A better removal chemical

[REHAB]

I have tried several products to remove graffiti over the past 18 years, but would say that I have only found a few products of all those tested that actually work as claimed, and some, even better than that.

I have tried taginator, but it has a few hazards that aren't well publicized, and has been banned in areas and use situations where the hazards were exposed. Besides, it is an obnoxious product containg potassium hydroxide, which is a more reactive form of lye.

there have been others, but to the point:

one of the best removal products I have ever used is Elephant Snot. It has some use hazards like other products, but seem to be less of a problem. The main product is actually two products- one is the elephant snot gel, and the other is a lighter solvent named shadow max.

Elephant Snot:
a gel that is easily applied. I use a 9-inch roller cover and a wire grid in the bucket. roll it on, and leave it for 15 minutes or so, even a day or two, and hit the tag with a 15 degree tip, hot (170 degree) or cold water. it neutralizes into a scum, sort of like alkali, and dries readily. One doesn't end up with much of a problem of toxic runoff, etc.

I know people that roll it on and come back the next day. it dries to a white coating but is still working on the tag, not the substrate. to re-wet the product, all that is needed is a light spray, seconds before removing the tag. While the substrate is wet, one may notice a shadow of the graffiti, but after the substrate fully dries, most times there is no visble shadow. the product can be re-applied on a wet surface, if additional treatment is needed at the time of washing.

What I do is pull up and roll the product over a tag, then drive on to the next and next, and next, so that 30 tags or more are under treatment while going back to working on the first tag powerwash removal.

The stuff is globby, and smells something like a forest latrine. PPE should include an impervious disposable cover suit (tyvek) with elastic cuffs, and a hood. Cotton gloves, a face shield, and a hat, and a few rags. care should be taken to wipe off snot from exposed skin as it works on that, eating a mostly painless (sometimes itchy) hole into the skin, which will heal up in about a week or so.

I would suggest that the worker eat a good meal before starting the job lineup, rather than take a break later, because it's better to clean up everything, throw away the trash and coveralls, wash the hair and face and hands with a decent shampoo, as well as rinse the worktruck of any snot residue.

There are some removal issues, but very minimal ones, and more like than not, regional. Elephant Snot can be used in very cold weather, or as in my case, hot weather up to 120 degrees, or on walls that heat up to 150 degrees.

There is another product that I also use, and that is shadow max, which is a thin liquid product that works well on utility boxes, many substrates and fences, and also removes zylene residues to make a remnant tag invisible. using that, I would suggest PVC or nitrile gloves.

I am not a salesman, nor have any business interest in this product or sales. Like I said before, it's a product that I have found very satisfactory, and doesn't mar the surface of block, brick, tile, grout, concrete, many plastics, enamelled or stainless boxes, steel or aluminum poles, and more.

It works well on plastic playground equipment as well.

as far as a i can tell, elephant snot is a synthetic version of the real thing.

As for neighborhood beautification, I am sure that you have encountered spots where some well-meaning person painted out graffiti using a splotch of latex paint. What's nice about elephant snot is that it will both remove the latex paint, as well as the underlying graffiti, so a person can restore natural beauty of stone, cinder block, concrete block, vinyl fencing, split face block, factory enamelled goods and garage doors, and lots more.

it sells out of Minnesota- about $300/5-gallons, sounds like a lot but the products covers a lot of sq ftg, and lasts a relatively long time