Our recent car park lining work at Southbank, London, shows that even the most simple bay marking painting can be effective. Whilst we do enjoy creating branded car park designs and coloured resin flooring effects, it’s equally great to see perfectly accurate and sharp car park painting, completed quickly and efficiently for our client.
There are several aspects to consider when preparing a car park for marking and it starts with planning out the space. This requires accurate measurements of the entire car park to calculate the number of bays that can fit into that space. It’s important to remember that a car park includes a mix of regular car park bays, disabled parking spaces, parent and child parking bays and EV charging bays. You will also need to include pedestrian walkways, entrance and exit points, and waiting or loading areas.
When it comes to applying the markings in a car park, our expert operatives frequently hand-paint lines and logos using stencils, rollers, tape and trained skills. They also use a fleet of machines at Roadgrip.
It all depends on the level of traffic you expect to visit that car park, and also your budget, the quality of the paint and how long-lasting you want those markings to be.
There are three materials commonly used in the UK: thermoplastic, cold applied plastic and solvent-based paint.
Thermoplastic markings are the most popular of the three and can easily encompass additional materials to improve night-time visibility and wet-weather performance. By adding reflective beads and anti-skid compounds, safety is enhanced in interior and exterior car parks. Because thermoplastic is heat-applied, it fuses with the asphalt making it a highly durable paint, which makes it ideal for heavy-traffic areas.
Cold Applied Plastic markings (also called MMA, which stands for methyl methacrylate) are the most durable of the three and are easy to apply, but they aren’t as easy to remove when you need to change or refresh the markings. This can add cost further down the road. That said, they are ideal for car parks and, with the lowest VOC level of the three, they are better for the environment too.
Solvent-based line paint is the least advanced of the three but the cheapest, which makes it popular for low-budget, smaller jobs where time and cost are the priority. Longevity isn’t as good as with MMA and thermoplastics, and at a time when eco-friendly materials are the preferred and recommended choice, a solvent-based option doesn’t stack up with the other two.
Looking for a car park marking contractor that understands your brand? Get in touch with our nationwide road marking team for a quick quote. If you would like to see some examples of branded car park painting, take a look at our car park refurbishment projects.
