Ultra High Pressure Water (UHP) Road Marking Removal

Road Line Removal

A data sheet on our line marking removal services, a suitable summary for printing is available in PDF format, road marking removal datasheet

We specialise in using a low pressure sand jetting system. This page - Sand Jet line marking removal describes it in more detail but this 'damp' system captures line marking material, dirt and abrasive, preventing the health and safety risks associated with dry blasting, and with none of the toxic fumes and thick smoke of burning the material off. For speed, UHP water jet removal is probably the route forward

For Cost.. and for small jobs the Sand Jet wins.

Ultra High Pressure Water...

For Speed UHP is a winner - more or less eating a 20cm wide strip of thermoplastic at 'slow walking pace'. although it can be something of a blunt instrument - particularly as the workface can't be seen - and the 'cut' is typically 20cm wide. The sand jet on the other hand can remove one set of overlapping markings, and leave the other set intact. The disadvantage of the sand jet is that sand debris is spread over the area - and needs cleaning up - where as the UHP machine just leaves a little shredded thermoplastic.

So on a job like this - removal of a court in a Manchester school, this was an effective tool.

Road Markings

In this example, the double yellow lines have had to be remarked after the UHP machine has eaten the white marks.

Big Areas of Thermoplastic

The 60 m2 of thermoplastic here would have taken a week or more to remove with the sand jet, it took less than a day with UHP - it was the result of a line marking plan for a waste recycling site in Yorkshire being drawn up by Italians as a direct copy of a site in Italy - without recognising that all the vehicles would be driving on the other side of the road! With this quantity of shredded thermoplastic a roadsweeper was necessary after the cleaning.

More Road Markings

White lines being removed from a road in Lincolnshire

What is critical to these jobs is a good water supply... the machine does have its own water tank - but that only lasts about 20minutes - so ideally the machine needs to be plugged in and constantly being topped up as the job progresses.