airfield white lines - is there a quick way ?

I have crazily agreed to paint some 50m or so of white lines outside an airfield hangar to help with manouvering of aircraft.

The obvious way is to paint them but having done this before for some reason it seems to take ten times longer than one imagines when you include the marking up.

As I wont be doing this until the spring time, I have some time to plan the job.

However I'm just wondering if there is a much smarter way of doing this task that better people than me know about. ....Something like a tape that could be unrolled and then melted onto the surface with a hot-air gun.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Gerry

You aquire a groundsmans pitch marking machine.

Edited By Dave Halford on 08/01/2021 16:34:49

You don't say what method you have been using?

I've done it with the spray machines that use the cans and you can also buy line marking tape. Really depends on how heavy duty you need it as these may not stand upto heavy use.

You can get thermoplastic tape that needs heating to fix with something like a roofers torch

Perhaps you can get inspiration from someone who paints road markings for a living.

Roadliners

I’ve painted lines on what remains of the old Croydon airport using spray paint and a white line device from a hire shop. It was quite easy (I was following worn lines), I didn’t get much on my shoes! It was fine for what we wanted but only lasted for a few years and soon got weathered.

As above, most hire shops have them. Any colour paint you want is available. Probably Screwfix will sell the paint & the trolley too. Just checked & they have the paint spray at £4.99 a can. Not sure about the trolley.

Steve.

Edited By Steviegtr on 08/01/2021 17:40:14

Not a serious option for 50m of lines, but definitely the lazy man's option.

Brian G

Edited By Brian G on 08/01/2021 18:14:56

Edited By Brian G on 08/01/2021 18:15:37

You can get two and four wheeled line markers that hold an inverted can of marking paint, and spray between two masking discs to get the line width as you walk. The four wheeled version is more stable, keeps the can at the same angle, and will stand on it's own when you stop.

Hope this is helpful.

I watched a man re-marking parking bays outside a Little Chef restaurant (ah! the good old days) with thermoplastic tape and a torch. It looked fine for the first year or so, then started to crack off and break up. It may not be a good long term solution. The tape is quite thick and very smooth, which might be an issue depending what else the area is used for, and it might retain puddles of rainwater.

George B.