Reflectorized Striping | Why Property Managers & Property Owners Should Consider it.

Did you know that Empire Parking Lot Services is not just an asphalt repair company? We offer far more services than most Southern California paving contractors, including some of the newest and most innovative products for the parking lot and warehouse maintenance industry. Although we do offer all of the typical parking lot maintenance services, such as asphalt repair, concrete repair, and sealcoating, we also help our customers solve more unique problems such as this month’s featured “product spotlight” on reflectorized striping. Learn more below about the benefits of reflectorized striping, and why it’s not just being used on airports & freeways anymore.

About Reflectorized Striping

Since the 1940’s glass beads have been added to line striping on the freeways and roads across the United States. Originally it was added to the lines to help drivers navigate through the blackouts during WWII. But lately, more and more property owner and managers are using glass beads to help reduce the number of accidents that can occur in the parking lot.  The reason for using glass beads is simple, It makes parking lot markings, such as stop and bar stencils and painted center lines that divide traffic, show up much better at night. (see photo below). By adding glass beads to the parking lot striping, the paint reflects the drivers headlights back at them where ever the paint is beaded making it glow brightly and show up much better.

These glass beads make the striping stand out better and in return can greatly reduce the overall safety of your parking area. On the project above located at a mall in southern California you can see a side by side comparison of what the striping looks like with and without glass beads or reflectorizing. Many malls and busy shopping centers are looking for cost effective ways to reduce their exposure to costly litigation. Glass beads over fresh parking lot markings are a perfect fit for that. For just a little bit extra cost you get quite a bit of punch. Furthermore, glass beads really only need to go onto your crosswalks, stops and other critical markings that affect pedestrians in cars and on foot.

About Empire Parking Lot Services

Empire Parking Lot Services offers parking lot maintenance and warehouse maintenance services throughout Southern California. Our service areas include Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, & Orange County. We also offer services to parts of Ventura and San Diego. Our services include asphalt repair, concrete repair, sealcoating, parking lot striping, as well as very unique services such as glass beads or reflectorized striping, truncated domes, safety bollards, speed bump installations and many others. In addition to the parking lot repairs we do each day, Empire also offers warehouse repair services to concrete. These services include striping lines in epoxy paint, acid resistant floor coatings, sign hanging services, and shotblasting, plus many others. Call us today if you have a project that you need help on. We would love to add you to our list of happy customers.

Call us Toll Free: (877) 760-2757

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Reflectorized Striping | Product Spot Light

Tesla Motors Gets New Truncated Domes at Newport Beach Dealership

For March Empire Parking Lot Services parking lot maintenance project of the month goes to the Tesla Newport dealership located in the city of Newport Beach, California.  Surrounded by the cities of Huntington Beach, Dana Point, & Irvine Ca, Tesla Motors is one of only 17 locations worldwide that sells the sleek and sexy Model S and the Roadster. What Tesla Newport needed done was some truncated domes and ADA striping that would help to bring the dealership up to code. Tesla Motors required the contractors bidding this project to use specific materials and products for the installation of the ADA items. Safety Step truncated domes where required and we where to color match the existing brick for painting out the old striping, so that new striping could be painted. Once Empire Parking Lot Services was awarded the contract for the project we started the wheels in motion.

About this ADA Parking Lot Maintenance Project

As stated above this parking lot maintenance project was mainly a ADA upgrade to existing parking lot features that were not compliant with the city of Newport Beach as well as Federal ADA codes. The features we needed to fix on this project were the installation of new truncated domes using the safety step system, as well as the removal of old parking lot striping and painting new striping that was compliant. Since Tesla runs a very clean dealership with a stylish look and design, standard yellow truncated domes would have clashed horribly. With the safety step system you have several colors to choose from (see chart below) Tesla chose the grey color and it came out very nice.

About Empire Parking Lot Services

Empire Parking Lot Services is one of Southern California’s fastest growing parking lot maintenance companies. The reason for this growth is because we focus on three main factors when it comes to our projects. First we do each and every project to the same standards we would expect on our own property. Our customers are guaranteed that the work is at or above the industry standards for whatever service we offer. From parking Lot striping to concrete repair the work will look good and last or we will fix it. We stand behind every project. Secondly we only install products and materials that will last, look good, and protect you down the road from future problems. Lastly we do all of this more competitively than any other contractor in the Southern California area. For the quality and price we can’t be beat. Empire–PLS offers its services the entire Southern California area. For more information about our parking lot maintenance services, or our company, just click any of the links above to take you to our website.

Call us today if you have any questions about truncated domes, parking lot striping or ADA upgrades.

