Line Marking Removal.

Surface Preparation – Nationwide

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Road Marking Removal

Much of our ‘Road Marking Removal’ work is actually removing Thermoplastic (and paint etc) Playground markings from School playgrounds – This page – gives more details on this part of the business.  

We specialise in using a low pressure sand jetting system. This ‘damp’ system captures line marking material, dirt and abrasive, preventing the health and safety risks associated with dry blasting, and with none of the toxic fumes and thick smoke of burning the material off. We can also offer Ultra High Pressure Water blasting line marking removal. For speed, UHP water jet removal is probably the route forward

For Cost.. and for small jobs the Sand Jet wins. 

Sand Jet Cleaning

For accuracy and delicacy – the Sand jet is extremely effective. UHP is something of a blunt instrument – particularly as the removal ‘point of impact’ can’t be seen – and the ‘cut’ is typically 20cm wide. This does mean that the sand jet can remove one set of overlapping markings, and leave the other set intact.

tSo on a job like this – removal of this pedestrian crossing outside a new Aldi in Doncaster – the Sand jet was, probably, the correct tool..   Probably –  because having to do the job outside shop hours meant starting at 4:30pm on a Sunday… and Louis didn’t get finished until around midnight!  But by the next morning the crossing had been removed and is almost invisible as to where it was – none of that melted plastic you get with burning off marks.

 

Melted Marks?

This was a job in Nottingham where an industrial estate, fed up with parked cars, had put their own double yellow lines around the entry road, to the Highway’s department’s fury – and had to have them removed.

The white line contractor had burned the markings off – but this is never very successful on concrete – and we were requested to clean up the residue.

The Sand Jet Process

The sand jet can clean road markings from concrete (including textured concrete), brick paviours, paving slabs, tarmac and even wooden road surfaces (there are a few of these in Yorkshire!).   It needs a water supply – is definitely noisy, and can leave some abrasive around – but it is accurate, generates no fumes – and a lot cheaper than bringing in a UHP Machine. 

Ultra High Pressure Water

For Speed UHP is a winner – more or less eating a 20cm wide strip of thermoplastic at ‘slow walking pace’. although it can be something of a blunt instrument – particularly as the workface can’t be seen – and the ‘cut’ is typically 20cm wide. The sand jet on the other hand can remove one set of overlapping markings, and leave the other set intact. The disadvantage of the sand jet is that sand debris is spread over the area – and needs cleaning up – where as the UHP machine just leaves a little shredded thermoplastic.

So on a job like this – removal of a court in a Manchester school, this was an effective tool.

UHP Water obviously needs a ‘good’ water supply – the machines have on board tanks that might last 20minutes – but if the tank then takes an hour to re-fill it is not very cost effective hire of the machine and labour.   Ideally we need a ‘good flow’ outside tap – or a hydrant – and will then be able to keep the machine going continuously. 

 

Speed

The 60 m2 of thermoplastic here would have taken a week or more to remove with the sand jet, it took less than a day with UHP .

It was the result of a line marking plan for a waste recycling site in Yorkshire being drawn up by Italians as a direct copy of a site in Italy – without recognising that all the vehicles would be driving on the other side of the road!

With this quantity of shredded thermoplastic a roadsweeper was necessary after the cleaning.

A blunt instrument

 Part of UHP’s speed comes from the fact that the ‘cutting face’ is about 20cm wide – that floor tool contain a spinning cutting head – but that also means that the operator can’t actually see the line being removed – and so unlike the sand jet where we are accurate to about 1/4″ and can remove old markings from around new – that can’t be done with UHP – and if, for example, lines that are being removed cross a set of double yellow lines – a new set of double yellow lines will need putting down again afterwards. 

 

Key Benefits

  • The Sand Jet is slow – but accurate
  • Ultra High Pressure Water is fast, more expensive, but not very delicate!
  • Non of the systems are chemical processes so no noxious or harmful slurries or fumes are generated.
  • The Sand Jet uses only minimal amounts of water and abrasive the system is regularly used indoors.
  • UHP and Sand Jet easily remove line markings for forklift bays etc., and key epoxy screed surfaces for new coatings.
  • The sand jet is accurate enough that we can remove one set of overlapping markings – leaving the other intact.