If you’ve discovered graffiti on your premises, unfortunately you’re not alone. 11% of small businesses in England and Wales have spent over £10,000 due to traditional crimes including graffiti over the last two years. On a national scale, the cost of graffiti is around UK £1 billion each year.
Can graffiti be removed? The good news is yes, especially if you bring in professional help early on. Cleaning up graffiti quickly won’t only get you the best results; it also sends a clear message that your premises are taken care of to customers, and would-be vandals.
In this guide, we’ll share how to remove graffiti from your business across different surfaces, including quick fixes you can try and when to call in the professionals.
Removing Graffiti From Brickwork, Concrete and Stone Walls
Let’s start with walls. Brickwork, concrete and stone surfaces are all porous and so particularly susceptible to graffiti. If you’ve ever seen a painted wall with shades of graffiti underneath it, you’ll also know that painting over graffiti doesn’t always work.
When it comes to cleaning graffiti, we always recommend considering the potential for damage before choosing a method. Here are two approaches we’d suggest:
For Brickwork and Concrete:
As these are tougher surfaces, your best approach will typically involve a combination of specialist graffiti removal chemicals and professional pressure washing. The chemicals work by breaking down graffiti into smaller particles, which pressure washing can then rinse away.
For very stubborn or old graffiti, you may need to opt for abrasive methods like sand or soda blasting.
Dustless blasting is a method for removing more stubborn cases of graffiti on porous surfaces like concrete.
For Natural Stone, Sandstone and Marble:
Natural stone adds character to your premises, and so it can be especially upsetting to find graffiti on these surfaces. When cleaning stone, we advise extra care.
Depending on the stone, we’ll use eco-friendly graffiti removal solutions especially formulated for each material. These solutions are left on the graffiti for a while before being gently scrubbed away, followed by a rinse with low-pressure water.
Once your graffiti is removed, you can then apply an anti-graffiti protective sealant which can help to protect the stone and make it easier to remove any more graffiti in future.
If you’re looking for professional help, our graffiti removal specialists work with businesses across South Wales to clean up tags and spray paint from porous and nonporous surfaces. Learn more about our graffiti removal service here.
Removing Graffiti From Painted Metal
Whether it’s graffiti on your roller shutter door, shopfront or metal warehouse walls, our priority here is to avoid damaging the original paintwork underneath. In these cases, you can use solvents like isopropyl alcohol or acetone which are effective at breaking down spray paint or permanent marker. Remember though to always do a spot test as the last thing you want is to cause softening or discolouring in your original coating.
If you’re dealing with a larger surface or particularly stubborn paint, we can use specialist professional graffiti removers for metal surfaces. These have the advantage of targeting only the graffiti without affecting the metal or paint underneath. Learn more about industrial cleaning here.
If the graffiti is light or the tag is fresh, you can also try a citrus-based degreaser which will sometimes work to lift the spray paint without the need for deeper cleaning.
At One Stop Solutions, our team uses specialist methods and eco-friendly chemicals to remove graffiti from different surfaces.
Removing Graffiti From Glass Windows and Facades
While no one wants to find graffiti on their shopfronts, windows or facades, it’s worth keeping in mind that glass is the easiest material to clean. Again, you can use non-abrasive solvents like isopropyl alcohol, citrus-based graffiti removers or mild acetone to break down and remove graffiti without damaging the glass.
Avoiding scratches on your glass will be your priority here, so we recommend leaving abrasive pads or blades to the professionals. For more on facade cleaning, read our guide here.
How to Remove Acid Graffiti From Glass
If you’ve found acid etching on your glass, this is where removal becomes more complex. In these cases, you’ll need to call in professional restorers to polish the glass and remove the graffiti, or even replace the pane if the damage is too deep.
It’s increasingly common for businesses in high-risk areas to install anti-graffiti film as a preventative measure. If your glass is then vandalised, this sacrificial layer can be peeled off and replaced.
Removing Graffiti From Plastic and Signs
Plastic signage in is often used as a surface for graffiti, which can be particularly inconvenient if it contains essential information for your business, for example in warehouse loading bays.
If you have graffiti on a plastic surface, isopropyl alcohol is generally a safe solution to help you dissolve the graffiti without damaging the material. On the other hand, never use acetone on plastic as it can cause warping or cloudiness.
In the case of a printed sign or a particularly delicate surface, we’d always recommend calling in professionals to remove the graffiti for you without damaging the material underneath or compromising the visual appeal of your sign.
We removed graffiti from this loading bay entry sign, using specialist techniques to preserve the printing and colour.
How We Can Help
We hope our guide has given you hope that, yes, graffiti on your premises can be removed. In the easiest cases, you can use solutions like isopropyl alcohol and for more complicated surfaces, professionals like us are on hand to help.
At One Stop Solutions, our team of graffiti removal specialists can help you remove graffiti from any type of porous or nonporous surface. We use environmentally-friendly graffiti removal equipment and water-soluble solutions to serve businesses in South Wales.
Learn more about our graffiti removal service and get in touch to arrange a site visit or free, non-obligatory quote.
