If your parking lot stalls, stencils, and markings are fading or no longer visible, it may cause a few problems like slowing down traffic or may be a pedestrian safety issue. This is then the perfect time to consider re-striping your parking lot and bring it back to life. Supreme Asphalt Services has a few striping tips that will help you on your next striping project.
Weather – Striping projects will be affected by the weather. The contractor should keep a close watch on the weather forecast for any chance of rain or high winds. If there is a good chance of rain, the job should be postponed for a better day. High winds will also make it difficult to stripe and will blow too much over spray on adjacent areas, vehicles or others structures.
Reflective Glass Beads – An option to improve night time visibility is having the contractor apply reflective glass beads to the paint. This application can be 
done either by hand, or machine and is not too expensive. Make sure the the glass bead material is applied while the paint is still wet for best adhesion.
Amount of Coats – If your asphalt parking lot just had some repair work done or is new, considering having your striping contractor apply 2 coats of water based paint after the asphalt has cooled. The first coat will be absorbed by the asphalt and wont be as visible, the second coat will make the parking stalls stand out.
Removing old striping paint – If you are thinking of changing the layout of your current parking lot, chances are you will have to remove the old markings in order to stripe the new layout. There are a few ways you can have the old lines removed like having the old paint sandblasted off, or you may choose to
simply “black-out” the existing paint. The Sandblasting method will do a good job removing paint from your pavement but keep in mind that it does get very dusty which is why most clients have the work done after hours, it also costs a bit more than the blackout method. The blackout method is a good way to save a few dollars but does not remove the old stripes. Your current stripes are covered with a coat of black paint to try and camouflage them into the asphalt, the new layout will be striped after that. Most clients choose the blackout method for their asphalt pavement layout and also choose to apply a seal coat over the old striping to hide the blacked out lines.
Keeping your parking lot re-striped and looking great is very important and should be on the top of the “to-do” list. As client’s drive in to your business, the very first impression is the parking lot. Your customers will have a good experience from driving in, to visiting, & driving back out of your location. Make sure consult with your pavement contractor and ask questions to find out more information on re-striping. We also encourage you to bookmark our website www.parkinglothelp.com to learn more valuable information for your parking lot.
I liked that you mentioned adding glass beads for to improve visibility at night. I’ve been seeing a lot of people getting the asphalt in their parking lot resealed and the lines repainted. I think that the beads are really important especially when the ground gets wet and impairs some of my vision. It’s nice to see what you’re doing when you’re parking.