How To Remove Spray Paint Graffiti From a Skatepark
Remove Graffiti from a Skatepark
The dreaded question – “Hello, what product do you recommend to remove spray paint graffiti from our concrete skatepark?”
Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s start here…
In our 11+ years as a skatepark design-build contractor spray paint graffiti vandalism has occurred only a handful of times to our clients’ skateparks. Unfortunately, we were recently contacted by a city staff person that their public skatepark was tagged quite extensively by some artistically-challenged vandals. Fortunately, the park was cleaned relatively easily and there’s a strong lead to solving the case. More on that in just a bit. This most recent incident sparked the topic of this newest SPA Skateparks article, “How to Remove Spray Paint Graffiti from Concrete Skateparks”.
Who are skatepark vandals?
The natural reaction after seeing a vandal’s markings for the first time is to ask yourself, “Who would do such a thing”? We can’t help you there. But we can say this. There’s a 99.999% chance that it’s NOT the skateboarders and other users of the skatepark. Further to this point, and in every case that we’ve heard of, the local skatepark users become the City staff’s biggest resource in providing tips or clues to solve the case. Why would a skateboarder vandalize one of their most prized possessions – THEIR OWN public skatepark. In our experience, visitors of the park are usually the culprits.
How to respond to skatepark graffiti?
We always recommend a City develop and implement a Skatepark Operating Plan. Topics of all kind can be addressed here, including what to do in the event of vandalism. Having a plan in place prior to an incident is time worth spending and certainly makes things easier IF it ever happens (it likely won’t). As skateboarders ourselves, it hurts us to see a skatepark closed. However, as professional skatepark consultants we feel obligated to relay first-hand accounts of what has worked for others. The 3-4 clients of ours who have fenced off and closed the park for a ‘reasonable’ time following an incident have never seen a repeated graffiti event. It allows city staff to remove the spray paint graffiti from the skatepark surface safely while making a clear statement of cause and effect – when x happens y happens. As previously stated, it’s extremely likely skaters are NOT the vandals and closing a skatepark post-graffiti event is not to punish the users. It seems to reinforce the users’ sense of ownership and pride in the skatepark they call their own. “Don’t mess with our park or the park will be closed for 10 days”. It also reminds the users of the comradery they share as patrons of the skatepark. You’ll find folks picking up trash a bit more and generally take care of the place. And there’s no way the skaters are going to be ok with a visitor jeopardize the skatepark’s well-being. Make sure your skatepark rules and signage have the appropriate phone numbers of emergency services and the parks department.
Graffiti Removal Products for Skateparks
OK, we need to insert a disclaimer here. Our company has yet to use the products we’re about to mention. But if we ever need to, we will. For that reason we cannot personally give our endorsement of these products. HOWEVER, this information comes first-hand from the cities who we contract for. Furthermore, the products below come up time and time again as the go-to product for concrete skatepark graffiti removal.
- Product: Skatepark Pack
- Product: Elephant Snot
How’d it go? Did the graffiti remover work on the skatepark?
Here’s a verbatim exchange between SPA and our client just after staff removed graffiti from their recently completed skatepark.
SPA: How’d it go? Did you end up using the product (Bare Brick Stone & Masonry Remover)? If so, where did you purchase it from? I certainly would appreciate your feedback as I have been searching for a good solution to tell others.
Client: It worked amazingly! We got everything off in about 4 hours with two men working. Just follow the instructions on the bottle and go. So far we used about 8 gallons of the stuff for what we had. It’s quite a bit less expensive at around $52-$56 a gallon depending on how much you order. Once applied we washed it away with a broad fan on our pressure washer with not harmful effects to the concrete.
From World’s Best Graffiti Removers:
“Our products are regularly used to clean concrete skate parks, in particular “Bare Brick Stone & Masonry Remover” and possibly “Feltpen Fadeout” (very helpful on removing any residual staining from inks and especially red spray cans). A couple of videos on this page demonstrate such removal jobs, performed at City of Chula Vista, and City of Fresno.”
Another Method of Removing Graffiti from a Concrete Skatepark
SPA has removed spray paint graffiti from a skatepark by outsourcing a local pressure washing company to soda blast the areas. Is it more costly than using the above products and in-house personnel? Sure. Is it expensive? No. But if you’re needing to remediate a skatepark quickly, call up the professionals for their assessment. The soda in soda blasting is a non abrasive, inert and water soluble media that’s eco-friendly. It’s similar to (but not exactly like) the baking soda we use in our kitchens. In summary, soda blasting worked for us.
A Note about Pressure Washing
Your concrete skatepark likely has a Class A steel troweled surface. The surface seals and protects the concrete slab as a whole. Whoever pressure washes the concrete surface should pay very close attention to not removing that hardened concrete paste layer. Doing so invites potential chipping and general degradation of the concrete slab. What to do? Simply ensure the pressure washing nozzle is positioned at the appropriate distance to remove the graffiti while not damaging the concrete.
Happy Skating!
Disclaimer: Use this article’s information at your own risk. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, reliability and accuracy of this information. Any action you take upon the information within this article is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any losses and damages in connection with this article.
