“Preserve” can be defined as to keep in good condition or to keep safe from harm; to prevent decay and maintain. Think about preserving or upkeeping your home’s exterior. Rather than tearing everything down and starting over, properly timed preservation techniques can help to keep your house looking like new and functioning properly and efficiently. Some of these techniques include painting or replacing the windows or the roof. Applying these treatments at the right time prevents costly repairs and even complete reconstruction.

Maintaining an asphalt pavement is like preserving your house. There are times you don’t have to do full reconstruction of the road or even mill off the surface of the pavement. There are treatments to extend the lifespan of the pavement, keeping it in good condition and safe for the driving public. Not only does this extend the life of the pavement, but it also benefits the bottom line. Roads are a capital investment. Maintaining them properly can save money and stretch a tight budget.

Simply stated, pavement preservation is applying the right treatment to the right place at the right time. An asphalt deterioration curve can help determine timing and treatment.

Surface preservation treatments are meant to delay the need for rehabilitation or milling of the structural asphalt. As the pavement moves from fair to poor condition, the treatments available to you must be more structural in nature. Figure 1 shows an asphalt deterioration curve with different treatments applied to the pavement as the condition deteriorates.

Pavement preservation treatments can be divided into four categories:

• Surface treatments
• Pre-treatments
• Recycling and reclamation
• Base treatments

Some common surface treatments are crack seal, rejuvenating fog seal, micro surfacing and thin lift HMA overlay. Let’s discuss those in some depth.

Crack Seal

Placement of material into existing cracks.

Crack filling is the placement of modified asphalt material into non-working cracks to prevent the infiltration of water and incompressible materials like gravel and sand. Routing and sawing is performed as needed to create a more uniform area for the filler allowing for better control and ensuring a proper seal to the existing pavement.

There are certain conditions that should exist for a pavement to be a good crack sealing candidate:

• New or recently rehabilitated surface
• Limited linear cracking
• Little or no secondary cracking
• Little or no raveling at crack face
• Good base support
• Limited structural deterioration

Cracks must be cleaned and dried prior to applying the filler or sealant. Having a dry road is even more important than the air or pavement temperature. It’s also important to keep the meter tank no less than ¾ full to maximize the effective melting point.

How to Crack Seal Right, Step By Step

Rejuvenating Fog Seal

Process of restoring chemical properties of the aged asphalt binder.

A rejuvenating fog seal or asphalt rejuvenation does not provide any structural improvement, rather it’s an emulsion that penetrates the top 3/8” of pavement restoring the aged asphalt binder. The effectiveness of the treatment is typically determined by the reduction of the binder viscosity. It is a “top of the curve” preventative maintenance and extends a typical pavement life by 3-5 years per treatment when applied at the right time.

Asphalt rejuvenation works by re-proportioning the aged fractions (asphaltenes) to the fluid portion (maltenes) of the asphalt binder. The maltene fraction gives the asphalt binder its flexibility. Asphaltenes effects the viscosity of the asphalt; as this fraction increases with age, the viscosity also increases making the pavement less pliable and prone to cracking. Thus, by restoring the maltene to asphaltene ratio like that of a new binder, the life of the pavement is extended. This process is not unlike a bowl of spaghetti (asphaltenes) with sauce (maltenes).

Over time the water in the sauce evaporates causing the sauce to dry out or age making it difficult to move or separate the spaghetti. Refreshing (rejuvenating) the sauce brings the bowl of pasta back to life, making it easier to separate the spaghetti noodles and move them around. Rejuvenation aims to restore the pavement’s flexibility and resistance to cracking.

MDOT, NCAT Show How to Place New Rejuvenating Fog Seal

Micro Surfacing

Surface treatment mixture of polymer-modified asphalt emulsion, mineral aggregate, water, and additives. The mixture is made and placed on a continuous basis by mixing the ingredients using specialized equipment.

The micro surfacing formulation is based on mix design parameters: resistance to raveling, lateral displacement and resistance to moisture damage. The emulsion plays a key part in micro surfacing. The wrong emulsion or an emulsion that doesn’t work well with the other components can cause issues such as long set times, durability, and delamination.

Remember that temperature, humidity, and wind conditions all affect emulsion break and cure times. If using a micro surface in combination with crack sealing, ensure crack sealing material is not excessive where it can be picked up by the paver tires and spreader box runners. Screen the material immediately prior to loading the mobile support unit so there is no possibility of contamination when re-handling the material. Treat vegetation with herbicide early to prevent it from returning after the project is completed.

Many agencies have reported ten years or more of service life when micro surfacing is installed on newer asphalt pavements in good condition. However, when used as a “band aid” or as a stop-gap measure on an asphalt pavement in marginal condition in order to delay rehabilitation/reconstruction, surface treatments including micro surfacing will have a shorter service life. Having the proper mix design for the micro surfacing is critical to ensure all materials work together. Some emulsion chemistries do not work with certain aggregate combinations, and some react poorly to excessive mineral filler.

How to Micro Surface

Thin Lift HMA Overlay

Applied thin layer (1.5 inches or less) of hot mix to the surface of the road.

Thin lift overlays can be used to extend the life of a pavement by sealing small cracks and providing a new riding surface. Overlays can be applied with or without milling, but the existing pavement must be in good condition since the overlay provides little additional structure. Thin lift overlays are available as conventional dense graded mix, open graded friction course (OGFC) and stone matrix asphalt (SMA).

Thin lift overlays improve ride quality and surface friction, correct surface defects, enhance appearance, seal the surface, and reduce splash and spray.

Regardless of the pavement preservation technique, quality control and quality assurance (QC/QA) are vital prior to, during, and after construction. Look at these three elements of the typical preservation project—the emulsion, the distributor truck, the aggregate.

Emulsion

• Certificate of Analysis (Manufacturer)
• QC Sampling and Testing
• Temperature

Distributor Truck

• Calibrate ➔ Quantity
• Proper Pressure, Spray and Coverage
• Speed

Aggregate

• Proper Certified Test Results
• Quality Control Results
• Mix Design

While the materials for HMA and pavement preservation treatments are the same (aggregates, liquid binder, emulsions), the equipment varies, and the material testing is different. In efforts to standardize the testing and material selection, the American Association of Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) created an emulsion task force (ETF) in 2008. Material standards, design standards and construction guides have since been developed, and in a 2012 passage from the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21^st Century (MAP-21), state DOTs could begin to use federal funds for pavement preservation.

This high level of confidence was only one benefit to the on-going AASHTO standardization efforts. Other benefits include educating the next generation of DOT staff and preservation crews and offering a consistent way to select materials, test and design. Constant collaboration and education will only further enhance the quality of the pavement preservation techniques, ultimately extending the life of our pavements.

