Help for an amateur

Hello all. I stumbled across this site and wow, what a resource. I've been reading through posts just to get some information, but have a few background questions. First the background: I'm in school and paint houses for a summer job, so I am used to paint and airless sprayers. I have been asked by a friend to help them re-stripe their ~100 spot parking lot, but I have no idea where to start. 1) Equipment - I have a quality airless sprayer, but I haven't seen anything where I can use it for striping. What kind of equipment should be used? Do many places rent striping machines? Recommended tip sizes? I'll be checking with the local rental place tomorrow. 2) What kind of paint should I use? What kind of qualities am I looking for? I typically use latex for houses, but am fine with using anything that is recommended. It's for re-striping a lot in Eastern WA (Hot summers, cold winters). The weather will be cool and possibly moist at times so a quick dry is optimal. It's mostly parking spaces and fire lanes. all which have fading paint (10 years old). 3) What kind of prep work is recommended? How should it be cleaned. It's mostly dusty, not really greasy. Pressure wash? Sweep? Cleaning agents? 4) What should I expect for coverage? Do you typically just calculate about X gallons per foot? What is a typical cost per foot? 5) Any other tips? I'm learning a lot from reading through the archives, but I'm probably in need of some of the basics first. It looks fairly straight forward (since I am just re-striping). I'm just wondering things like how close to the sidewalk do I go adn how to keep overspray off of it etc. I just need some of the basics and I think it will be fine. THANKS!!! Aaron Just out of curiosity, what might be the approximate charge for 100 spot parking lot with a fire lane stripe painted behind all of the spaces and along the other side of the lot. It's a narrow lot with just 1 line of spots bisecting the sidewalk and a fire lane line running along the other curb. There are 4 handicapped spots with adjoining striped areas alongside of them. What do you bid hourly?

After you find a machine to rent, I would just go to your local paint store.... Sherwin Williams or Columbia Paint and they should help you find the right paint and tip size.

Really to much to type, I'll post something in the AM..till then this should keep you occupied. http://parkinglotstriping.info Sean Paramount Asphalt

The house sprayer isn't going to be much help when re-striping a parking lot. Equipment depends on how long you really plan on staying in the biz, you can usually find a used Graco on ebay once in a while, but It still will run you up in the $2,000 range, if you're going new plan on about $3,500-$4,300 depending on the machine you want. 3-19 is a standard tip for striping lots, for stenciling and fire lane curbing you can switch to a lower tip for less paint. All different types of paint..Latex, Fast Dry Latex (my fav), standard Alkyd, and chlorinated rubber. Latex is the cheapest stuff and is suitable for new asphalt and sealcoat. Alkyd is oil based and with oil you can use them in lower temps than waterbased, not good for new sealcoat. For a re-stripe I would go with latex, or fast dry latex. If you using a Graco striper the pressure from it shooting out the paint onto the lot is usually to blow any debris outta the way, sometimes even the chalk line! (sure had fun with that doing new layout in a warehouse ) If its in really bad condition you could always use a backback blower and get rid of the majority of the dust etc, only where the lines are though no need for all the extra work! For coverage I plan for 350 linear feet per gallon if I'm painting parking lines, use 150 linear feet per gallon if I'm doing curbing. So you have around 1,800 linear feet to do in parking lines, so take 1,800/350 and get 5.14, you'll need about 5 gallons of paint to get the job done. If I'm at 5 gallons, I usually just get another 5 just in case, never wanna run short on the job, and then you'll have plenty leftover for the next job. Same goes with the fire lane curbing but I'll use 150 ft. I get around $0.11 for restripe and $0.13 for new layout, $0.26 for yellow curbs and $30 for handicap with blue background. Tips...once ya find a machine put water in it and practice, practice, practice! Head out to the job a couple of days before you are gonna re-stripe and just spray over some of the lines to get a feel for the machine and know what to expect once your actually putting paint through it. The machines are heavy so once you are on a straight track they shouldn't stray off, but theres always human error causing some not so straight lines, I had plenty when I first start started striping, good thing It was with someone else's company Stop you're line right where the asphalt meets the concrete, trigger is pretty sensitive so as soon as you let go it will stop spraying. Make sure the line you are spraying completely covers the one thats already on the ground, nothing worse than a bad re-stripe job they are the easiest ones! I'm around the same age you are and there is really nothing to the work, once you have it down you have it down for good. Hardest part of the business is all the paperwork, taxes, headaches with the employees, scheduling, customers who needed jobs done yesterday, headaches with employees! Lucky you don't have to deal with that, but if you plan on staring your own company, be prepared to do alot of work! Lots of stuff goes on behind the scenes you don't even think about. I love making the money I do at my age, and having no one to tell me what to do, greatest feeling in the wooorrrld. Oh and I would be in the $850-$900 range for that job, depending on how far it was from my shop. Good luck and tell us how it goes! Sean Paramount Asphalt

