Car parks are an underrated system within any industry – public and private. They provide an organised, safe, and easy way to park when visiting somewhere. Car parks do not get the maintenance or surface paint needed to support your business financially.
Effective Line Marking
In order to stay high-quality and provide the safe and efficient service that they were built for, car parks need to be built and maintained with great surfacing systems. Below is a list of the 5 steps to easily maintain a perfect car park from its surface up:
1. Anti-Slip Painted Surfaces
Anti-slip surface coatings for car parks ensure car park users are safe and avoids slip and trip incidents at your site
Anti-Slip is vital for maintaining a safe and practical surface – no matter the environment. It’s been proven that a lack of sufficient anti-slip surfaces can cost over £512 million a year in lost production and other costs due to accidents. You can read more about the benefits of applying anti-slip paint to your surface in Meon’s blog: The Importance Of Anti-Slip Paint.
Anti-slip in a car park, whether it be for public or private use, comes with many advantages. For example, not only are you doing great things for the safety of your facility by reducing the risk of accidents, but it also helps to increase the lifespan of the surface it is applied to and can contribute towards the aesthetics of your car park due to the different colours and high opacity it provide. Meon offer easy to apply anti-slip paints like MultiGrip, used by industry car park lining contractors to provide safe, colourful and hardwearing car park surfaces.
2. Pedestrian Walkways
Pedestrian walkways are a great for directions and advertising
Linking back to anti-slip paint, which is what these walkways are most often applied with, pedestrian walkways work wonders when it comes to the safety of the car park users. Giving people a walkway that is separated from traffic (rather than forcing them to walk alongside, sometimes even in front of or behind, moving cars) gives them an extra sense of safety as it reduces the risk of accidents caused by drivers not seeing someone who is walking near their vehicle.
On top of this, pedestrian walkways can greatly contribute to the aesthetics of your car park, just take a look at the image above. If stencils isn’t your thing, there are other options such as preformed thermoplastic which gives a perfect consistent finish every time, check out the application video.
3. Bright and Crisp Car Park Markings
Bright and crisp car park markings are an excellent way to brighten areas where natural light is limited and give clear pedestrian guidance.
This is one of the most important aspects of your car park for many different reasons. High visibility of the markings is crucial for maintaining a safe and practical environment, therefore any existing markings should be maintained to the highest standard. Having clear demarcation reduces the risk of a motorist getting confused with which direction to go or where they can or can’t drive on, and therefore the risk of an accident occurring is much less likely.
Like many of the other tips mentioned here, clean and visible markings allow for a more attractive car park environment, keeping the high-quality aspect of your car park.
4. Light Guidance Parking
Light Guidance Parking – Avoid drivers waiting for spaces and blocking the car park by installing LED that show where the spaces are.
It is likely you have entered a car park before and seen a row of red and green lights along the ceiling above parking bays. This is light guidance parking. Sensors measure the parking space below to find out whether or not the bay is occupied. If there is no car in the space, the light above it shines green, indicating to people looking for a space that there is an unoccupied bay there. If, however, there is a vehicle in the parking space, the light shines red, notifying drivers that the bay is occupied.
This holds many benefits for car parks, as it reduces traffic due to people driving around looking for a parking space, which therefore increases efficiency.
5. Solar Power
Solar Power – Increase land value and create revenue opportunities for site operators from EV charge-points
Solar power is a fast-growing industry, due to the money and energy it saves. Less than 2 years ago, Nottingham council installed the UK’s largest solar powered car park, and since then many existing car parks, as well as new ones, have followed the trend. This is an innovation that is not only beneficial to the asset owner, but to the environment as well.
6. Electric Bays
Pre-formed Car Park Markings
Preformed thermoplastic is heated onto the surface with perfect results every time. Meon can provide you with custom designs and colours to your specification.
Stencils For Car Park Markings
A standard range of stencils are available from Meon. Reusable customised car park stencils are also available to your specification and size requirements.
7. Car Park Line Marking Using Machines
Line marking machines, speed up the process of line marking to avoid long car park closures and get a more consistent paint distribution.
Line marking machines are favoured in the lining industry as they provide a quick and very easy way of providing a straight and consistent line every time. Using a line marking machine greatly reduces surface marking time, as you are not taking the time to apply as accurately as possible by hand. Find out more about the range of Line Marking Machines Meon has to offer here.
8. Durability
Linking from the last point, you can reduce the likelihood of repair being needed as often by using a durable surfacing system. Many surface-marking paints are not very durable considering the amount of traffic they are designed for. You can read more on an example of this in Meon’s blog: Does MMA last longer than Thermoplastic?
There are options for sprayable or hand applied cold plastic sometimes referred to as MMA which is short for Methyl Methacrylate. It is an extremely durable paint perfect for areas that receive high traffic. Areas that require a hardwearing paint include transverse bar markings, car parking bays and entrances and exits, box junctions and mini roundabouts. Meon offer various MMA solutions including UltraLine, if you have any questions about the application process or what paint would be ideal for your situation get in contact.
To find out more information on this subject,
email mail@meonuk.com or call 023 9220 0606.