Best Practices for Asphalt Overlays and Thin Lifts

The team at Asphalt Testing Solutions & Engineering LLC, Jacksonville, Florida, prepared this back-to-basics article for the AsphaltPro and PreservationPro audience.

Jason Gomez, owner of Ontario Parking Lot Services Ltd., Ontario, is the world’s best line striper. Or, at least that’s what his children, 6 and 9, have been telling their friends and teachers ever since Gomez won the line striping competition held at the National Pavement Expo (NPE) in January 2024 in Tampa.

Alongside the trade show and education sessions for which NPE is known, the 2024 show saw the start of a new tradition where attendees were invited to put their line striping skills to the test. The competition, sponsored by Graco and Pavement Stencil, saw more than 100 individuals use a Graco LineLazer ES 500 to stripe and stencil an American flag for a chance to win a Graco LineLazer of their own (first place) or a Graco ES 500 Stencil rig (second place).

“I decided to compete when I saw that the winner was going to win a Graco LineLazer ES 500, for one,” Gomez said, adding that he uses an identical machine on many of Ontario Parking Lot Services’ jobs. “I love those machines.”

His existing electric LineLazer striper has been handy since it runs on the same battery as all of Gomez’s DeWalt tools. “I have a whole bunch of those batteries, which is more than enough for a day of painting,” he said. “Because the machine is electric, it’s so quiet and there are no fumes, so it’s great to use indoors.”

The chance to win his favorite striper was certainly a motivating factor, but Gomez had a second reason, too: “The competition is just a fun idea.”

About Ontario Parking Lot Services

Gomez started Ontario Parking Lot Services in 2010. “I went to school to become an architect, but over time realized I didn’t enjoy it at all,” he said. “With architecture, you’re working at a desk all day and there’s a very long time scale to see the fruits of your labor.”

In his early 20s, Gomez approached his father, who owned a fairly large building maintenance and landscaping company and was performing some striping and sweeping for his customers, with a proposition. “I asked if I could spin off the parking lot services he was doing into a separate company.”

“With striping, I get to work outside most days and I can see the results of my efforts every single day,” Gomez said. With his father’s support, some equipment and a few dozen existing customers, Ontario Parking Lot Services was born.

“When I took over, [our book of work] was very small,” Gomez said. He began learning how to use Google Ads to get the business’s name out there. “It took some time to learn the hang of Google Ads, but once we did, it was a night-and-day difference for the business.”

Prior to advertising, he said it was rare to receive a call inquiring about the company’s services outside of referrals. “Then, all of a sudden, we were fielding several calls a day during the busy season, so it was a major turning point for us,” Gomez said.

“When I first started the business, I thought I wanted to grow the company into a very large operation because that’s what I saw my dad do with his business,” Gomez said. Then, a few years ago, Gomez had a change of heart. “I realized I enjoy the smaller size of the business, at least while my kids are still young. Summer weekends are busy, but I have the flexibility to make my own schedule and I get to spend a lot of time with my kids without being stressed out about work. This is really a job that affords me the type of life I want.”

How to Surface & Stripe a Pickleball Court

“Maybe I’ll grow the business into something larger when my kids are older and I’ll be looking for something else to fill my time, but for now, I enjoy the size of the business and the type of work we do,” Gomez said.

Since incorporating Ontario Parking Lot Services, Gomez has focused more on the striping side of the business rather than the cleaning. “With cleaning, there’s significantly more investment in equipment and labor, so it really comes down to the economics of it,” he said, estimating three quarters of the company’s work is striping.

Custom Quality

As a result of the decision to remain smaller, Gomez said Ontario Parking Lot Services has found an interesting niche that larger companies aren’t as well-equipped to handle: custom painted markings, such as company logos or playground games for local schools.

“With custom markings, there’s a lot more office work to get the design and stencils just right whereas the time spent painting isn’t very time consuming,” Gomez said, “so it’s not a very good niche for larger companies who have a lot of employees and need to keep multiple crews busy.”

Gomez estimates roughly half of the company’s line striping work is custom markings while the other half is parking lot striping. “The work that pays the bills is the line striping, but the work I most enjoy is the custom markings,” he said. “I like that there’s a way to be artistic when it comes to line striping.”

When local school districts in need of parking lot striping reach out to the company, Gomez sets up appointments with the principals to discuss not only their parking lot services but also to show them the types of games they’ve painted for other schools in the past, ranging from mini hockey rinks or soccer field striping to foursquare and hopscotch. One time, the company even painted a “floor is lava” obstacle course game.

“We talk about which games would be best for the space and the age of the kids,” Gomez said. “When I went to school, we just had a pole with a ball attached to it and a couple of basketball nets. It’s nice to do these colorful, artistic games for the kids. We paint them over the summer and when the kids come back in the fall, they have a bunch of new games to play.”

In fact, Gomez also painted several games for his own children’s school for free. Although he doesn’t usually get to see the children play with the games they paint, he’s enjoyed seeing his own children and their friends play the games he painted at their playground.

“This can sometimes be a thankless business,” Gomez said. “Few people outside of our industry care about the striping in the parking lot, or even notice it, but at schools there’s always so much fanfare for the work we do.”

Win It All

Gomez believes his experience with custom markings came in handy when competing in the line striping competition at NPE. “When you’re doing that custom work versus a large shopping center, the attention to detail required is much higher,” Gomez said. “For example, if you’re painting a company logo right at the entrance to the company headquarters, people are going to be paying a lot of attention to that.”

Secondly, Gomez said he was well-positioned to win the competition because he uses an identical machine on many of his jobs. “In fact, I used my [LineLazer] a few days before the competition to paint some custom markings in a warehouse, so I guess you could say I was already ‘warmed up.’”

It was actually because of a past NPE show that Gomez chose to invest in a LineLazer of his own. The 2024 show was his fourth time attending NPE. “I try to go every year or at least every other year,” he said, adding that it’s a great opportunity to catch up with industry friends and colleagues as well as to learn new information to take his business to the next level.

How to Stripe an Airfield

For example, utilizing the automatic layout feature on his striping machines. “I had a Graco machine with the automatic layout feature, but I never used that feature because I wasn’t familiar with how to do it,” Gomez said. Then he attended a class taught by Chad Jung about the use of technology in striping at NPE to learn how the automatic layout feature could make him more efficient.

The automatic layout feature allows users to set the width of each parking stall. Then, as they push the striper across the lot, it drops a dot of paint at the preset intervals. “All you have to do then is stripe at each dot and make sure each line is straight, which is easy to do because of the laser system,” Gomez said. “Seeing that technology in action at NPE was a real lightbulb moment for me. I’d probably still be out there with a tape measure without that show. That class alone and the skills it taught me have been enough to pay for the cost of attending NPE 100 times over at this point.”

