This article explains how anti-graffiti paint can help protect your home from persistent vandals and maintain its cleanliness.
Image by Tadie88 via Flickr
You wake up to a beautiful day ready to take on whatever is ahead of you. You just finished preparing your coffee and you decide to take a quick stroll outside just to marvel at what a lovely morning this is when your eyes are slowly drawn to THE garage door and see that it has been laden with poorly drawn words that read “Artz not ded”.
The only thing that’s worse than vandalism is bad vandalism. You go back inside your house fuming with anger. Day ruined. Now you have to spend it cleaning the mess these young vandals have left. It doesn’t make it easier when vandals get away with it most of the time. You don’t have to feel helpless though as there are steps that you can take to prevent them from vandalising your home again.
Experts suggest that you clean the vandalism the moment you see it on your property. It doesn’t matter how many times. If you see it, remove it right away and observe how less frequent the vandalism is going to be. There’s no complicated psychology involved in this except that vandals are less likely to paint graffiti on a property if they know it is being maintained regularly.
But what if the graffiti artists are extremely persistent? You’ve cleaned your fence for the tenth time and just when you think they won’t come back, you wake up to another day seeing another piece of crappy art these jerks have left on your home. How do you stop this from going on once and for all? The answer is anti graffiti paint and yes, it is a godsend.
So how does anti-graffiti paint work?
Anti-graffiti paint serves as a coating that prevents the graffiti paint from sticking onto the surface. It comes in two types: sacrificial coating and permanent coating.
Sacrificial coating – this coating creates a clear-coat barrier on the surface which can be removed together with the graffiti. Simply remove the protective coating with a high-pressure washer and the graffiti goes with it. Genius eh?
Permanent coating – this is a more expensive solution compared to sacrificial coatings but is very effective in preventing graffiti from sticking onto the surface. All you need to do is wipe the graffiti with graffiti remover. And you don’t have to worry about reapplying since the coating will stay intact on the surface.
The two works equally well but each has a select area that it works best on. So which of the two should you use? It depends on where the graffiti is often located. Sacrificial coating works best for sound barriers, bridges, building exteriors, and other surfaces that can be accessed on ground level. Permanent coating is best applied on areas that are difficult to reach.
A lot of home goods stores sell these types of paints so you don’t have to worry about its accessibility. So what else can you do to prevent vandalism? Below are some steps you can take to further discourage vandalism from happening in your community.
- Place plants, shrubs, or vines in front of walls and fences.
- Decorate your walls and garage doors. Graffiti artists don’t find it appealing to work on a surface that isn’t clean.
- Paint your walls with a dark colour like dark brown or dark blue.
- Coordinate with your community and send a clear “No tolerance” message to the vandals. Organise a neighbourhood watch and look out for suspicious activity.
In Conclusion
Vandalism may be considered a petty crime but it is still a crime and it does have an effect on a person’s quality of life. Aside from making sure your home is graffiti free, you need to report it to the authorities the moment you see an incident of someone vandalising a home with graffiti. The authorities are just as keen as you are to catching these vandals. Any tips you’d like to share on how you protect your home from vandalism? Let us know in the comments.