Choosing Paint For Parking Lot Striping

When you are choosing a paint for parking-lot striping, you need to consider the options that you have to contend with. Temperature, humidity, wind, and barometric pressure can all have an effect on how the paint dries. Traffic, presence of a sealant on the asphalt, and other factors can also effect the performance of a paint. For best results, you need to to take all of these factors into consideration when choosing your paint. 

Cold Weather Striping

Striping is generally a warm weather operation. However, if you have a section of a parking lot that is severely faded, you may not be able to wait for warm-weather to hit. When it comes to cold-weather striping, the paint base is the biggest factor to consider. Water-based paints can freeze in cold weather, and freezing will not allow them to dry properly if you can even paint with them. Solvent-based paints, on the other hand, have a much lower freezing point than water, so you can paint with them even in extremely cold weather without concerns that they will freeze before drying. 

Durability

Another consideration when striping is how durable the paint job will be. When looking at durability, paint base is not what you should look at. Instead, you should look at the resins that the paint is made from. Striping paints will typically contain latex, alkyds, or chlorinated rubber. In terms of durability, paints that contain chlorinated rubber will yield the best durability. Taking steps to push back the need to re-stripe your parking lot will help to save you money. Thus, using paints that contain chlorinated rubber will give you the best long-term value for your money. 

Coal Tar Considerations

Coal tar is often used as a seal coat for parking lots. While coal tar can help to protect asphalt and prolong its service life, it can present challenges for striping. If you use a solvent-based paint on coal tar, the solvents in the paint can bleed into the tar, which will give the edges of your lines a wobbly appearance. For more visually pleasing straight lines, you will need to use water-based paints. 

These are just a few of the factors that come into play when choosing a parking-lot paint. As a business owner who needs striping for their parking lot, it pays to understand at least some of the factors that go into striping, so you can participate with a contractor in choosing the best paint for your parking lot. Click here to learn more about parking lot striping.