“The people who teach the classes at NPE are out there doing this work day in and day out every summer, so they really know their stuff,” Gomez said. “The show is also just full of little hints that are invaluable that there’s no other way to easily learn besides trial and error, trial and error.”

Line Striping Super Bowl

Throughout the 2024 show, Gomez kept returning to the competition area to see how his striped-and-stenciled flag stacked up against the competition. “Before I competed, I watched a few others to see what types of mistakes and issues they were having,” he said. “Most were struggling with starting/stopping the stripes neatly, so I paid extra attention to that.”

“I just tried to do the nicest job I could possibly do,” Gomez said. It’s a level of effort and attention that he tries to bring with him to every job. “Sometimes, line striping can get tedious doing the same thing over and over. The way I keep it interesting is I’m always trying to make each line better than the last.”

“The technology on some of these new striping machines has made the learning curve to stripe well a bit easier, but at the end of the day, I think it still comes down to practice, having a steady hand and attention to detail,” Gomez said. “I also think I got lucky a bit, too.”

Luck aside, Gomez’s experience, steady hand and attention to detail paid off for him. At the end of the show, his flag took first place. “I’m still shocked I won,” Gomez said, adding that he’s very excited for his new Graco LineLazer ES 500. “I was probably going to buy another one this year anyway, so it was really nice to win one instead.”

Keathley Defines Striping Precision, Professionalism

Gomez said the second machine is going to come in handy throughout the 2024 season, not only for the company’s parking lot jobs but also its custom work. “These machines are great for our custom jobs where we aren’t running our machines constantly because of the intricacy of the stencil we’re painting,” he said. “Instead of having them run the whole time or pulling a cord to restart the machine every time, we can just pull the trigger when we’re ready to paint again.”

Having two electric machines will also make it easier for Gomez to offer more colors for his custom work. Last year the company offered 12 colors; this year, with the second machine available, Gomez plans to add orange and pink to the mix.

The machine was delivered to Gomez in Ontario three weeks after the show, once Gomez’s family had returned home from a post-show road trip around Florida. “When my family found out the show was in Florida this year, they jumped at the chance to go,” Gomez said. Although the trip was planned well in advance of Gomez’s victory, it’s only fitting that after winning “the Super Bowl of line striping” that Gomez and his family would end their trip at Disney World.

NPE 2025 will also take place in Tampa. If Gomez chooses to attend next year’s show, he’ll have a chance to defend the title his kids have given him as “the best line striper in the whole world.” “That’s probably been the best part of winning [the competition],” Gomez said. “I feel like a hero in their eyes.”

When Mike Keathley first opened Keathley Line Striping (KLS), LaVernia, Texas, three years ago, he used to mention to potential customers that everyone on his crew is deaf.

“We found that this kept losing us bids,” he said. “There is a stigma that comes with being deaf. People don’t understand what we can do and therefore become hesitant to allow us to submit a bid.”

KLS is a 100 percent deaf-owned and employed company. After facing this early discrimination, Keathley no longer mentions this to prospective clients.

“When customers call us, they are not asking us for a medical history,” he said. “They are asking us to perform a job so there is no reason to share that we are deaf. When we show up on a job site, whether we’re doing an estimate, a walk-through or performing the job requested, we find that people are blown away. They can see we are professionals and leaders in our industry.”

A Culturally Deaf Crew

KLS has a crew of three and additional part-time staff as needed. Every member of the crew is culturally deaf, including Keathley. A person is culturally deaf if he or she has always been in a predominantly deaf environment. In Keathley’s case, he attended a deaf school, his children are deaf and most of his friends are deaf.

“I live in a world of sign language and closed captioning,” Keathley said. “The only time I interact with hearing people is when I go shopping or go to work.”

Although Keathley’s whole team is deaf, he doesn’t hire based on disability status. “I hire them because I know what they are capable of,” he said. “As a result, I am blessed to be able to provide an equal footing for a disenfranchised group of people.”

Having a deaf team also improves communication on the crew, which uses American Sign Language as its primary language. Furthermore, Keathley said he and his crew have a strong desire to prove its work ethic and overcome discrimination.

“We always bust our butts and want to make our customers happy with our work,” he said. “Nobody has anything to fear by hiring deaf employees.”

However, KLS still regularly faces discrimination as a deaf-owned and operated business.

Recently, the company was awarded some work by a major industry player. While performing the work, a store manager became upset when the crew asked him to either remove his mask, so the crew could read his lips, or to write down what he was saying.

“He got very agitated that we could not understand him and kept yelling at us,” Keathley said. “I kept telling him we are deaf and that we can’t tell what he’s saying, but he became so agitated by this that I could do nothing but walk away and continue to finish our work.”

Although the team finished the job and the customer was happy with the results, Keathley was shocked by their lack of understanding when it comes to communicating with deaf people. “What if another customer refuses to proactively communicate with me or my team?” he said. Although his company appreciated the work, it put Keathley in a difficult situation. “We cannot allow them to hold our disability against us as a condition of employment, so we chose to let them go as a customer.”

In another instance, a store manager insisted that Keathley’s team needed to have a hearing person on site while striping the facility. Keathley himself arrived on the job shortly after the manager’s request.

“When I introduced myself as the deaf owner of the company, the manager’s eyes got so big and he got so flustered,” Keathley recalls, but the manager remained adamant that they needed to have a hearing person on site. “He felt we needed to be supervised; he just didn’t know what deaf people can do.”

The crew packed up and left, but Keathley didn’t quit. He reached out to the property owner who hired his company for the job, who was furious at the manager’s behavior. “The property owner had us return to complete the job and happily paid us for the extra time.”

“We know most people don’t maliciously discriminate,” Keathley said, “but people do discriminate and that nonsense needs to stop.”

Although the company battles audism from time to time, Keathley is heartened that many of his customers find their story uplifting and inspiring. “We actually get a ton of work from it.”

Safety Without Sound

Keathley reiterates that his company adheres to all OSHA rules and federal, state, county and city laws. He has generally modeled KLS to avoid work situations that would require him to obtain an exemption based on his crew’s disability. However, he knows how to handle these situations when they arise. For example, there is a hearing test required to obtain a Department of Transportation medical card, for which KLS was able to request an exemption from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) since they are protected by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

The Rehabilitation Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs conducted by federal agencies, in programs receiving federal financial assistance, in federal employment, and in the employment practices of federal contractors.

“Safety is paramount when working in active roadways and parking lots,” Keathley said, regardless of circumstances. KLS has invested in approximately 24 LED safety warning lights on its truck and enclosed trailer, and four on its line drivers, in addition to wearing bright colored reflective safety uniforms. However, Keathley recognizes that there are only so many safety products one can implement.

