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Unsightly Graffiti Damage on your Glass?
You work hard to maintain the look of your premises, don't let vandalism ruin this.
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It’s not nice when you find your business property, or the one you manage
with unsightly graffiti damage across your glass frontage.
You and your team work hard to maintain an image and being ‘tagged’ with either Acid etched or etched graffiti can cause a detrimental look to the front of the property. We also know that having a ‘tag’ on the property, can entice others tag to appear on the glass.
This is where we can help, our technicians can remove your unwanted graffiti damage from shopfront panels, entrance doors, glass on platform bridges to glass balustrades. We can provide you with a quote within 4 hours (our aim) and can be on-site at a time to suit you and your business, including working outside of your operating hours to minimise disruption. The technicians will restore your glass, removing the unsightly tags.
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How do we remove graffiti from glass surfaces?
Our Process to Remove the Graffiti
Our team polish out numerous graffiti tags daily, and we are proud to say we can remove the majority of damage cases we get contacted about, with those cases we are unable to help on, often due to the age of the glass panel.
If the glass has received a ‘tag’ using acid application, we will firstly chemically neutralise and remove the crust from the surface to reveal the etching in the glass, this is then polished out to leave a smooth, clear surface, as if the ‘tag’ had never been there. For etched graffiti, there is no requirement for the chemical part of the process, our technicians will instead just use our glass polishing system to remove the etching.
What causes Acid Etched Graffiti?
Typically, acid etched graffiti, is from people marking the glass with their ‘tag’. They will use hydrofluoric acid mixed with either shoe polish or acetone in a shoe cleaning dispensing bottle. This creates a much wider band of graffiti, sometimes coloured, which penetrates into the glass, and forms a hard crust on the surface. It can often cause dribble marks down to the bottom of the glass panel to the framework. The acid will continue to penetrate and etch the glass whilst it is on the surface, making the damage more severe the longer it is left.
What causes Etched Graffiti / Etching in Glass
Etched damage in glass can be caused on purpose by vandals using glass cutters, carbide probes or spark plugs, to leave their ‘tag’ on the glass. However, pushchairs, bicycles and diamond rings can also leave etched damage in glass, if they have accidentally caught the pane of glass whilst passing by.
Why Choose Chicago Glass?
We are a professional company that have been restoring glass for over 25 years. We can:
- offer you free impartial advice
- provide you with a free, no-obligation quotation
- attend at a time that suit you, we can attend outside of your opening hours
- send you an individual technician, or a team of technicians if multiple panels have been affected
- be on-site for you as soon as possible, we aim for 48hours
- come to site, and remove the damage whilst the glass is in-situ
- repair the panel, stopping it heading off to the landfill
- offer you what we believe is a fair price for the service we offer
But, why should I just not go and replace the panel?
The team here recognise the expense and time it takes to arrange a replacement panel, from the product cost, installation cost and impact of passing trade on your business. With just one phone call to us, we can advise you further on how we can help, a price, and when we are available to come to site. By booking us in, you are also extending the life of your piece(s) of glass, reducing the amount of glass going to landfills.
Does it matter how long the graffiti has been on the glass?
If you have acid etched graffiti on the glass, the acid will continue to penetrate and etch the glass whilst it is on the surface, making the damage more severe the longer it is left. This is not a problem for our technicians, as we have a two stage process which will restore the clarity of your glass.
Will your removal process affect the glass?
Our two stage polishing process for acid etched graffiti, involves firstly chemically neutralising the area and removing the crust, this then leaves the etching on the glass. Our glass polishing process is then used which creates conditions to cause the glass particles to flow back into the displaced area caused by the damage. For etched graffiti, our technician will carry out only the second stage of this process. The glass is restored back to the BSI standards for newly installed glass.
Take a look at our gallery for before and after pictures.
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Accreditations
We hold CHAS Elite, along with being members of the Glass and Glazing Federation (GGF).
