Case Study: How often do Parking Lots need to be Re-Striped? - Concrete
In this article, we’re going to take a look at historical, satellite imagery of various Parking Lots in the Cleveland, Ohio metropolitan area. This will give us an overhead, visual representation of how lines and decals will fade over time, given the weather conditions of Northeast Ohio. As a disclaimer, these images are being taken from the Cuyahoga County GIS website. The lighting, weather conditions, quality of photography and other factors affecting visual appearance may vary between years. That being said, let’s start out with example #1: The City of Cleveland City Hall located at 601 Lakeside Ave E, Cleveland, OH 44114.
As seen above, the difference between no lines and fresh lines is remarkable. Special attention should be paid to the ADA Handicap Symbol on the bottom right of each screen shot. The reason being that Handicap Accessible Parking Stalls are infrequently used compared to regular lines. Additionally, depending on the Painter, more paint is used, since at least 2 coats, of different colors are required to maintain legibility, i.e. blue and white or blue and yellow. That being said, the effects of weather: sun exposure, rain, snow, freeze-thaw cycles are likely to be the main culprit in deterioration, as opposed to traffic.
Next let’s take a look at several years of wear and weathering on those lines.
What a difference time can make! Starting in Fall 2016, the lines gradually disappear over time. Unfortunately, there was no imagery available for 2018, to showcase a 2 year mark. At some time between +1 and +3 years, the lines become incredibly faint. By year 4 they can barely be seen, years 5 and 6, they cannot be noticed at a glance whatsoever. We can glean a lot from this simple time lapse collage. Parking Lot Line Striping in Cleveland lasts about 2 years with adequate visibility and legibility, ensuring maximum parking lot organization and safety. At years 3 and later, these lines are faded and lose their purpose in directing traffic in and out of a parking lot and parking spaces. At around 6 years, the standard parking stall lines seem to disappear altogether in this example.
There are multiple factors to consider: the type of paint used, number of coats, daily usage, daylight sun exposure, pavement material, precipitation management (i.e. does water pool up and soak the lines?), snowplowing, salt usage, other chemical sprays such as herbicides, etc.
The takeaway: getting Parking Lot Lines re-striped every 2 years, maybe 3, is a fantastic way to ensure parking lot traffic organization and increase customer perception, especially for customer-facing industries. If you or your organization are looking for that biennual touch-up job, call us at Lines and Logos today to get a free estimate!