Graffiti: prevent your property from being attacked
Graffiti taggers look for:
- a smooth surface for their tags, if possible in a light or dark colour so that their tags stand out
- a surface which is hidden or in a badly lit spot so that they are less likely to get caught
- good access to the surface they want to tag so that they can get away quickly.
You can protect your property by:
- introducing a pattern and breaking up the colours in your wall
- planting trailing, climbing or thick prickly plants on your property
- making it look as if someone is in the property by lighting up the wall
- securing your property with a gate
- installing a CCTV camera, but keep in mind that some taggers may view tagging a property with CCTV as a challenge and get more pleasure from tagging it!
- putting a anti-graffiti coating on your wall or surface.
Sacrificial anti-graffiti coatings (which are coatings that are designed to come off the surface during the cleaning process):
- make it easier to remove graffiti from affected surfaces
- allow graffiti to be removed from the coating using chemicals or, sometimes just hot water
- are invisible and do not affect the look of the surface treated
- however, on removing the graffiti, the 'sacrificial' coating may be damaged and a new sacrificial coating will need to be applied.
Permanent anti-graffiti coatings:
- are suitable for surfaces suffering from continuous graffiti
- can be clear or coloured to most British standards paints
- allow graffiti to be removed from using certain chemicals or sometimes just soapy water
- can last up to ten years.
Most importantly:
Remove or paint out graffiti from your property as soon as possible! Graffiti offenders want their graffiti tags to remain on surfaces for as long as possible. This gives them credibility amongst other graffiti offenders.
Research shows that if you remove it quickly they will eventually tire of tagging your property. Our experience supports this research so please keep up the good work!
Do remember that how your choose to protect your property depends whether your property is commercial or residential.
If you have any ideas prevention ideas then please email them to us.