best way to paint bollards

Excellent idea there Milt! I like that myself!

i have never liked the way traffic paint looks on bollards or light poles, my opinion only. id roll them with enamel, it would go faster than you think. again, my opinion only.

Milt, how do you not get the over spray on the ground around it? What tip and how much pressure do you use? NCSTRIPE1, I don't like the look either, but traffic paint is on them now. I am afraid that if I try some enamel, it would flake off.

oh, nothing you can do about that. leave the bottom in the box with a hole cut big enough to go over the bollard. cut out the top of the box. slide the box over the bollard and everywhere is protected from the overspray.

Cut a few pieces of roofing felt 30 x 30. Circle cut a hole in center the size of bollard. Then slit from hole to one edge so you can lay it around the pole. Tip will probably depend on paint you are spraying but I would use a black contractor tip rather than a line tip. A 213 or 215 is where I would start.

Milt, that sounds like a good start. I will see if I get the job. Thanks for sharing your wealth of knowledge!

Best way is just to put one of them big colored condoms on the thing, less work and looks good for years.

haha, I did about 1000 of those covers in Atlanta 10 years ago. the covers for the safety bollards went easy. for the bollards with signs, not so well. rusted nuts and bolts, posts not centered in the bollard made me wish for paint.

ncstripe1 wrote on Mar 9, 2015:Go to #8

haha, I did about 1000 of those covers in Atlanta 10 years ago. the covers for the safety bollards went easy. for the bollards with signs, not so well. rusted nuts and bolts, posts not centered in the bollard made me wish for paint.

Where did you get those from? I have been wanting to get some to try to sell.

the name on the bollard cover was idealshield and as far as I remember we dealt with the them directly. I found with new installs I could save the cost of the bollard cover simply by using pipe from a recycle yard. with the cover the pipe didn't have to be near perfect as it would if you were painting one. the install on existing bollards with signs was the downside to them for me. it took some time to dismount the signs and if the sign post was off center from the bollard things got kinda hairy. I found a 3-3.5 inch hole saw worked best to make the hole for the sign post and it looked neat when finished.

ncstripe1 wrote on Mar 10, 2015:Go to #10

the name on the bollard cover was idealshield and as far as I remember we dealt with the them directly. I found with new installs I could save the cost of the bollard cover simply by using pipe from a recycle yard. with the cover the pipe didn't have to be near perfect as it would if you were painting one. the install on existing bollards with signs was the downside to them for me. it took some time to dismount the signs and if the sign post was off center from the bollard things got kinda hairy. I found a 3-3.5 inch hole saw worked best to make the hole for the sign post and it looked neat when finished.

I know what you mean with the ones with signs. Another contractor in town installed some on a new building and the signs were mounted on telespar. It looked like a chipmunk chewed the top of the cover to make it fit! Horrible on a multi million dollar building! Thanks for the help!

Robert sells the covers in the plp store.

stripe guy 2 wrote on Mar 10, 2015:Go to #12

Robert sells the covers in the plp store.

I guess I missed that one. Thanks!

+1 on using industrial enamel on bollards. It is all I use. I get annoyed when I have to repaint those that have traffic paint on it. It looks terrible and flakes like a %$)(*&*&#$. I also don't spray them. I roll them. It's a good way to keep an employee busy while netting a healthy profit margin.

Just had a job for 3,000 LF of red curb and 22 4" bollards and 3 fire hydrants. I also think traffic paint looks like krap very quickly. Instead of having a shield with a hole I used cardboard in two pieces with a 4" U so that when they were pushed together they overlapped. You get a tight fit with out having to pull them up the entire bollard and ruin your fresh paint. I did the same thing for the hydrants on a larger scale. I used Rustoleum 2X high cover spray cans. I use water base paint in the stripers and I wasn't going to flush for a few bollards. It took 7 spray cans for about $35 and an hour and 15 minutes. they looked great and the Property manager was very pleased. There are always options.