“We also run a crew that’s usually one man larger than the average striping crew so we have an extra set of eyes on our job sites,” he said. “We keep our heads on a swivel and we look out for each other.”

He’s also found this approach a bit easier because roughly 80 percent of KLS’s work is parking lots. Fifteen percent are unique jobs such as helipads, basketball courts, playgrounds, athletic fields, etc. Only 5 percent are roadways. “We’re not a long line striping company, so public roads aren’t a big part of what we do, but that could always change in the future as we grow,” Keathley said.

KLS exclusively uses Graco LineLazers and LineDrivers to perform its work. “They’re top of the line,” Keathley said. “We also enhance our stripers with the latest gadgets in order to help us perform our work in an efficient manner.” For example, its stripers are equipped with gun raisers to raise and lower the paint guns without getting off the machine. “I firmly believe we remain safer by keeping our butts in our seats, instead of getting off and fiddling around with our machines in an open parking lot,” Keathley said.

A Self-Taught Striper

Before launching KLS, Keathley had been performing repair work for friends of his mother and sign language interpreters. When his mother passed away, Keathley struggled to find new work and began exploring the commercial market. However, he faced regular discrimination and rejection.

“On my last bid to a general contractor, I was basically told we had the job,” he said. “When I went to discuss the work with him, he ran me off and said he couldn’t be responsible for me. I was crushed. I had a kid on the way and no money. I walked out of that building destroyed.”

He sat down on a bench right out front and stared into the parking lot nearly in tears. “Then it hit me,” he said. He noticed that the parking lot in front of him needed striping, so he went home, looked up property tax records and mailed the property owner a letter. Soon, he got the job. “I had effectively eliminated the middle man and there was no need for anyone to feel like they had to be ‘responsible’ for me.”

Although Keathley’s brother briefly striped parking lots many years ago, Keathley is a self-taught striper. But, as he learned, he noticed a lack of training resources.

“There isn’t much offered on how to learn to become a pavement markings specialist,” Keathley said. So, he began creating his own library of training videos that are useful to both deaf and hearing people. “The inability to hear is not the disability. It is the lack of access to language and information that is the real disability.”

The videos also improved his own performance. “I used to race motorcycles at the track and watching videos of our body position was critical to learning how to ride faster,” he said. “I applied that same logic to line striping.”

He would tape cameras to his striper and watch the videos over and over, improving each time. “Before I knew it, the videos started being shared and now people often turn to me for advice on how to line stripe.”

Mr. Fix-It

In the summer of 2020, Keathley received a call from a paving company KLS often works with, who asked Keathley to correct a striping project at a 5A high school in Texas that had been performed by another striping company. When Keathley showed up on the job, the prior subcontractor had done such a poor job that the paving company had to sealcoat the lot so KLS could start from square one.

The school had been facing a unique problem. It had a rich football tradition, as well as a competitive marching band. The football team held practice after school on the football field, but the band also needed the field to practice their formations.

The football field was right next to a large parking lot, onto which KLS striped a football field layout. “By day, it was a parking lot for students,” Keathley said. “By night, it was a practice field for the marching band.” It was a job that was easily fumbled by crews lacking KLS’s attention to detail.

The job required a lot of thought and planning among Keathley, the school’s grounds keeper and its athletic director. “The biggest obstacle was making sure the lot was up to code after merging the football field grid onto the parking stalls,” Keathley said.

To do so, the crew used yellow paint for the parking stalls and white for the football grid. The fact that the parking lot is used by the same students day after day, who are familiar with the lines, also helps. They also had to take care to ensure that the fire lanes were clear. In total, the job required 120 gallons of paint.

Furthermore, all of this had to be done within a week, before the start of the school year. After pulling through for the school under tight deadlines, KLS maintains an active working relationship with that school district to this day. “The customer was very happy with our work, and it has led to many other opportunities within that school district,” Keathley said.

Although people facing disabilities should not have to prove themselves any more so than others, Keathley has made the most of this circumstance and built a company known and respected for its performance and precision.

“We are professionals in every sense of the word,” Keathley said. “We know what we’re doing. All we ask is that people let us do our jobs.”

Pickleball is a rapidly growing sport. With the ability to retrofit pickleball lines on existing sport courts, it’s a simple service to up-sell recreation sites. Here’s how to surface and stripe a pickleball court.

There are more than 2.5 million pickleball players in the United States, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association. In fact, pickleball is one of the fastest growing sports in the country. According to the USA Pickleball Association (USAPA), the sport has seen a 650 percent increase in participants in the past six years, mostly among younger players.

The sport has been described as a combination of ping pong, racquetball and tennis, and requires players to use special paddles to hit a wiffle ball over a net in the center of the court. However, pickleball courts are much smaller than a tennis court (though, larger than a ping pong table!).

How to Pave a Tennis Court

The ability to retrofit pickleball lines on existing sport courts makes this a simple service when making that sale to residential managers upgrading recreational sites.

Here, AsphaltPro explains the best practices of how to surface and stripe a pickleball court with help from Jeff Gearheart, director of SportMaster Sport Surfaces, Sandusky, Ohio.

Plan Your Court

If you are constructing a pickleball court from start to finish, one of the first considerations will be the size and layout of the court.
Pickleball courts measure 44 feet long and 20 feet wide, including the court’s boundary lines. The USAPA Rule Book recommends a minimum total playing surface of 30 by 60 feet, though 34 by 64 feet is preferred. Anytime multiple courts will be in close proximity, fencing between the courts is important to protect players on other courts.

Just as with other sport courts, it is ideal to orient the court north-south to limit the sun obstructing players’ vision and the impact of shadows on the court surface.

Due to the relatively small size of pickleball courts, it’s possible to create more than one pickleball court within a tennis court or a basketball court.

This article does not set out to explain how to pave a pickleball court. For that, it’s ideal to follow the best practices of paving tennis courts or other sport courts, taking special care to ensure proper drainage.

For a more detailed overview of the pickleball construction process, check out “Pickleball Courts: A Construction & Maintenance Manual” from the American Sports Builders Association and the USAPA. The 108-page manual offers design, construction and maintenance instructions and is available at the USAPA store.

Prep & Clean

Gearheart first recommends checking the overall condition of the surface for any cracks, low spots or other deficiencies. Cracks should be sealed and low spots should be leveled before you proceed.

“Courts are normally built with a 1 percent slope for drainage, but water will collect in any bird baths,” Gearheart said. “Not only will the standing water break down the acrylic and pavement, but players will also have to wait longer before than can play after rain.”

One leveling option is SportMaster’s acrylic patch binder, which is an acrylic liquid mixed with Portland cement and sand. It can be poured in low spots and then scraped even with a screed or straight edge. Once it sets up, it can be sanded down as needed.

