Happy New Year from Vaca Vet Striping
In business, it is important to always put your best foot forward, and that step can start with fresh parking lot striping. Fresh paint provides a good first impression for arriving customers. Faded and cracked lines, potholes, and crumbling chocks are not only an eyesore, but can also be a safety hazard as well. To ensure customers can park their cars with ease and navigate the car park without any confusion, regular maintenance is crucial.
Clear parking lot striping will not only help visitors navigate easily, but well-planned spacing can also help maximize a small area, squeezing in extra spots for cars so that you don't unintentionally lose business. Most car parks are also required by local regulations to meet certain codes which include a specific number of designated handicap spaces for disabled individuals (how many will depend on the location and size of the area). These will require an extra wide border to be clearly marked, allowing for room to remove wheelchairs or other necessary mobility devices. Codes may also require specific stenciling and marked fire lanes.
If the area is jointly operated by several businesses, it can be helpful to designate specific spots directly in front of doors exclusively to one shop. This is particularly useful for quick-stop stores located next to businesses with longer transactions such as restaurants or movie theaters. Keeping a few spaces free and marked for fifteen minutes or less is another way to keep traffic flowing, turning away fewer customers during peak periods. Spaces can be stencil-painted and bordered in a different color to distinguish it from others.
Proper parking lot striping is also a valuable safety tool that can help you cut back on collisions, slip and falls, or other potential hazards. In addition to keeping the paint fresh and direction arrows clear to improve traffic flow, consider re-paving the entire car park if it is extremely damaged. Large holes and cracks can not only damage vehicles, but people can fall and hurt themselves. And if it happened on your property, you may have a lawsuit on your hands. Smashed chocks are another common problem that is often overlooked. Chocks are the bumpers located between spaces or in front of sidewalks to prevent vehicles from moving too far. Over time, the constant stress from car bumps, or even just a single hard hit can result in them cracking and shifting. The rubble left behind can be dangerous to pedestrians and cyclists.
Parking lot striping professionals generally offer several other benefits in addition to their painting skills. Included in their services are often a cleaning of the area using power washing to lift and blast away long-standing grime, a basic warranty covering unexpected fading or stains for the first few months or longer, and help re-planning the area if needed. Most paints are fast-drying, so you won't have to worry about closing off the area for long. Always choose a company that is licensed, experienced, and fully insured so that you will receive quality work that you can depend on. For information about their services, go to www.articlesrx.com [http://www.articlesrx.com].
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Sealcoating
Sealcoating provides versatility, rapid usability, and aesthetic value while correcting minor deficiencies in the pavement surface and preventing further deterioration.
Call Vaca Vet Striping at 707-592-8331. https://vacavetstriping.com/sealcoating/
Most drivers and pedestrians have encountered one or more types of speed bumps. There are several different types, each with its own specific purpose when it comes to traffic and parking lot management.
Street speed bumps, known as traffic calming features are designed to cause drivers to slow down significantly in order to go over them safely. Placed across the entire roadway, with a space on either side for drainage, the raised road surface is a bump in the road with heights typically ranging between three and four inches. The depth of the bumps are typically less than one foot. The bumps serve as a reminder to drivers to watch their speed and making it impossible to drive too fast through the areas in which traffic calming features have been placed.
Commercial speed bumps on streets and in parking lots tend to be larger and made of high impact materials, such as concrete or asphalt. They can have stripes or the entire surface painted in embedded reflective tape or highly visible paint colors, such as yellow or orange.
In residential areas, this type of traffic calming feature is used to reduce the rate at which the motor vehicle travels in high traffic or areas that have had racing or other traffic related problems. These bumps are typically smaller in size and are made of lower impact materials, such as recycled plastic or rubber. They may also be painted orange or yellow or embedded with reflective tape for easy visibility, day or night.
Speed humps are used for the same purpose as speed bumps, but they are designed to be driven over at rates of travel of up to twenty miles per hour without having to stop or slow down. This type of traffic calming feature is wider than the typical bump in that they are typically ten to fourteen feet in-depth. Unlike the smaller traffic calming devices, which are intended to make drives stop abruptly, speed humps are designed to encourage a gradual stop and to remind drivers to maintain the speed limit. Speed humps can be used for different traffic and parking situations; however, they are primarily used in residential areas.
Poorly designed raised road features can be hard to negotiate in vehicles with low clearance even at slow speeds. These traffic calming devices can also pose a hazard to motorcycles, bicyclists, and even pedestrians if not visibly marked. In some cases, the speed bump will be designed so that a break in the bump in the middle of the road allows two-wheel vehicles to pass without having to pass over the bump.
Controlling vehicle speed with a speed bump or speed hump is the most effective method to improve the safety of a parking lot, driveway or private lane. High visibility speed bumps and signs are the best way to communicate to drivers to keep their speed to a minimum.
