffiti covering, which can be temporary (will come off next time you remove graffiti) or permanent (unaffected by graffiti removal chemicals or procedure).
- Skill and expertise in graffiti cleaning will give you an instant idea about the aptness of a particular process and the typical products and equipments required for it. Novices will naturally have a hard time in first figuring out the best technical approach and then hunting around shops to source the right materials.
Common approaches to graffiti cleaning
Typically, removing graffiti involves a complex process of pressure washing along with sandblasting which washes the offending paint from your walls without damaging them. Both the above procedures require special equipments like skin and eye protective gear, rubber gloves, respirators (in narrow constricted areas), pressure washers, jet washers, sand nozzles along with paint brushes and rollers. Usually, most of these are industrial products not found commonly at home which makes it all the more difficult to remove graffiti without professional help.
