What is parking lot striping? It is the process of placing traffic markings on parking lot pavement surfaces to help keep traffic organized and easy to follow. These markings also improve the experience for both visitors and tenants. Effective parking lot striping is typically performed by professional line striping contractors. Want to learn more about how to complete a parking lot project? Continue below.

Do You Need Professional Services for Parking Lot Striping?

While some lot owners like to paint their parking lots themselves, we suggest that you rely on professional contractors. Pavement striping must comply with certain guidelines and dimensions. Therefore, getting them wrong could cost more money in the long run. 

Parking lot markings keep your parking lot accessible and welcoming. This is one reason as to why it’s essential to maintain your parking lot striping paint, especially for commercial properties. Asphalt marking is a project that most commercial pavement contractors take on. If you’re thinking about how to best design your parking lot, we encourage looking into hiring these services for your project. 

While a professional service might already know what’s needed for your asphalt striping, here are some tips to keep in mind. These tips will help you understand what to look for in a service so that it best fits your project needs.

Importance of New Parking Striping and Repainting

Why is it important to maintain clear paint and markings for parking lot striping? One big reason is that parking lots are general hotspots for accidents. Parking lots with unclear traffic markings see even more accidents per year. In order to maintain drivers and pedestrians safe in parking lots, having clear markings in the lot is important. 

Moreover, in order to keep your business compliant you must have clear parking lot markings. If you are found negligent in the maintenance of your parking lot, you could be held liable for any accidents or damages.

If you’ve never done a parking striping project, we recommended you hire a professional. Although parking lot marking may seem easy, designing this type of project requires significant engineering and difficult decision making. Any wrong decision can lead to poor layouts. Poor layouts in traffic marking create traffic jams and fender benders that can be blamed on the parking lot owners. 

Hiring reputable commercial contractors for your paint parking lot striping projects eases the decisions making process. Contractors help you decide if and how you should revamp your parking lot, facilitating the process along the way.

Parking lots in poor condition don’t inspire confidence, which is why repainting projects are also important to take on. Unclear traffic marking could make consumers assume that you don’t care about their experience. Similarly, they may assume that you don’t have the money to maintain your lot. Poorly maintained parking lots compromise consumer safety by impacting drivers’ visual awareness. 

Don’t let this happen to you. Invest in your parking lot maintenance as needed. Request a quote from your local pros.

What is the Proper Layout for Parking Lot Marking?

There is no right or wrong way to layout your parking lot. When thinking about traffic marking it’s important to think about your parking lot space and how to use it effectively. 

When it comes to your project, make sure you think about the space and traffic. This will help your commercial contractor decide what type of parking lot marking is best for your project. You might want to include 90-degree spots, 45-60-degree diagonal spots ― best used for one ways ― or parallel spots.

Are you noticing that cars are constantly parking over, outside and off-center from the asphalt markings? The reason why could be the unclear parking lot striping. Hence, repainting these lines will solve the problem. Most drivers follow the parking lot striping paint, therefore clear lines are important to keep in mind for your new pavement or maintenance projects. 

Striping prices vary depending on the linear foot sizing and the scope of work. When choosing the proper paint and specs for a parking lot striping project, you should get a quote from a commercial contractor.

What is the Right Parking Lot Striping Paint? 

Different parking lot striping paint is used for projects like this. Paints typically used for these types of projects are water-based acrylics, solvent based alkyd resin paints, solvent based chlorinated rubber. But by far the most common used paint for parking lot striping is water based acrylics.

Parking lot striping paint can be water or oil/solvent based. Oil and solvent-based paints usually last longer and work better in colder environments. They also tend to be more durable than water based striping paint. However, they also tend to be more expensive and they are not environmentally friendly. Water based paint, on the other hand, is more affordable. It’s also more environmentally friendly, and dries faster than oil-based paint. However, it doesn’t last as long and can freeze and chip in extreme cold weather.

Depending on where you’re located, the paint used for your parking lot will vary. This is why it’s important to hire commercial contractors that will take all of your project needs into consideration. 

What are the Guidelines for Traffic Marking?

Common Dimensions

In the United States, typical stall sizes are 9’ x 18’. Compact spots are 7.5-8.5’ x 15-16’. As for the stripes and lines, their sizing should be 4” inches wide and 15 mm thick. 

ADA Guidelines 

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires all parking lot markings to have the proper marks and dimensions for Disability Parking Spots. These requirements include handicap blue and white asphalt striping. They also require metal handicap signs at each handicapped parking stall. 

Typical ADA requirements call for one handicapped parking stall for every 25th regular parking stall. The ADA also dictates that Disability Parking Spots must be at least 8’ across with 5’ of clearance.

If you want to know more about ADA requirements feel free to check their site. For all your parking striping projects we also recommend looking at your state requirements. Make sure to talk to your commercial contractor as each state and local government has its own ADA requirements.

Fire Lanes

Should you have specific markings for fire lane zones when completing a parking lot striping paint project? Yes, some zoning laws may require designated fire lanes in front of buildings.  The words “Fire Lane” should be stenciled onto pavement with traffic marking in the designated area. The curb may also be painted with a fire lane red traffic paint. 

Do you have more questions about parking lot painting? Contact our team of professional contractors at Limitless Golden Construction today to learn more or request a free consultation. Interested in knowing what our customers have to say about our work? Check out our testimonials page or our Instagram to see actual visuals of our work. We service residential and commercial projects near Putnam and Westchester County in New York. Call us today at 914-335-3916.