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Maureen McHale is a marketing consultant specializing in SEO and content management.
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Paving
Paving is described by Wikipedia as 'a stone or tile structure, the paving, which can serve as a floor or external feature... can be made of flagstones which are used for things like paving gardens.
History
Paving has been used for thousands of years. In fact, some roads and paths built by the Romans with tightly fitting pavers over a base aggregate, two thousand years ago still form the base for modern roads in parts of Europe. If nothing else, this tells us that they're durable!
Today
Whilst we spend a lot of time and money on being creative on the inside of our houses, it won't have the same impact if we neglect the exterior.
The outside of the house is what people see first. The idea that 'first impressions count' is a valid one. If your property has not been maintained and/or improved on the outside via considered landscaping, then it will detract from all your efforts on the inside. People will have that negative first impression which will be hard to overcome.
Likewise, people spend a lot of time in their yards, children are encouraged to get outside and do something physical rather than sitting in front of the PC. You're more likely to enjoy spending time outside or entertaining, if the backyard looks good.
Paved Areas
A big part of any landscaping or improvement is paving, be it a paved driveway, a paved edging to an existing driveway, a paved path, edging along garden beds, or a paved patio.
We have found that a lot of people are finding that maintaining a large lawn area is, not only time consuming, but more difficult with water restrictions. One way of cutting down on their lawn area is to have a paving feature which adds a bit of character to the yard as well as reducing the time and work involved in upkeep.
By utilizing one of a range of paving styles, you are able to create a unique paved area that will lift your yard. Your landscape advisor should be able to show you a range of styles from which to choose and suggest what would work best for what you are hoping to achieve.
Questions to Ask
Before beginning any paving project you need to answer a few questions, whether it be a paved driveway, a driveway border, a paving path, garden edging, a paved patio or bbq area. How big is the area to be paved? What colour scheme are you after? What is the existing surface and how will you need to prepare it for the paving? Do you need to allow for water run off? What about weed control? These are all important questions which need to be answered. Your paving professional will be able to help you answer these and other more technical questions.
Paving versus Concrete
If comparing pavers to concrete, consider that concrete can crack, breakup and stain, becoming unsightly and lowering the value of your home. Pavers, on the other hand, have a greater weight distribution and, should they ever crack or become stained, are so much easier to replace, with minimum cost to you.
Landscape Melbourne
Ultimately, to balance a quality product and service at a competitive price, your best option is to obtain a high standard of design by hiring a contractor. A side benefit of using a paving professional such as Landscape Melbourne, is that they will usually get a trade discount on the pavers which they pass on to you. This allows you to get a high quality finish with the expertise to know that the job is down well - a great scenario if you're too busy or don't feel confident in doing the job yourself.
Nic Tashkoff is Senior Landscape Designer and Landscaping Project Manager and Consultant at:
[http://www.landscapemelbourne.com]
Your Melbourne Landscaping Solution for all budgets.
If you'd like to learn more about paving designs, paving types, layout, or receive some assistance prior to commencing your paving project, please email Nic Tashkoff at [http://www.landscapemelbourne.com/contact.html]. The friendly and knowledgeable staff at Landscape Melbourne will be happy to assist you with advice or a free quote.
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The use of asphalt is very old, dating back to its use as a water stop between brick walls of a reservoir at Mohenjo-Daro (about the 3rd millennium BC) in Pakistan. In the Middle East it was extensively used for paving roads and sealing waterworks, important applications even today. The Pitch Lake on the island of Trinidad was the first large commercial source, but natural sources have since declined in importance as petroleum became the major source. Gilsonite, wurzilite, and similar vein asphalts have special uses in heat-resistant enamels; they are hard and are mined like coal. Petroleum asphalt is produced in all consistencies from light road oils to heavy, high-viscosity industrial types.
More From Britannica
Why Are Roads Made of Asphalt?
Asphalt softens when heated and is elastic under certain conditions. The mechanical properties of asphalt are of little significance except when it is used as a binder or adhesive. The principal application of asphalt is in road surfacing, which may be done in a variety of ways. Light oil “dust layer” treatments may be built up by repetition to form a hard surface, or a granular aggregate may be added to an asphalt coat, or earth materials from the road surface itself may be mixed with the asphalt.
Other important applications include canal and reservoir linings, dam facings, and other harbour and sea works; asphalt so used may be a thin, sprayed membrane, covered with earth for protection against weathering and mechanical damage, or thicker surfaces, often including riprap (crushed rock). Asphalt is also used for roofs, coatings, floor tilings, soundproofing, waterproofing, and other building-construction elements and in a number of industrial products, such as batteries. For certain applications an asphaltic emulsion is prepared, in which fine globules of asphalt are suspended in water. See also bitumen.
The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica
This article was most recently revised and updated by Adam Augustyn.