Sooner or later, even in the finest of neighborhoods, graffiti will appear on a coin laundry’s walls, windows or equipment. All it takes is a felt pen, piece of crayon or even a key to scratch porcelain washer tops and painted dryer fronts. Coins can even be used to scratch your machines.
It’s almost impossible for any laundry business owner to keep the graffiti mavens from doing their dirty work. Sometimes it is gang marks, but most often it is the frustrated would be artist that messes up your place of business.
Unless there is a fabulous, full coverage security camera system, or owners are willing to spend time looking over customer’s shoulders, some graffiti work will occur. You really can’t stop it from happening, all one can do is control it.
The key is to keep it from growing by removing traces of it as quickly as it’s found. One person’s graffiti, which is not covered, will encourage others to leave their marks too.
Where there are painted walls, it’s easy to remove or cover over. If it won’t wash off, paint over with KILZ or some other effective primer to prevent bleeding through. Go over with paint that matches the paint you have on the wall. Voila, it’s gone.
Always have a spare can of wall paint ready. Keep a few cheap brushes too. There’s always gouges, scratches, splashes and other events that happen even when there’s no graffiti. You’ll use up that paint over time and keep the laundry neat looking.
Crayon or other wax based marks normally are handled pretty easily with a rag, lighter fluid or paint thinner. It will usually come right off porcelain, baked on epoxy or glass. Rub lightly on machines, or you might leave a cloudy haze at the spot.
When there’s scratches on porcelain, or on the baked on enamel surface of a dryer or washer front, that’s a much harder problem.
Some operators recommend using a very fine sand paper designed for metal projects. (Usually black paper.) Lightly sand the scratched area to blur or take out the marks.
Most appliance manufacturers sell paint to match the washers and dryers they make. Some come in small bottles with a small brush. If machines are new or at least not too old, the match is good. After the machine’s color fades a little, the touch up paint is too dark, but it still looks much better than the scratch itself.
Spray paint can also be used and usually are available from washer and dryer makers. These work better when the panel can be removed, given a sanding, painted and then replaced. The whole panel then looks uniform.
Porcelain washer tops are almost impossible to do and maintain the look of the original finish. However, there are re-finishers that can provide a brand new look. Or, think about buying new washer tops to keep the look of the laundry up to the image you want.
If hit by paint or felt pen, stainless steel tops and fronts can be cleaned with light machine oil and rubbed back to a good shine. Scratches will be less obvious when oil and rubbing are used to clean up the machines.
Exterior walls of a building may present an even more difficult problem for the laundry owner. Property owners bear responsibility for most exteriors. Operators who own their own buildings know they have to redo to keep up both the appearance of their business and the property.
Lessees have to talk property owners into spending money to keep up the appearance of their laundry business. Sometimes they are very stubborn about spending money to basically help you and your business. Property owners may not have the feeling of pride that they should, and will do a sloppy, cheap job of removing graffiti.
Will the laundry owners have to bite the bullet and pay for keeping up appearances? Too often so.
Some of the modern exterior paints are graffiti resistant in that they can be returned to a normal appearance simply by washing graffiti off with soap and water. A bit more expensive, but if you have to pay, it might prove worth it in the long run.
