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.
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.
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
Tags: Shotblasting, Sjot Blasting
Posted in Shot Blasting, Warehouse Floor Painting | No Comments »
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.
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
Tags: Concrete Preparation, Shot Blasting
Posted in Shot Blasting, Warehouse Floor Painting | No Comments »
April 5th, 2010
Costco LA Gets Some Warehouse Striping Done
Warehouse Line Painting in 2 Part Epoxy
One of our best customers are the Costco stores of California. Costco uses Empire Parking Lot Services for a number of services including warehouse striping, parking lot painting, and basic parking lot maintenance. This week we was line painting in the warehouse, also known as warehouse floor painting. Costco uses warehouse floor painting in there receiving areas and tire service areas to help designate employee walk ways or customer access control lines. When a Costco store needs to get a line painted on concrete that will last for years, they call us. Empire-PLS offers a top notch product & installation service that can last under the most abusive of environments. Our system is called a Macro Poxy System. This is a 2 part paint application. When it comes to warehouse floor striping and line striping systems there is none better.
About the Warehouse Line Painting Job
When it comes to warehouse line painting there is a very important time line that needs to be adhered to. Furthermore, when it comes to Costco there is a very narrow time line that Costco has as well. This is where Empire-PLS really shines. We understand the complexities of these projects and we can foresee almost all factors that come down the line on a warehouse floor striping job. Some of the variables that we deal with on a day to day basis are factors like time constraints, paint product pot life’s, security and safety concerns, layout and painting issues as well. This job was really no exception. The moment we got there we stage all of our shot blasting and striping equipment in the warehouse because on a Costco project you can be coming and going. With millions of dollars of merchandise in there warehouse security is a real concern. So once the equipment was staged we moved on to the layout stage. This stage is critical because it allows our customer to see the warehouse striping layout one last time before it goes down permanently. Once and last minor layout changes agreed upon the next step is to move onto to the painting process. Though this job was fairly small it takes a tremendous amount of communication between our crew and the surrounding employees. With some projects including this one, we try not to close off all access to the painted areas until it its absolutely necessary. This allowed our customer to wrap up their final duties of the day like re stocking and trash clean up.
About Empire Asphalt Repair Services
Empire Parking Lot Services is Southern California’s premier parking lot maintenance company. Every day we help our management customers, contractors as well as our direct owners with many of their parking lot maintenance needs including warehouse floor striping. 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 asphalt contractor company.
Call us at: 714-633-0300
Or look us up on the web at www.Empirepls.com
Tags: Warehouse Floor Painting, Warehouse Floor Striping, Warehouse Striping
Posted in Warehouse Floor Painting, Warehouse Striping | No Comments »