The pavement should also be clean and dry. If not, the coatings may not adhere properly. Gearheart recommends brooming, blowing or power washing the surface to ensure it is free of dirt and debris. “The best option is to power wash the surface, but if it is visibly clean, brooming or blowing should be enough,” he added. He also recommends trimming any grass that may be sticking over edge of the pavement.

It is also recommended to apply the coatings with ambient temperatures between 60 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit for best results.

A pickleball court is roughly 880 square feet.

Resurface & Cushion

The process of surfacing a pickleball court varies, and may include application of a resurfacing material and/or a cushioned material, in addition to paint for color and texture and line-striping the court boundaries. Some jobs, such as repurposing tennis courts for pickleball, may only require line-striping.

Once all pavement distresses have been repaired and the surface has been cleaned, Gearheart first recommends applying an acrylic resurfacer. “It won’t fill cracks, but it will fill any voids in the pavement and it will hide any repairs you’ve made,” he said. “And, most importantly, it sets a nice sandpapery texture that cushion and color can more easily adhere to.”

How to Pave a Sport Court: Practice Really Does Make Perfect

The acrylic resurfacer is particularly important for courts that intend to add a cushion layer. “Without the resurfacing acrylic, the rubber wants to pile up instead of grabbing onto the texture below,” Gearheart said, “and the rubber in the cushion product will fill the voids so the surface won’t feel as cushioned.”

A cushioned pickleball court is created by applying multiple layers of an acrylic with small rubber granules with a soft rubber squeegee. To ensure even application, Gearheart recommends pouring out the cushion product in relatively small amounts, to prevent piles of rubber at the end of the squeegee pull. After spreading the cushion acrylic, he also recommends being gentle while scraping any high spots.

Most public courts are hard courts, while private and tournament facilities tend to opt for cushioned courts. Gearhart said cushioned pickleball courts tend to be more common than other types of courts, due to their smaller size and the sport’s historical popularity with an older demographic.

Color the Court

Next comes the color coatings. USAPA recommends 100 percent acrylic paint for outdoor courts.

The color is typically applied with a minimum of two coats. “Pickleball courts are smaller and are often used for doubles,” Gearheart said, “so there’s more wear because the players are always scuffing the same little boxes. It may be worth adding an extra coat to extend the life of the surface.”

The type and amount of silica sand per gallon will be specified by the manufacturer. SportMaster’s acrylic resurfacer uses roughly 14 pounds of 50-60 mesh silica sand per gallon of concentrated resurfacer. Color coatings use a rounded and finer sand, roughly 70-90 mesh.

“Tennis facilities prefer a more angular sand because it’ll grab the ball and slow down play,” Gearheart said. “With pickleball, I’ve seen rounder sand so it doesn’t chew the balls up as much.”

Although tennis courts tend to be painted blue or green, the USAPA says pickleball courts can be painted any color as long as it contrasts with the lines of the court. “It seemed in the past that they may have been choosing different colors so they wouldn’t be eclipsed by tennis,” Gearheart said, “but now pickleball is a big sport in its own right.”

In hotter climates, Gearheart said lighter colors that are more solar reflective are more popular. “Light gray courts can be 40 degrees cooler than a black or dark green court.” Light courts can also help brighten up indoor courts.

“You also want to choose a color that contrasts from the color of the pickleballs,” Gearheart said. Pickleballs are most often yellow, orange or lime green. “Generally, colors opposite from each other improve contrast. For example, if the balls are yellow, paint the court blue.”

Striping a Pickleball Court

Pickleball courts measure 44 feet long and 20 feet wide and are divided into five main areas. See the diagram alongside this article for a visual representation of the dimensions.

Note that the total area of the court includes the boundary lines, so ensure the outer edge of the painted line conforms to the final court dimensions. All boundary lines should be two inches wide.

The USAPA recommends white lines for dedicated pickleball courts, but the most important thing is that the boundary lines are a contrasting color to the court’s surface color. If adding lines to multi-purpose courts, the association recommends lines in the same color family as the court itself. Take care to tape over multi-purpose courts’ existing lines, so they remain the predominant line, and leave a 3-inch gap where any lines intersect.

Straight application of the lines is important, not only for a professional-looking court but also to ensure fair play of the game. The most common application method for pickleball lines is to use a line taping machine and then apply paint with a brush or roller.

“Companies will occasionally use a line striping machine, but overspraying the tape is a common issue,” Gearheart said. Additionally, the traffic paints that can be used in striping machines are often thinner, which means they are more likely to bleed and offer less surface texture and less pigment, resulting in a shorter wear life.

When painting the lines with a brush or roller, Gearheart recommends using a textured white line paint so the lines are a similar texture to the playing surface.

Due to the surface texture, there will be small voids under the tape that paint may bleed into. For perfect lines, Gearheart recommends using a clear-drying anti-bleed primer after taping but before painting the lines. Once the primer is dry, paint the lines.

Allow the paint to dry 24 hours before use. Play on!

Efficiency. Dedication. Precision.

These are traits every top-notch athlete must have. They’re also the traits every paving crew laying sport courts must have. After all, no tennis player wants to play uphill, no basketball player wants to dribble through a puddle and no runner wants to trip on a seam in your mat.

Like succeeding at any sport, sport court paving perfection comes with practice. That’s exactly what makes Superior Surfacing Systems, Bloomingburg, New York, an expert: years and years of practice.

Although Superior performs all kinds of paving–and all kinds of construction, for that matter–sport courts are somewhat of a specialty for the company. Superior President Keith Reardon estimates that the company’s project manager, Kevin Murphy, has paved around countless sport courts in his 35 years in the industry.

Located near the popular mid-20th-century resort area of the Catskills, Superior is also in somewhat of a unique situation.

“So many of those hotels, resorts and camps had tennis courts and basketball courts,” Reardon said. Kevin was involved in many of them.

“We have the expertise within our personnel, it’s a part of our history and it’s a profitable market because it isn’t easy and not everyone can do it,” Reardon said. “Most paving contractors advertise that they do tennis courts, but that’s usually not the case–at least with any great success. Experience paving sport courts is critical.”

You’re Only As Good As Your Last Game

Most recently, the Superior crew paved some basketball courts at Sullivan County Community College. The courts were part of a much larger project–nearly all of which was performed by Superior crews–including removing old courts, prepping the site, performing fencing and more.

The $380,000 project began in July of this year and wrapped up in September. The main paving portion of the project involved replacing Sullivan’s tennis facilities with two full-size regulation collegiate basketball courts.

“These old courts were built in the early ’70s and had structural problems from the start,” said Sullivan Athletic Director Chris DePew. “Over time they were used less and less until the mid-’80s when they were completely abandoned.”

In total, the area included two tennis courts, one handball court and a basketball court, near Lazarus Levine Residence Hall, which was built in 2003.

