Small Business Owners: 3 Tips For Striping Your Parking Lot

If you are about to have your parking lot either repaved or resealed, you may want to consider having it striped afterwards. Sure, plenty of small businesses get by without any stripes on their parking lots, but stripes do make it easier for your customers to determine where to park, and they may reduce the risk of collisions in your lot — which can prevent a lot of headaches! Follow these tips for a better striping experience.

1. Hire a professional.

You might save a few dollars by buying a basic striping setup and attempting to stripe the parking lot yourself, but the process will take you so much time that it's probably not worth it. Striping services are more affordable than you might think. You can often find a company to stripe a small lot for $1,000 or less. They can be in and out in a day, and you don't have to spend a week running around town gathering equipment. The results will be better, too.

2. Make sure you adhere to ADA regulations.

You might figure you will just paint stripes to create three parking spaces — or however many fit in your little lot. Before you do so, make sure you look up the specific ADA guidelines for parking lots in your industry. You may be required to designate one of these spaces as a handicap spot. You might not be required to if all of the spaces are less than a certain distance from your building — but this varies by industry, so be sure you look up the guidelines that apply to you. 

3. Leave enough room for entering/exiting the lot.

When planning where you'll lay out the parking spaces, make sure you leave enough room to enter and exit the lot, even when cars are parked in the spaces. An easy way to test this is to draw chalk lines where you think your parking lot lines will go. Then, have a friend park a vehicle in one of the spaces. Make sure you can still get another car in and out with them parked there. Have your friend move their car to a different space, and try again. Adjust the placement of the chalk lines as needed.

With the tips above, you should have an easier time striping your small parking lot in a way that is long-lasting, durable, and effective for your needs. For more information, contact companies such as AccuLines.

About Me

Learning About Business Success

Hello, I am Jen. When I was in college, I used all of my electives to study the world of business. I wanted to learn how small companies grew into big corporations in just a few short years. I also wanted to learn about the factors that caused a business to fail in the same amount of time. I took the time to learn about the details to avoid thinking that these situations were caused by luck alone. I will use this site to discuss every aspect of the business world from negotiating contractors to hiring employees. Thank you for visiting.