Brick & Mortar Vs Online Businesses: My Experience

3 Things Every Store Owner Needs To Know About Repairing Antique Glass After Graffiti

5 June 2016 by Roy Morris

Seeing that your store has been vandalized on any level is never a welcome site, but if your business building boasts vintage, hard-to-find features like antique glass, seeing spray paint blasted on the exterior is even more disheartening. While removing spray paint from traditional glass would just mean calling up any old glass repair shop for help, glass that is many years old cannot withstand the same cleaning processes and may even be damaged by the paint itself. There are a few things you should keep in mind as a business owner who has graffiti markings on the antique glass of your building. 

The faster you can get someone to take care of your painted vintage glass, the better. 

The chemical compounds in spray paint can eat away at the surface of vintage glass a lot faster than with modern glass panels. Once the paint is removed, you may be left with scars that hinder the clarity of the glass and even tiny fissures that are extremely hard to repair. Therefore, as soon as you discover graffiti markings on the vintage glass of your business, it is imperative that you try to wipe away any paint that you can and get in touch with a vintage glass repair professional as quickly as possible. 

Do not try to scrape paint away with a razor on vintage glass. 

It is not at all uncommon for vintage glass to have a slight haze or opaque appearance that results from the chemical treatment process that was used to give the glass a finished look when it was created. By taking to the glass with a razor blade to try and remove spray paint, you could also scratch away this finish, which will leave the glass looking like it has obvious scratches. If you cannot wipe the paint away with a coarse, dry cloth, it is best to leave it as it is until a professional arrives to help. 

If glass panels must be replaced, you will have to find a specialty glass shop. 

Modern techniques used to create glass are far different than the techniques used long ago. Because of this, regular glass shops have a hard time replicating the same appearance and texture of vintage glass. In order to get replacement panels for those glass pieces that are too badly damaged by graffiti, you will need to visit a glass shop that specializes in vintage glass. These experienced professionals create panels which look just the same as antique using many of the outdated processes other glass shops may know nothing about. 

For more information on glass repair or graffiti removal, check into companies like Guardian Glass.

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