Preparation of Concrete for Painting Lines

May 21st, 2010

Best way to Prep Your Concrete for Paint

As a contractor we have several ways we can prep concrete to accept paint. Poorly prepared concrete surfaces can result in complete paint failure or partial paint failure. Nearly all paint failures can be blamed on the lack of surface preparation, which insures paint adhesion. To guarantee adhesion of the paint coatings to concrete surfaces and extend the life of the paint or coating your installing, be sure to select and proper surface preparation.  At the bare minimum, a concrete surface should be clean and free of dust and contaminants such as; mildew, rust, or chemicals.  In some cases we have had paint stay down on projects, with doing nothing more than sweeping and scrubbing the surface before paint application. The only problem is there is no way of knowing if your concrete floor will be one of them. The best thing you can do is to perform a test area on your concrete floor. First start off by cleaning and painting a small test spot of your coating in a high traffic area.  Leave the test area down for a week, and see how the paint reacts. However keep in mind that concrete can be very tricky. You may get a good test result back from your test area and still have areas of massive failure appear later on down the line. That’s why we suggest shot blasting.

Concrete Preperation For Paint

Shot Blasting For the Best Bond

For a truly solid bond of paint and concrete Empire Parking Lot Services uses shot blasting. This method of concrete prep has allowed us to put lines and coatings down that have lasted as long as 10 years. Shot blasting creates a mechanical profile for other applied materials including paint to bond to. Its a  self contained vacuum that uses a “shotgun like” shot, that pings the ground, opening the surface allowing paint to adhere.Take a look at the video below. In this shotblasting video you will see our shotblasting techs using a shot blasting machine to profile a (5) inch area to allow painted lines to adhere to a concrete surface.  Costco hires Empire Parking Lot Services to install these lines on many of their services areas and tire centers. Even though the process takes time to install Costco loves it because its solves security and safety issues for them, for a long time.

Concrete Shot Blasting For Paint Adhesion

About Empire-PLS Shot blasting Services

Empire Parking Lot Services is Southern California’s premier parking lot & warehouse maintenance company.  Every day we help our management customers, contractors as well as our direct owners with all of their parking lot & warehouse maintenance needs including shot blasting.  Empire Parking Lot Services offers top notch parking lot repair and warehouse maintenance services to the entire Southern California area.  Our service area includes Orange County, Los Angeles, Riverside County, San Bernardino, San Diego as well as parts of Ventura.  Contact us today if you have any questions about any project you may have upcoming.  Empire-PLS is a fully licensed & fully bonded shot blasting contractor company.

Give us a call Today Toll Free

877-760-2757

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Concrete Preparation for Painting Lines

May 20th, 2010

Best Type of Prep for Concrete Surfaces

When it comes to paint adhesion and concrete, there is one thing you can count on. No Guarantees! Paint will almost never adhere to concrete unless concrete is prepared utilizing one of a few different choices. These choices used to limited to sand blasting, acid etching and mechanical etching such as grinding. Though these methods of surface prep worked, they where highly inefficient. Sandblasting leaves a terrible mess known to clog sensitive systems and left the surface pitted and un even. Acid etching is extremely dangerous as well as acid can not be controlled to a limited area like shot blasting can. Mechanical etching like grinding works but it is a slow process that its very labor intensive. Only shot blasting offers control in terms of both depth of removal and area of removal. Also shot blasting is the only method of removal that

Incorrectly prepared concrete surfaces can result in a reduced paint and sealer coating integrity and lifespan. Nearly all coating failures can be closely attributed to poor surface prep, which affects a coatings ability to stick to concrete surfaces.

To guarantee proper adhesion of coatings to the surface and extend the life span of your paint or coating,we recommend proper surface preparation. The method of surface preparation we recommend the most is shot blasting.

Concrete%20Preparation%20for%20Painting%20Lines

Shot Blasting Explained

Shot blasting is a process of preparing a concrete surface with steel shot (small steel balls) at a high velocity. This surface prep process removes contamination as well as laitance to leave behind a  precise mechanical profile for improved adhesion. Shot Blasting is a self contained process. The machine literally works like a vacuum in that, as it profiles the concrete, it removes the dust and  recovers it by a powerful dust collection vacuum.

The Shot Blasting Advantage

As the preferred method of surface prep recommended by most paint manufacturers, shot blasting has many advantages over the older methods. Unlike these older methods, shot blasting is cleaner, faster and environmentally safer. Here are a few other reasons why shotblasting is superior to the alternatives.