“Since the residence hall was so close, we wanted to find a way to fix them up and make it a usable facility for our students,” DePew said. In 2015, the SUNY Sullivan Athletic Department received a $1 million private donation so they set to work.

Despite housing existing courts and requiring slightly less site work than a brand new installation might require, the courts were overgrown, neglected and located in a swampy, wet area of campus.

“That really held us up because we had to go grade and reshape the area so water would stop accumulating and it would dry up so we could get to work,” Reardon said.

After grading, draining and drying the area, Superior’s crews placed some large graded aggregate to help stabilize the soft ground. Then they put in 12 inches of crushed stone subbase, followed by 2 inches of dense binder, 1.5 inches of type 7 top mix with 1/4-inch aggregate and four-coat acrylic color system installed by Copeland Coatings, Inc. of Nassau, New York.

Playing By The Rules

Although it may sound similar to many other paving applications, sport courts present a unique set of challenges.

Of course, one of the most significant special challenges is following the parameters set in place by sports associations.

According to Reardon, the caliber of competition plays a big role in the precision required.

“For example, if you were paving courts for the U.S. Open, where it’s an extremely competitive event and world class venue, it gets critical,” Reardon said. But, for most projects like community centers, residences and school courts, the rulebook is pretty standard, he adds.

“Once you establish what they are, you know those parameters,” Reardon said. You know the criteria, the size, and all other requirements. “And then it’s repetition.”

A very valuable resource for contractors looking to get into paving sport courts is the American Sports Builders Association. Coincidentally, Superior’s painting subscontractor’s project manager, Mike Edgerton, is the president of ASBA’s tennis division.

The association has four divisions (tennis, track, field, and courts and recreation), each of which has its own construction manuals available online at sportsbuilders.org/publications. Tennis guidelines would be available under the tennis division, but basketball–while similar in many ways–is housed under courts and recreation.

ASBA began in 1965 as the U.S. Tennis and Track Builders Association, but then expanded to include artificial turf fields, courts and recreational facilities. In 2004, it changed its name to ASBA. The Maryland-based association has more than 400 member companies across the country.

ASBA also certifies builders for various applications. For example, Edgarton–an ASBA member for around 25 years–is a certified tennis court builder.

“You have to pass a test and prove you have enough experience in the field over a certain number of years,” he said. You also have to keep up with the industry and re-certify every three years.

“I’d trust someone who paves tennis courts to pave a parking lot, but not vice versa,” Edgerton said. “A lot more goes into the design of the court than you’d think.”

For example, the court should have a 1 percent grade, “no more or a little less,” Edgerton said. “One inch every 10 feet is a good standard.”

But, he adds, it must be pitched in the same plane. For example, you wouldn’t want a court to slope down from the net on both sides.

“That’s just fine if all you care about is it shedding water, but the players will technically be playing uphill the whole time,” he said. “They’ll be serving uphill and the ball will be landing on a downhill slope.”

Pave a Sport Court with Precision

“When it comes to paving courts, there’s special care and precise equipment that goes into it,” Reardon said.

It requires checking once, twice and even three times. It should be checked with a laser and paved with equipment that can hold a precise grade. His own crew uses a Carlson CP-90 paver with automation and Hamm compaction equipment.

Reardon said having equipment equipped with electronics is integral. “You should have a joint matcher and grade controls on your machine, as well as a laser to shoot and check grades,” he said.

The binder course, in particular, is checked and double checked with a laser to give the crew a chance to level any imperfections before placing the surface course.

“You have to be on the high-end side of quality control,” Reardon said. “You have to turn out a really tight, dense, pretty project. Not many people do it very well.”

Beyond getting the grade and slope just right, Reardon said there is also a really high standard regarding segregation.

“You don’t want much stone in the top mix,” he adds.

Superior is often using the same mix on its sport courts as it does on most other projects.

Courts usually require 2 inches of binder, followed by 1.5 inches of 1/4-inch final mix and four coats of acrylic resurfacer and color.

A Sporting Good Challenge

Another unique challenge for many sport courts is access.

“When they’re initially built, they’re tucked into hillsides or on someone’s estate and there isn’t much thought about how crews will get back there to rebuild or repave that court,” Reardon said. “It’s not like a parking lot or a road that’s meant to be driven to/on.”

So, a lot of times, his crew has to build its own access point to the project. “We need to take out landscaping, put a temporary road through someone’s lawn or a park to get our equipment onto the court again, and then restore what we’ve disturbed once we’re done.”

For example, on a recent tennis court project at a private residence, Superior’s crew had to use lighter trucks than usual. So, when Reardon’s team is paving a new court, he tries to keep access in mind.

Another consideration for new courts? The sun.

“You don’t want to put courts east to west because it would be unplayable at sunrise and sunset,” Reardon said. You also don’t want much tree cover because the leaves on the court could collect mildew and create problems.

“We help customers pick out the best spot for the court,” Reardon said. “Sometimes the lay of the land dictates something that isn’t ideal, but we’ll always give our advice.”

Coat it in Team Colors

“One of the potential problems on finished sport courts is, when the painting crew comes, if the court doesn’t drain properly and there are bird baths, they have to do leveling with leveling compounds and that’s going to make it more expensive,” Reardon said.

That’s–yet another–reason to leave behind a high-quality mat.

In Reardon’s case, it’s also a matter of being a good neighbor. His painting subcontractor, Copeland Coatings, rents the office space next to Superior’s office.

“We used to color our own courts, but we decided it was too time consuming,” Reardon said. “There were too many trips back and forth, coating and curing, coating and curing. I’d rather use those personnel to be out paving somewhere.”

“When it comes to painting, my advice would be to subcontract it to a pro, because that’s the finished product, the icing on the cake,” he added. “That’s what everyone is going to see when they look at the court. You can construct a wonderful court underneath, but if the paint is streaky or there are other cosmetic issues, people will think you’ve done a bad job.”

Copeland Coatings manufactures and distributes acrylic paint throughout the northeast, but they also color running tracks, tennis courts, basketball courts and more. They’ve been making and using their own acrylic since the ’70s. “We coat everything, but we don’t build anything,” Edgerton–Copeland project manager and ASBA Tennis Division president–said.

After painting around 300 courts per year throughout the northeast, Edgerton knows a thing or two about proper acrylic application. His top recommendation?

“Have enough crew on hand for the job, because the paint dries really quickly,” he said. For example, if they’re painting one court, the crew may be only two guys, but two courts would require three.

“You have to make sure the stream of material stays at a consistent viscosity while you’re squeegeeing fast enough,” Edgerton said. “You also have to have enough material for the job so you don’t have to stop, which would leave marks.”

It’s also important to remember that the ambient temperature will affect the viscosity of the paint and the finished look of the job. “You also wouldn’t want to paint on days it might rain,” he adds.

