Unfortunately graffiti is a fact of our city life, now you can do something about it.
Scratched Glass Graffiti
My company cleans thousands of commercial windows every month, and I estimate that 20% to 25% of all our customers ether have a scratch or a graffiti “tag” on their glass or building.
Sample of Acid Etching Graffiti
This statistic shocked me when I first started to keep count, and then I got mad.
These are my neighborhoods too and having marks everywhere made me uncomfortable just walking up and down the streets.
When we clean a store’s windows, the owner would usually ask “can you get that off too?” My response for the first year was, “sorry, no” but then I decided to do some research and figure out what it takes to actually remove these unsightly marks on our society.
I found that there’s essentially two ways to remove the “tag” 1) Replace the glass and 2) Restore the glass.
We work closely with our local glass companies and often recommend replacing glass rather that restoring it. When the price makes sense, we do recommend removing the “tag” via a process called scratched glass restoration.
Scratched Glass Restoration
There’s an entire industry to remove scratches and acid etching from glass – who knew?
In future posts, I’ll talk discuss the types of graffiti, glass replacement, commercial and residential scratches, anti-graffiti film installation and the details of the scratched glass restoration process, but for today I’m going to post two “case study” videos that we put together to demonstrate the process.
Quick note: We recommend restoring the glass if the cost is 50% or less of the replacement costs. Both of the following case studies fit this criterion, and the customers were extremely happy with the results (we were too!)
Case Study #1: Acid Etching on Glass
Video: 4 minutes. Graffiti Type: Acid Etching on Glass. Location: Los Angeles, CA. Duration: 3.5 hours Cost: Restoration Cost: $320, Glass Replacement Cost: $750 Results: Extremely Happy Customer.
Case Study #2: Scratched Glass
Video: 12 minutes Graffiti Type: Deep scratch on Glass. Location: Gardena, CA. Duration: 2.5 hours Cost: Restoration Cost: $280, Glass Replacement Cost: $700 Results: Very Happy Customer.
Finding a Glass Restoration Service Provider
As you can see, there is a cost-effective solution to remove graffiti. When we perform the process, I just feel better knowing we are cleaning up our city, one window at a time.
There are many excellent companies that perform glass restoration services. Search the Internet using the words “scratched glass Removal” “acid etching removal” or some combination of these search words and a number of companies should pop up.
If you cannot find one, ask for a recommendation from your local glass company and/or window tinting company. These businesses work closely with glass restoration service providers and will definitely know who performs this service in your area.
Look for more posts on this subject.
Have a great weekend everyone!
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Fish Window Cleaning is a National Franchise with 220+ franchisees located throughout the United States. FWC corporate headquarters are located in St. Louis, MO.
John Gran and Cynthia Julian own and operate the franchise located in the Los Angeles – South Bay, providing residential and commercial window cleaning, gutter cleaning, chandelier cleaning, pressure washing, and more.
Click Here or Call 310-973-3474 for a Free, on-site written estimate.
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