Graffiti Removal Is A Big Business In California

SANTA ANA, Calif. - The battle lines are drawn.

Just as taggers spread their names in spray-paint contests with rival vandals, businesses are fighting over turf in the competitive field of graffiti abatement.

"They're stepping over each other," said Jay Beswick, president of the Utah-based National Graffiti Information Network.

He estimates that the private and public sectors spend close to a billion dollars a year to remove graffiti.

From high-powered sprays that remove messy marks on trees to infrared devices that douse would-be taggers with water, entrepreneurs and companies are capitalizing on Southern California's anti-graffiti frenzy.

In Orange County, where businesses and cities are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to remove the sloppy scrawls, companies are trying to outbid each other for a piece of the growing market.

"Everyone is coming out of the woodwork," said Michael Sullivan, who described his company, Graffiti Removal Inc. of Commerce, as the only one in Southern California that focused on graffiti removal when it began 18 years ago.

Now, the company, whose clients include the city of Anaheim, banks and shopping centers, is getting crowded out by competitors.

Among other large contractors is Graffiti Prevention Systems of Los Angeles, which offers insurance contracts for banks, shopping centers and cities statewide.

Founded in 1987, the company assesses the risk of a building being hit using computer data that tracks patterns of vandalism.

For an average of $150 a month, GPS will place its crews at a customer's beck and call through a toll-free number. Mobile trucks are dispatched to each location to remove the graffiti, usually by the next day.

"It behooves us to remove graffiti with almost a fireman's passion for putting out fires," said owner Ernest Garrett.

Even companies that devote just a portion of their business to busting graffiti are finding demand on the rise.

Orange County Power Wash of Yorba Linda devoted only 5 percent of its business to water-blasting the work of vandals when it began steam-cleaning buildings and trucks 2 1/2 years ago. Graffiti removal now accounts for one-fifth of the company's jobs.

Competition also is keen among companies pitching anti-graffiti devices.

"I could spend 40 hours a week testing new products and sitting down with salesmen," said Larry Christian, maintenance manager for the city of Santa Ana, which expects to spend $1.2 million on graffiti removal in 1993-94.

About $300,000 of that will be contracted out to a private company.

"Hopefully there's somebody out there who has been sitting on a secret that will make it a lot easier and more inexpensive to protect buildings," said Richard La Rochelle, code-enforcement supervisor for Anaheim, which plans to spend about $131,000 this year on graffiti removal.

Beswick, of the National Graffiti Information Network, estimates that 500 anti-graffiti products are being sold nationwide, most of them varieties of the same concept.

"None of them are making a killing, but there's a lot of products," he said.

Among the more unusual is a system of infrared sensors that can detect motion as far away as 40 feet. It triggers a sprinkler that wets the wall and the would-be vandal.

"It deals with the problem before it even gets to the wall," said Arnie Boyle, a Costa Mesa entrepreneur who is pitching his Graffiti Defense Systems throughout Southern California.

He estimates the cost at $400 to $500 to install the device along a 20-foot section. He hopes to market the same unit for home use for under $200.

Even recycling companies are primed to reap the rewards.

State transportation officials will test an easy-wipe sound wall made of recycled plastic and used tires along a 50-yard freeway stretch.

More commonly used to counteract vandals are coatings that act as a protective seal easily removed with water.

Dow Chemical, for example, is negotiating to market a water-based, non-stick coating to protect building exteriors.

Spray paints do not stick to these coatings.

Graffiti Removal Inc. makes its own coating, Graffiti Shield, and a product called Graffiti Softener 622, a chemical geared for smoother removal that officials plan to market nationwide.

Ameron Corp. of Pasadena, a manufacturer of construction products and coatings, began making its industrial-strength Amershield anti-graffiti coating and Amerase chemical cleanser six years ago. The product is sold to contractors, industrial firms and supermarkets.

"Being in Southern California, we readily recognized there's a market here," said John Woods, director of marketing.

Also popular are water or air-powered pressure washers that use sand or baking-soda crystals to blast scrawls off walls.

Water blasters are the anti-graffiti ammunition of choice for Petrusse-Norris Painting Co. Inc. of Fullerton. The 10-year-old company began graffiti abatement last year and recently won a $35,000 contract from the state Department of Transportation to remove graffiti from freeways in Orange County.

Petrusse-Norris officials consider the contract a coup because they were bidding against 10 other companies.

"It's very competitive," sales manager Michael Sweet said. "But there's enough work out there for everybody."

He paused.

"Too bad there is."