A SimTek® contractor partner located in West Valley City, Utah recently became all too familiar with the fence’s unique graffiti resistance feature.
Several months after finishing the first section of a projected two-year-long installation process around the perimeter of a condo association, employees from Quality Vinyl Fence & Gates, LLC received a call about a graffiti tag spanning six panels of the new fence. The tag was one of the largest they’d ever seen, and it would have cost thousands of dollars in labor and materials to replace.
Luckily, CertainTeed’s SimTek fence solutions were constructed with situations such as this in mind, and the panels – which are made from low-density polyethylene – can easily be washed to remove most graffiti spray paint.
With just two employees, a 3200 PSI hot water pressure washer and a can of spray-on graffiti solvent, Quality Vinyl Fence & Gates, LLC was able to remove the graffiti tag in three hours, returning the surface of the fence back to its original state and saving both time and money for all involved.
“The graffiti came off like a hot knife through butter,” said Sam Pilon, vice president of retail sales and installation for Quality Vinyl Fence & Gates, LLC. “It was such a relief to see the paint disappear with little effort and know that we could save our client from the headache – and wallet-ache – of having to replace thousands of dollars’ worth of fence.”
The team had already been working on the expansive project for five months with plans to continue the installation process in stages. So far, they’ve installed 1,700 feet of fence using roughly 300 panels of CertainTeed’s SimTek EcoStone®. The team still has about 10,000 more feet of fence to install.
“While we certainly don’t wish for vandalization on any of our vendors’ projects, this situation helped further prove the value of our fence collection by showing its resilience and cost-saving features,” said Russ Anderson, the CertainTeed territory manager covering Utah, among other states. “I’ve seen graffiti removal cases before, but the size of the tag in this scenario definitely made this a unique case.”
Any contractors who find themselves in a situation involving vandalization of a SimTek fence are encouraged to use a power washer to begin the removal process. If remnants of the paint are still visible, a graffiti removal solvent spray can help fade the rest of the paint away. All chemicals should be washed off with hot water following their application.
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