Parking Lot Striping;
When I’m asked; How do you stripe straight”?…my favorite (2) answers are: Satellite and Pure Unadulterated Talent. ( Those are both meant to garner a smile. ) The answer is; no one can. You cannot walk straight, neither can I. We use (2) methods. We either “snap a chalk line” or “long rope”. In my book; How I Stripe a Parking Lot, I talk at length on how to perform both methods. And…on another post, I explain the Long Rope. This post is about “the near art” of snapping a chalk line. The chalk line is a thin, all cotton line. We drag a soft piece of chalk along the line. The chalk builds on the line. We then pull it tight and lay it on the ground. ( Pull it tight, or is it; tightly? ) Then, we pluck it like a guitar string. Reach out, along the rope, pull straight up, just a few inches and let it go. It “snaps’ on the ground, the chalk falls off…there’s your line. If it looks like a banana…you didn’t pull tight enough or you plucked it at an angle. Paint right beside that snapped chalk line. No, we don’t use the “fill it up box and replenish the powdered chalk often” method. ( We also use that piece of chalk to mark the ground. It therefore serves (2) purposes. ) Again…I don’t use or need the “chalk type box” or…the powdered chalk. Anyhow…that’s how we stripe straight. We snap a chalk line. The other method; The Long Rope, is on another post. I hope I helped. Let me know.
Thanks.
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