Graffiti Removal

The term graffiti comes from the Greek word ‘graphein’ which means ‘to write’. When some images or letterings are written, scratched or painted in any order on properties such as buildings, car or train bodies, bridges, desks or any other surfaces..this is called Graffiti. Graffiti can be used for any kind of means like for conveying some political and social messages or just for fun. Not only in today’s modern world, even in ancient ages our ancestors used it to display the memorable incidents they faced or stories of their hunting or whom they prey and so on. But now-a-days most of the governments have restricted it for various reasons and even doing it is now a punishable offence.


Basically, graffiti is wall painting. So it can be done using various types of painting materials. But generally these days graffiti is being done by spray paints or marker pens. In most countries painting on properties without the property owner’s approval or on public properties is a punishable crime. In 1st world countries, people are very much concern about the cleanliness of the surroundings and what the neighborhood is looking like. Most of them think that graffiti has no artistic values. So it is needed to be removed from the neighborhood. There lies the concept of graffiti removal.


The general belief is that graffiti reduces the monetary value of a property and plays a great role in business losses such as tourism business. People get anxious about their safety because it is believed to attract crime and also it can create some political turbulence in the country by conveying some antigovernment issues. So government officials are putting their time and mind to prevent this type of activity. Graffiti removal or how to remove graffiti is becoming much of their headache now. Many organizations have been built by the authority to prevent and remove such activities. Many private organizations have also been built up for removing such wall paints. Laws are also very strict in these countries even years of imprisonment if caught.


Graffiti removal consists of various measures like making it a punishable criminal offence, educating people about the negativity of it etc. The simplest way of doing it is just painting out and covering the wall-art. It is low costs too. But there are several other processes by which we can remove the graffiti easily and effectively. Chemical processes are most effective for graffiti removal. At first we have to indentify the surface type and then select a chemical to use on it. The strong solvent, usually a chlorinated hydrocarbon or polar solvent, dissolves the spray paint. But it may require very much personal protection while using and environmental considerations may come into play. For small jobs though, rubbing the chemical solvent with a scrubber on the wall-paint or washing with a high speed jet of water may serve the purpose.


Graffiti removal is not complete without using a protective coating on the wall because the coatings will help to remove the paints in future if graffiti is done again on the wall. The coatings also vary with the surfaces on which they are used like wooden coating or metal coating.


There are now some graffiti removal organic compounds which are environment friendly also. They are being used in some big cities like Sydney. New management systems are also being involved in this matter to give it a more professional touch.