  • Eliminates the need for chemicals and leaves concrete with a precise minimal profile usually only 4-5 mil thickness.
  • Is known for fast removal rates and High output removal
  • Very Eco- friendly (Green)  in terms of environmental impact.
  • Versatility of interior & exterior uses.
  • Almost zero secondary mess created from the surface preparation process

About Empire-PLS Shot blasting Services

Empire Parking Lot Services is Southern California’s premier parking lot & warehouse maintenance company.  Every day we help our management customers, contractors as well as our direct owners with all of their parking lot & warehouse maintenance needs including shot blasting.  Empire Parking Lot Services offers top notch parking lot repair and warehouse maintenance services to the entire Southern California area.  Our service area includes Orange County, Los Angeles, Riverside County, San Bernardino, San Diego as well as parts of Ventura.  Contact us today if you have any questions about any project you may have upcoming.  Empire Parking Lot Services is a fully licensed & fully bonded shot blasting contractor company.

Give us a call Today Toll Free

877-760-2757

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Shot blasting Before Painting – A Simple Guide To Prepping Concrete

April 29th, 2010

A Simple Guide to Prepping / Shot blasting Concrete before Painting

Why Does Paint Fail On Concrete

When we here at Empire-PLS need to paint a concrete floor or surface we find that most of the time that concrete surface needs to be prepared before trying to put paint on it.  Why you ask?  Well, what typically happens is that when paint is applied to a concrete surface that hasn’t been prepped the paint will fail in a couple of different ways.  The first type of failure is the popping paint scenario.  This failure is when the paint pops off in large pieces throughout your project.  These areas can be especially bad where heavy traffic patterns exist or corners that are clipped by forklift, heavy traffic, etc.  Another type of failure often associated with lack of surface prep is the flaking scenario.  In this case the paint typically flakes off in smaller pieces and strips.  Either scenario you will typically find that the paint that has peeled, flaked or popped is clean on the concrete surface side.  The reason this happens is that many concrete surfaces and structures are too smooth or too dirty for the paint to properly adhere. This is where shot blasting comes in.

Concrete Prepping What Can Be Done

The first thing you need to know is that concrete preparation used to be very difficult.  With methods such as acid etching and sandblasting most contractors would just tell their customers to deal with the paint failure like it was a maintenance issue.  These days with services like shot-blasting it is easier than ever to get the floors prepped and ready to receive paint.  Floor coatings are becoming slightly less effective with restrictions being placed on them by federal and state organizations.  Many paint manufacturers are decreasing the numbers of solids, forcing contractors to place more than one coat of paint to get the desired finish their customers are accustomed to.  Because of these changes floor preparation is becoming increasingly more important to do.  By doing floor prep such as shot blasting, not only do you tend to get a finished painted surface that will stay down the first time, but you also get a product that looks better over time.

About Empire Parking Lot Services Shot blasting

Empire Parking Lot Services is Southern California’s premier parking lot & warehouse maintenance company.  Every day we help our management customers, contractors as well as our direct owners with all of their parking lot & warehouse maintenance needs including shot blasting.  Empire Parking Lot Services offers top notch parking lot repair and warehouse maintenance services to the entire Southern California area.  Our service area includes Orange County, Los Angeles, Riverside County, San Bernardino, San Diego as well as parts of Ventura.  Contact us today if you have any questions about any project you may have upcoming.  Empire Parking Lot Services is a fully licensed & fully bonded shot blasting contractor company.

Give us a call Today

714-633-0300

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Warehouse Striping Removal “Knowing Your Options”

December 14th, 2009

Whether you are looking to change your warehouse striping layout, to remove your warehouse striping because your lease is over or you want to re-stripe your existing layout with something more permanent, you will have to remove your existing warehouse lines.  Several methods may be used to remove these lines with varying results.   Typical removal techniques are chemical paint removal, scraping/grinding, and shot blasting.

Several arguments can be made to the ineffectiveness of chemical line removal in a warehouse environment.  Chemical paint removal is possible when the type of material used to paint the warehouse striping is known.  Several different paint stripper chemicals should be applied to test areas to evaluate their effectiveness.  More often than not the painting material is not known, and procuring many different chemicals may not be realistic.  The existing paint may also be chemically resistant – an ideal application in warehouse painting, so all that money spent on strippers is wasted.  Furthermore, chemical removers are typically not that environmentally friendly.

Scraping the warehouse floor striping is possible when the underlying concrete warehouse floor is smooth and sealed prior to warehouse striping.  In this case it should be easy to remove any type of material with a sharp scraper and some elbow grease.  If the concrete is porous and /or unsealed prior to painting, scraping will not be possible.  Hand grinders may be used in this circumstance and the aggressive approach here may not leave an attractive finished product.

Arguably the best method of paint removal is a process called shot blasting.  In this process steel beads or “shot” are blasted through a self contained machine.  The finished result is a uniformly removed surface to varying depths and widths depending on machine setup.  Typically, acrylic, urethane or epoxy sealers are applied to the freshly blasted surface if they are not marked for fresh paint.
Regardless of the method you choose for striping removal, don’t forget to call Empire Parking Lot Services for recommendations on your new paint, sealer, or coating applications.

ASphalt Repair Orange County California

ASphalt Repair Orange County California

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