We’ve painted a lot of parking lots in Calgary—parking lot striping is an important part of parking lot maintenance. We’ve painted lines, symbols for reserved parking lots, cross-hatching, and more—all this to say, we know our stuff.
In this article, we’ll pass our knowledge onto you—in this parking lot striping guide, we’ll give you the tools you need to prepare, measure, and paint your parking lot. We’ve got a simple four-step process we use for parking lot line striping—here it is!
1. Prepare To Paint the Parking Lot
We can divide preparing to paint the parking lot into two categories: Getting the necessary equipment and preparing the asphalt to be painted.
First, the necessary equipment. You can find both water-based paint and oil-based paint for asphalt. Here in Calgary, we recommend using oil paint for asphalt—it’s more durable, and with our harsh climate, durability is an absolute must.
Normally, you’ll want to use a line striping machine to ensure that all of the lines come out perfectly straight and at an even thickness. That’s where we come in—not everyone has a line striping machine. You can paint lines by hand using a paint roller, but we wouldn’t recommend it—it’s a much more time-consuming process, and the results look a lot less professional.
You’ll need other equipment, including:
- A measuring tape and chalk
- A pressure washer
- A broom
- A leaf blower
- Personal protective equipment (gloves, a mask, etc.)
- A straightedge
- A parking lot protractor (optional)
- Asphalt sealant (optional)
- Asphalt emulsion (optional)
- Traffic cones
Before you start painting, you’ll need to prepare the surface of the parking lot. Use a pressure washer to get rid of any serious blemishes. You’ll use your leaf blower and rake to move any debris, clean out any cracks or potholes in the asphalt, then fill the cracks and potholes with asphalt sealant or emulsion (depending on the nature of the crack).
As you can see, line striping is incredibly involved—you need to know about asphalt repair, and you need a lot of specialized equipment. That’s why we always recommend calling a professional for parking lot line painting.
2. Measure Out the Lot
Hopefully, you have an idea of where you want your parking spots. Standard parking spaces should be 18 feet long by 9 feet wide. You should pace a 24-foot-long driving lane between rows of parking spaces.
This is where measuring tapes, straight edges, and parking lot protractors (for angled parking spaces) come in handy. We’d also recommend you read Calgary’s access design standards to ensure that your accessible parking spaces are properly placed.
Using a straightedge and chalk, mark off all of the lines you’ll be painting; once you’re done, you can start painting lines!
3. Begin Painting the Parking Lot Lines
Now that you’ve got everything measured out, you can start painting lines. We highly recommend using a line striping machine—they’ll give you much better results, improving accuracy and curb appeal. There are even line striping machines equipped with lasers to give you pinpoint accuracy.
As we mentioned before, however, most people don’t have line striping machines. You can always opt to use paint rollers, but lines might come out uneven and unsightly—use this method at your own peril.
4. Allow the Paint To Dry
Place traffic cones and other barriers to stop traffic from travelling over your newly painted lines. The paint will take some time to dry—oil-based asphalt paints generally take 24-48 hours to dry.
At this point, it’s important to mention that parking lots should only be painted in ideal weather conditions—no rain, no snow, not too hot, not too cold. Springtime is generally a good bet—pick a day when the temperature is hovering between about 10°C and 30°C. Opt to paint in the morning on a day with low humidity and no precipitation.
Once all of the lines are painted and dried, you’re ready to reopen your parking lot to traffic! Remember that painting lines isn’t the only thing you’ll need to do—accessible spaces, cross-hatching, and other symbols are essential to most parking lots.
Take all of the legwork—and the guesswork—out of parking lot painting. Call Infinity Paving—we’ll paint lines, symbols, and more for you.
Brent Schuldhaus is the founder and president of Infinity Asphalt. He grew up in Calgary, Alberta, played junior hockey for three years, graduated from the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University in Ontario with a Bachelor of Commerce and went on to found Infinity Asphalt in 2019.