Both Edgerton and Reardon have seen a trend towards more unique paint choices over the past few years.

“Years ago, it was either green or red, but now we see purple, gold, blue,” Reardon said. “There’s a lot more personalization with color palettes and logos.”

Edgerton estimates that around 70 percent of the tennis courts he paints these days are U.S. Open colors–blue and green–while basketball court colors run the gamut.

“We do a lot of logos these days that we paint with stencils,” Edgerton said. “It’s a nice little extra to make the court more unique or different.”

After the Game is Won

If the old maxim that you’re only as good as your last game is true, Superior Surfacing Systems just might deserve a trophy.

“Superior did an amazing job keeping the impact on campus to a minimum during construction,” DePew said. “The project will have a profound impact on the quality of life of our residential students living less than 50 yards away from the facility.”

Down the road, Superior will be converting the area near the new basketball court into a sand volleyball court, as well as paving new tennis courts for Sullivan.

Let’s just say sport courts will continue to be a winning part of Superior’s business strategy.

More than 25 years after the birth of the ADA, compliance with the law can still be confusing. Here’s how to stripe a lot that meets ADA requirements and local codes to keep your lots compliant and your customers out of the courthouse.

In 1990, Congress passed the Americans With Disabilities Act. Similar to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made discrimination based on race, religion, sex, national origin and other characteristics illegal, the ADA afforded people with disabilities protection from discrimination based on their disabilities.

Unlike the Civil Rights Act, the ADA also began requiring employers to provide reasonable accommodations to employees with disabilities and required all public accommodations to meet certain accessibility requirements.

Despite the law being more than 25 years old, there is still some confusion as to what is required and by whom. And it affects you, pavement contractors, who must make sure the lots you pave and stripe comply with the law.

ADA-Compliant Versus Code-Compliant

Oftentimes, people use the phrase “ADA-compliant” when what they really mean is building code compliant. The ADA’s accessibility requirements are a set of federal standards that must be met nationwide. But each state and even municipalities has the right to set requirements above and beyond the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design, the current guiding document. That means an ADA-compliant parking lot might still be out of local compliance and subject to complaints, fines and even lawsuits.

Some states, like California, have extensive additional requirements for accessible parking lots. Other states may have very few. For this reason, compliant accessible parking in Missouri might look nothing like compliant parking in New York or California.

For example, signage in Florida should read, “Parking By Disabled Permit Only,” but should say “Permit Parking Only—Tow Away Zone” in Georgia and “Handicapped Parking—Permit Required” in Pennsylvania. Many states prohibit the use of the word “handicapped” on signage entirely.

According to Julie Brinkhoff, project director at the Great Plains ADA Center, the best option for contractors looking to fulfill state and local requirements is to check your state’s building code and ask local code enforcement officials. But some states may not have a state building code. For example, Missouri outlines its additional requirements in the state parking code.

Another option is to call your local pavement marking distributor. For example, Titan Tool, based in Plymouth, Minnesota, provides select ADA-compliant stencils through pavement marking distributors, according to Tom Heine, Titan markings division sales manager. He also recommends thoroughly investigating your state’s accessibility specifications.

“This will increase your overall knowledge within the category,” Heine said. “It will also ensure compliance and earn the trust of your customer.”

For Calvin Bell, owner of Pavement Stencil Company in Roanoke, Virginia, maintaining up-to-date requirements for all states and municipalities is a constant battle.

“We try to keep up with state regulations, but we may put together a perfectly updated list and it could be out of date just two months later,” Bell said. “So, we also rely on the customer to know what they need.”

With 26 years in the business, Bell has noticed the confusion surrounding ADA compliance. “Folks don’t realize that some of the specs aren’t an ADA issue, but may be a state or municipal issue,” he said. “You really need to know your local standards to make sure what you’re doing is correct.”

Bell said his company can create any stencil the customer may want, but the most common stencil—used by around 90 percent of Pavement Stencil Co.’s customers—is a 39-inch international symbol of accessibility. But even with the international symbol, there are exceptions. For example, Florida requires a larger symbol in some areas.

Beyond that, because there are so many different versions of the international symbol, they may look the same at 39 or 42 inches, which covers most municipalities, but if you dig deeper and compare them, Bell said the differences are very noticeable. “There’s no hard and fast drawing of these things,” he said. “There was an original, but it’s been altered so many times at this point, it’s not at all the same.”

Some states have even deviated from the International Symbol of Access entirely, opting for a more active accessible icon. In this icon, the traditional accessibility icon includes a person leaning forward in the wheelchair as if he is racing.

Pavement Stencil Co. might have been the first pavement stencil company to create a stencil of the active accessibility icon for commercial contractors’ use. In 2012, the company worked with the designers of the active icon to get their first stencil just right. Now, they get requests for stencils of this new symbol from New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and North Carolina. For more information on this icon, read the sidebar accompanying this article.

What Makes a Parking Lot ADA Compliant?

Current ADA standards are outlined in the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design, and all physical construction and alterations are now subject to these requirements. Here are some of the key points related to ADA-compliant parking lots.

Accessible parking should be located at the shortest acceptable route to the building. This might not necessarily mean the parking spaces physically closest to the building, but rather the spaces that offer the easiest access to the building entrance.

For a parking lot with fewer than 25 spaces, at least one space—even if the lot only has one space—must be accessible. For every additional 25 spaces, one more accessible space is required. For lots with 501 to 1,000 spaces, accessible spaces should make up 2 percent of the total. For lots with 1,001 spaces or more, 20 spaces need to be accessible, plus one for each 100 spaces (or fraction of 100 spaces) beyond 1,000. These numbers are determined lot by lot, so even if there are three separate parking lots on one site, each lot is considered individually.

At least one of every six accessible parking spaces needs to be van-accessible. If your client’s lot only requires one accessible parking space, it must be van-accessible.

A van-accessible space must be 8 feet wide and adjacent to an 8-foot access aisle for a total of 16 feet. A car-accessible space must be a minimum of 8 feet wide, as measured from the middle of each boundary stripe and will require an access aisle of at least 5 feet, for a total width of 13 feet. You can also use a combination to ensure you have an equivalent outcome, such as an 11-foot space and 5-foot access aisle for a van-accessible parking space. Access aisles also need to extend the full length of the parking space.

Access aisles can also be shared between two spaces. For example, an 8-foot access aisle can accommodate two van-accessible parking spots—one on each side of the aisle. An exception is for angled van parking, where the access aisle should be located on the passenger side of the parking space. To be as considerate as possible, the ADA standards suggest that, if one access aisle is shared by a van-accessible and a car-accessible space, that the van space be positioned so the access aisle is available on the passenger side. All access aisles should be marked in a way that “discourages parking” in that area.

