# pricing for striping parking lots



## brothers3 (Mar 30, 2001)

Greetings lawnsite members we are a small landscape company looking for a service to add for existing customers ,parking lot striping seems like a good match but i have no idea how to price it. Any advice appreciated.


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## kutnkru (Jan 3, 2001)

Our company is rather new to Pavement Maintenance too.

The one thing that I have gathered is with the latest striping machines we can provide a thicker, longer lasting stripe, with beautiful, crisp edges and excellent color retention.

These state-of-the-art airless machines not only put down a lot more paint than the older style sprayers, they do a better job of "pre-cleaning" the pavement just before the paint is sprayed.

Keep in mind that you will want a dedicated machine for each of the four colors used:
*RED:* used for "fire lanes" along curbing and "no parking" zones.
*BLUE:* for handicapped parking logos.
*WHITE & YELLOW:* for parking stalls, stop bars, cross walks, directional arrows, and word stencils.

Keep glass beading options in mind for business' with alot of night time traffic. Check into whether or not double stall stripes may offer the clientel an insurance reduction as a good selling point.

I just wanted to share my findings with you on this subject and am currently debating how to price for Pavement Maintenance as well.

There is an author who has 5 books on this subject, you can contact him for the information at (502) 743-5953.

Good Luck this season!
Kris


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## guido (May 13, 2001)

*Pricing / Machines*

First off, you guys are both right, its a good and fairly easy way to make some extra cash. Now for my opinions:

Your already in business, right? You give quotes on jobs everyday or week or whathave you right? Well how do you figure it out:

Cost of Materials: $x.xx
Overhead per hour: $x.xx
Profit per hour : $x.xx
-----
$xxx.xxx

However you break down your pricing strategy now should be the same way you figure pavement marking or for any other job you work on.

#2 - KutnKru - unless your getting into this full time, I dought you will need a dedicated machine just for blue handicap stencils. I would use bucketed paint and beads with a poly stencil. You can put it down with a thick roller.

Another option you guys may want to look at is the precut arrows and stencils (ex. handicapp guy, no parking sign, etc)

You just lay them on the clean asphalt like tar paper and hit them for a second with a small torch and bam, your done. They really do work well, we used some at our commissary last year in front of some speed bumps.

Which brings me to my next point - if your looking into getting serious into pavemenet maintenance, start looking into curb checks for parking spots (concrete, or the new recycled mat'l ones) and the pre form speed bumps you bolt into the ground. Also might want to look into traffic signs.

They are all easy money makers with not much overhead at all. Its something to look into. I'll try to find some good sources and catalogs for you guys, but please, share the ones you've found with everyone here in this post. Thanks, and Hope this helps!


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## kutnkru (Jan 3, 2001)

*Re: Pricing / Machines*

[QUOTE*... I dought you will need a dedicated machine just for blue handicap stencils. I would use bucketed paint and beads with a poly stencil. You can put it down with a thick roller.

... Another option you guys may want to look at is the precut arrows and stencils ... and the pre form speed bumps you bolt into the ground. Also might want to look into traffic signs.*[/QUOTE]

Dave, thanks for the input. The information that I gave to 3bros was that which I had received from Roy Ruebenstahl via the telephone. The name of his company is *The Great Outdoor Maintenance Company (GOMC)*. Sorry I thought I had put his name down when I listed his phone number.

Thats a good idea about the roller for the solid blue spaces with the white insignia of the handicap emblem.

I had the opportunity to apply some of these stencils last year when I was on vacation in NC. My buddy was talking with a salesman who did some demonstartions for these.

We applied them with a propane torch. The key was to get the glass beads to melt into the plastic materials and then they were adhered to the pavement or concrete surfaces. My only concern with the pre-cut stencils is snow removal.

I was wondering about the speed bumps that you mentioned: 
1.) If a plow for whatever reason hits one of these during clearing operations of the lot, will they withstand moderate wear and tear??

2.) Or are they going to bust apart??

Can you also elaborate a little further on how these are installed: 
1.) What size anchor bolts are used??

2.) How deep do you drill?? etc.

I have a source for the traffic signs locally thru a sign shop downtown. I know that many people have mentioned the use of arrows because if its not in front of their noses (painted arrows), they seem to be oblivious to their surroundings. Thus my interest in the painted markings.

The paint in question was Epoxy. I am currently checking into the availability of the airless stripers as a renatl or lease option.

I will keep you posted.

Thanks again,
Kris


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## guido (May 13, 2001)

*Kris....*

The speed bumps come broken down into sections of 3' or so square and as high as you order them. There are 5 bolts in every section. What you do is lay it all out the way you want it, go through and drill all the holes out with a hammer drill 6". Than you move all your speed bump and insert the anchors into the holes with epoxy. Now lay all your stuff back ontop of the holes, bolt them down and you insert little poly plugs into the holes where the bolts go. This was the first winter we had them, and with some of the guys we having plowing the streets here, I'm sure they've been hit a couple of times. I only plowed there once this winter ( I was always plowing the airfield instead (Faster is Better  ) ) Anyway, it was light snow and I was going almost 25 MPH and hit it to see what would happen and it rode right over it no problem. It has a really good slope to it. And if I could do that with a 10 ft. dump, I'm sure a pickup would go over a lot easier (lighter plow assy.)

Those decals are also no problem after the first winter, but like I said, this is the first time we've used that stuff, so we'll have to see how it works out after more than this winter.

Hope this helped!


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## brothers3 (Mar 30, 2001)

Thanxs for the replies,is there any way to get around having to have 3 machines


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## guido (May 13, 2001)

*Bros 3*

I'm sure it would be a lot more work as far as cleaning the machine PROPERLY after every use (as really you should do anyway) but besides that I can't see a need for more than one machine unless you have more than one paint striping crew out which you probobly aren't looking to have.


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