Greetings! I have been reading here awhile, but this is my first post. I want to thank everyone for their input on this board, it is VERY educational!
I kinda fell into this business: my small Arizona hometown (pop 50,000) had a sudden surge in graffiti occurances, and I could not let that sort of stupidity remain. The city was slow to respond, the property owners slower, so I took it upon myself to take care of (part of) the problem . I started out with Mostenbacher's Graffiti Remover and a hose, which gave poor results. Next I bought a small pressure washer (Sear's smallest gas) and used Goof Off Graffiti Remover, and the results were pretty good, but not good enough.
I did some research, and read that soda blasting was supposed to be the best way to remove graffiti, and spoke to the city about the problem and a possible solution. I learned that they were looking to hire out the abatement job, and one of the contactors they were considering was going to be doing some work with a soda blaster. I watched the crew at work, and it looked easy enough, but when they were done, the results were pretty poor: the unpainted cinder block walls were permanently scarred, and the graffiti could still be seen! I had looked into buying a soda blast outfit, but the hopper and hose part runs $7,000, and the 180cfm compressor runs $12,000. Out of my league! And judging by what I saw locally, not effective.
I kept looking, and found a product called Elephant Snot (http://www.graffitisolutions.tv/default.htm) that sounded pretty good. Well, it sounded like it would work; the name does not sound good!
I order some and tried it out, and it did a good job. I did a test job for the city, and they were happy with the results, but I was not. The instructions say hot water works better, so I searched eBay for a pressure washing outfit, and bought one. The Snot and hot water make a great combination, most times leaving no trace of the graffiti. Just did another job for the city, and I am quite satisfied with the outcome.
It works on recent spray paint tags, and older painted-over graffiti, too. So far the only problem is with red spray paint, which leaves a ghost, even after two applications of Snot, and one of Shadow Max shadow remover. Probably it's just me being too hard to please...
Anyway, I wanted to recommend Elephant Snot as a great product. It's a thick jelly-like liquid which clings to the wall and does not dry out, and it's bio-degradable and environmentally-friendly. At $60/gallon, it's a bit pricey, but is worth it. If you do use it, be careful about getting it on you, as it does cause burns (I have several).
In case you're thinking I'm crazy for buying a washer just for this, well, that could be...
I did some research, and there is not a pressure washing business in the city. Looking around at the storefronts (grocery, video, theater, etc), they are all quite dirty, so I figured I could get some work cleaning them. Maybe not so crazy?
I kinda fell into this business: my small Arizona hometown (pop 50,000) had a sudden surge in graffiti occurances, and I could not let that sort of stupidity remain. The city was slow to respond, the property owners slower, so I took it upon myself to take care of (part of) the problem . I started out with Mostenbacher's Graffiti Remover and a hose, which gave poor results. Next I bought a small pressure washer (Sear's smallest gas) and used Goof Off Graffiti Remover, and the results were pretty good, but not good enough.
I did some research, and read that soda blasting was supposed to be the best way to remove graffiti, and spoke to the city about the problem and a possible solution. I learned that they were looking to hire out the abatement job, and one of the contactors they were considering was going to be doing some work with a soda blaster. I watched the crew at work, and it looked easy enough, but when they were done, the results were pretty poor: the unpainted cinder block walls were permanently scarred, and the graffiti could still be seen! I had looked into buying a soda blast outfit, but the hopper and hose part runs $7,000, and the 180cfm compressor runs $12,000. Out of my league! And judging by what I saw locally, not effective.
I kept looking, and found a product called Elephant Snot (http://www.graffitisolutions.tv/default.htm) that sounded pretty good. Well, it sounded like it would work; the name does not sound good!
I order some and tried it out, and it did a good job. I did a test job for the city, and they were happy with the results, but I was not. The instructions say hot water works better, so I searched eBay for a pressure washing outfit, and bought one. The Snot and hot water make a great combination, most times leaving no trace of the graffiti. Just did another job for the city, and I am quite satisfied with the outcome.
It works on recent spray paint tags, and older painted-over graffiti, too. So far the only problem is with red spray paint, which leaves a ghost, even after two applications of Snot, and one of Shadow Max shadow remover. Probably it's just me being too hard to please...
Anyway, I wanted to recommend Elephant Snot as a great product. It's a thick jelly-like liquid which clings to the wall and does not dry out, and it's bio-degradable and environmentally-friendly. At $60/gallon, it's a bit pricey, but is worth it. If you do use it, be careful about getting it on you, as it does cause burns (I have several).
In case you're thinking I'm crazy for buying a washer just for this, well, that could be...
I did some research, and there is not a pressure washing business in the city. Looking around at the storefronts (grocery, video, theater, etc), they are all quite dirty, so I figured I could get some work cleaning them. Maybe not so crazy?