Way to go Sean !!! Karma for you... My advice Adroitboy, exactly what Sean said !! Also in WA, Columbia Paint is a good brand that should be available there, I would reccomend the solvent based fast dry. http://www.columbiapaint.com/

Thanks all! That is great help and I gained a lot of know-how last night reading through the information the through these posts. It sounds like cleaning isn't really that bad...perhaps just use a blower to blow off the lines/ How much would you charge for painting a curb for fire-lane? There's probably 150-200' that have not been painted but should be. It sounds like painting curbs is a little bit of a pain...a 2 pass affair. One last question...this lot always has a lot of cars parked in it. How bad is overspray with a line painter? Any suggestions on how to get people to park elsewhere? Thanks! Aaron

Wow, I've called every rental place in the area and none rent real line stripers. They can rent me the inverted can type, but not an airless. Does anyone here have any suggestions on where I might find an airless for rent? If I had to use the inverted spray cans, what kind of coverage would you expect with those? How about durability/quality? I have an airless that I use for spraying houses, but it sounds like I can't really use that (unless someone knows of a kit to use them) and the only line stripers available are the can type. Any suggestions?

Check United Rentals, also you might check with some paint stores, such as Sherwin Williams or Columbia as there is a slim chance, but a chance that they may have a demo unit that you could "try". Also if you are really thinking about getting into this type of work, then take some time and put together a biz plan and purchase some proper equipment, you can find airless striper's on eBay often, also look at the for sale section on this site. If you are not real serious at this time, then hire out a local company to stripe it for you, you should even be able to mark it up and make a few bucks, then you can go on the day they do it and learn a little from them, that may help you in the future if you start a striping co up later.

The issue is that I'm not planning on doing this for a business. I'll stick with painting houses for the summer. The striping is just a favor and hence the need to rent and not buy. I just called United rental and they don't rent them. The rental places only seem to carry the spray can type. It sounds like airless is much better, but if I can't get one then I guess it's going to be a by-the-can deal. Any thoughts on the can type painting? How many LF should a can do? Sherwin williams has the cans for $7 each so it sounds expensive.

Don't even waste your time with a can, the paint is very expensive (in comparison) and lasts only months. I would reccomend just calling a local striper and having them do it. Everything you will have to do, to do it yourself will not be worth it for just one job, and very well could end up costing you more money.

The only other alternative I can think of would be to make a small cart to mount your gun on...but that would be a pain....AsphaltMan is dead on - if you are not going to do this full time, getting a local striping contractor to do it would be a timesaver.

Well, like I said, it's for a friend...not for profit. I'm helping him to save on a lot of the costs involved. And there are no local stripers, they come from 50 miles away, so they aren't exactly excited to come out here to do it and are a pain to deal with. He's asked for bids from 3 places and no responses so far. Well, thanks all for the help. I wish that I could have enjoyed the fun of learning something new, but it appears that it is not meant to be. Thanks again! Aaron

Pssh could make 10 times more striping than painting houses, I promise ya that! Especially if theres no one in your area..could take advantage of that Sean Paramount Asphalt

I use to use a inverted can to stripe but now I am using a airless machine and would never go back. You say you don't want to get into this business. Man trust me if there is no one in your area it would be good to be the first person in your area You would make your money back on your machine in no time. The work is really not that hard it just takes someone that has a good eye and is willing to go out there an do the work. If you are painting houses you could get a machine and then you would have another spray unit for painting your houses. Then you could paint places that did not have electricly because the striper is gas powered and most have atleat 50' feet of hose. Hope it works out for you. If you decide to jump into the business please come back and we all here can help you out with any questions you may have. Next thing you know you will be going to the expo's good luck with it -Dean