Toll Free: 877-760-2757

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Project of the Month March 2011Tesla Motors Newport Beach Ca

A Quick Guide To traffic Paint

The Basics Of Traffic Paint

All traffic paint contains a lot of pigment. Pigment is the colored solid material left on the pavement after the liquids have evaporated and/or been absorbed into the pavement. Contractors are usually surprised to learn that there is a frequently wide range in the percentage of pigment used by different parking lot striping paint  manufacturers.

It’s also important to be aware that some manufacturers use different solvents in their paint. Therefore, some brands may not be chemically compatible with other brands of paint. Incompatible paints may not “mix” together if combine in the same pail. For example, Brand X alkyd striping paint may not combine with Brand Y or Brand Z alkyd striping paint. Wise contractors always ask their dealer for this type of information.

By comparing the net weights of similar types of paint made by various manufacturers, you’ll instantly see which paint offers the most “solids.” That will be the paint that weighs the most. Of course, the heavily pigmented paints are unlikely to be the cheapest.

Update: The Environment and Traffic Paint

These days environmental issues are at the top of many people and agency’s priority list. With that being said paints have continued to get restructured to be more friendly with the environment in mind. Parking Lot Striping traffic paint is no exception to this. Solids are being reduced and pigments are being reduced in order to comply with local air quality laws. There is a big push here in California to create environmentally friendly paints for parking lot and parking structure applications. These new paints can be hit and miss in terms of there coverage so the best advice on them is to have a good solid relationship with your paint rep and discuss the new products before you buy.

Best Traffic Paint Products and Dealers

We believe there is a wide range of criteria in selecting paint, other than price. Some important points to consider are list below:

• Workability; consistently and how well it flows with your equipment.
• Long life/good “wear” and color retention characteristics
• Professional expertise from your dealer; you need good advice from someone in your locality when you enter the striping business.
• Credit terms/delivery service; be sure to find a high quality paint supplier who can help you in many ways.

About Empire Parking Lot Services

Empire Parking Lot Services is a Southern California parking lot maintenance company that takes the paving / parking lot maintenance industry very seriously. We strive to constantly learn about new products and new technologies affecting our wide array of services including asphalt repair, concrete repair, sealcoating and parking lot striping. If you have a question or comment on this article feel free to leave it or contact us by clicking on any of the links in this blog.

www.Empirepls.com

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Understanding the Different Traffic Paint Options

What you Need to Know about Traffic Paint

The Good Stuff in the Paint is the Bad Stuff in the Environment.

All traffic paint contains pigment. Pigment is the colored solid material left on the pavement after the liquids have evaporated and/or been absorbed into the pavement.  Contractors are usually surprised to learn that there is a frequently wide range in the percentage of pigment used by different manufacturers. The bad news however is that manufacturers are taking more and more of the solids and solvents out of these products making them less effective then their predecessors. It’s not because they are trying to sabotage anyone it’s just they have to comply with local laws for air quality and those laws deem what acceptable levels of solids and solvents can be placed in those paints.

It’s also important to be aware that some manufacturers use different solvents in their paint.  Therefore, some brands may not be chemically compatible with other brands of paint. Incompatible paints may not “mix” together if combine in the same pail. For example, Brand X alkyd striping paint may not combine with Brand Y or Brand Z alkyd striping paint.  Wise contractors always ask their dealer for this type of information.  This can also apply to paint on the ground.  Be sure to hire a parking lot Painting contractor that has the foresight to know what products can go or what.  Often times we see where a customers will “paint the curbs in house” to save a few bucks.  This is where the nightmare begins.  When incompatible products are placed over one another the only real solution is total paint removal via sandblasting which can get costly.

Quality Traffic Paint = Quality Parking Lot Striping

By comparing the net weights of similar types of paint made by various manufacturers, you’ll instantly see which paint offers the most “solids.” That will be the paint that weighs the most.  Of course, the heavily pigmented paints are unlikely to be the cheapest. Furthermore, in a recessed economy we have noticed that most people are not willing to pay for the better product.

We try to urge every new customer to ask lots of questions from there contractors about paint compatibility.   Quite often a cheap job ends up costing them a small fortune in the long run.

Our criteria in selecting paint, other than price:

1. Workability
   
2. Consistently
   
3. Long life &  good “wear”
4. Color retention characteristics
5. Ability to stand up to hot tire
6. Wash-ability

Trust Our Parking Lot Repair Services

Empire PLS has established a crew and special equipment dedicated to addressing these small jobs. This allowed us to offer parking lot painting and other services including repairing potholes in parking lots efficiently at a friendly price.  Empire-PLS is fully licensed and fully insured.  We are parking lot maintenance experts so, if it’s in a parking lot, we can fix it!

Call us today at (714) 633-0300 if your parking lot needs parking lot painting!

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Parking Lot Painting: What you Need to Know About Traffic Paint