Parking surfaces within the accessible spaces and access aisles must be firm, stable and slip-resistant, and include no changes in level. Up to a 1:48-inch slope is acceptable, but the ADA suggests checking the slope of multiple spaces to ensure you meet this requirement.

Ideally, each access aisle would connect directly to a standard curb ramp leading onto the sidewalk or entranceway of the building, though not required. It’s also encouraged not to have accessible routes that lead behind vehicles. But if the parking lot requires such a path, the pedestrian route also has to be marked with contrasting paint.

The ADA doesn’t specify what color of paint to use, but does require you to use a paint that contrasts from the parking surface. Some states and municipalities might require specific colors, like blue or yellow, or even a particular shade of a color. ADA guidelines also don’t enforce a specific width of the parking stripes.

It’s also required that each accessible parking space be marked with appropriate signage, with one sign per accessible space. Every sign should include the international symbol of accessibility, and van spaces also require a van-accessible sign. The sign needs to be 5 feet above the surface of the marking space, including the height of the curb.

In lots with fewer than four total parking spaces, identification of the accessible space isn’t required. For residential facilities where parking spaces are assigned to specific residences, identification of accessible spaces is also not required.

Another feature often included is the international symbol for accessibility painted within the parking space. ADA guidelines only require this symbol on the sign, but many states do require it to be painted within the parking space, as well.

Parking spaces should also be designed so cars parked in the spaces can’t “protrude into the accessible route,” making it more difficult for individuals using those routes to pass through. The ADA suggests the use of parking stoppers to solve this potential issue.

It’s also important to note that some parking areas are exempt from these rules, including spaces used exclusively for buses, trucks and other delivery vehicles, law enforcement vehicles or vehicle impound.

There are also some situations in which the ADA has set different standards. For example, at least 10 percent of patient and visitor parking at hospital outpatient facilities should be accessible. For rehabilitation and outpatient physical therapy facilities, that number increases to 20 percent.

The Striping Process

No matter what your state and local regulations might be, it’s important to do your research and ensure you only have to do the job once.

“It’s along the same lines of best practice for carpentry, ‘Measure twice, cut once,” Heine said. “Following the blue prints or specification documents is rule no. 1 when it comes to pavement marking.”

In the case that a striping contractor does make a mistake painting an accessibility-compliant parking lot, there are ways to remove the paint, from products to remove the paint to grinding it off or painting the entire pavement black and restriping, but the best option is to get it right the first time by thoroughly reviewing the 2010 ADA standards and checking with local code enforcement officials.

“All the options to re-do the lots are expensive and take up time,” Bell said. “Make sure it’s right before you put it down.”

Complaint striping can be done using standard paint, thermoplastic and MethalMethacralate coating applications, each of which “have excellent benefits within their respective segments,” Heine said. “Using paint—cold applied—is quick, easy and very effective in most applications, but requires more upkeep as it typically wears faster (when applied at 15 to 20 mils) than thermoplastic and MMA markings,” Heine said. “Thermoplastic—hot applied—requires a little more expertise and patience, goes on thicker (90 mils on average) and is great for high-traffic areas, like crosswalks, stop bars and intersections.

“MMA—cold applied—is another excellent coating/technology that is hitting the streets in most major markets,” Heine continued. “This coating is ‘bullet proof’ 110 mph NHL-slap-shot-tested (it’s the main component in the ‘plexi-glass’ you see in hockey arenas).” It averages 30 to 60 mils thick and works well in high traffic areas, like crosswalks, stop bars and intersection work, Heine said.

Ennis-Flint, based in Thomasville, North Carolina, produces 4-inch-wide linear blue preformed thermoplastics often used in accessibility striping, as well as accessibility markings. Its standard accessibility marking is a 40-inch blue square with a white international accessibility symbol inside, but is also available in a variety of sizes. The company also makes a preformed thermoplastic with truncated domes on the surface to help people with visual impairments recognize the boundary between vehicle and pedestrian areas.

“Our standard offering is based on Federal Highway Administration designs,” Zina Brooks, vice president of marketing and customer support for Ennis-Flint, said. “However, we can manufacture specific sizes.”

Pavement Stencil Co. offers accessibility stencils for painting, which are made of plastic, and thermoplastics, which are made of aluminum.

What About the Money, Honey?

It’s also worth mentioning to prospective clients that a special tax credit of up to $5,000 per year is available to help smaller employers make accommodations required by the ADA. Any business can also take a full tax deduction of up to $15,000 per year for expenses of removing qualified architectural or transformational barriers.

It’s also important to make sure responsibilities to meet ADA and local requirements are outlined in the contract. Note who will be held financially responsible for restriping in the event that requirements aren’t met—the client, the contractor, or the subcontractor.

“It’s not always the case 100 percent of the time, but if the striping contractor doesn’t perform his or her duties to ADA/local code specification and/or their customer’s specifications, he or she will usually be held responsible for correcting the work,” Heine said.

If a parking lot doesn’t meet requirements, the business owner could be required to repair it, pay a fine, and could even be sued. Enforcement of accessible parking requirements is administered by a variety of agencies, depending on state and municipality.

A complaint can only be made to the U.S. Department of Justice if the lot doesn’t fulfill federal ADA requirements. Otherwise, the complaint will be made at the local or state level.

“Some people choose just to tell the business owner directly,” Brinkhoff said. “Others might file a grievance with the local authorities, or take it to the state human rights commission.”

It’s also worth knowing that small businesses have limited protection from lawsuits. Except with respect to new construction and alterations, no lawsuit can be filed regarding acts occurring prior to July 26, 1992, by businesses with 25 or fewer employees and gross receipts of less than $1,000,000, or Jan. 26, 1993, by businesses with fewer than 10 employees and gross receipts less than $500,000.

Ultimately, Bell said, it’s important to run each and every requirement by the customer and give them the final say. But the most important factor?

“Don’t forget what we’re doing this job for—to make things more accessible to everyone,” Bell said. “You have to think from the perspective of the people that need these markings. Keep the end result in mind and make sure you’re remembering that bottom line.”

 

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A More Active Symbol of Access

The International Symbol of Access isn’t so international anymore.

Some states and municipalities have opted instead for a new standard symbol of access—a more active symbol of access.

The first state to adopt the new symbol was New York in 2014, but the search for a new symbol began in 2010 when artist Sara Hendren started collecting images of accessibility icons she felt represented persons with disabilities more accurately.

Along with Brian Glenney, she began to design a more active icon of accessibility, posting decals of their icon over existing access icons. By 2011, the current active icon was born. The new icon shows a person in a wheelchair, leaning forward as if in motion. Or, as Hendren calls it on the project’s website, the “italicized” version of the old accessibility symbol.

As their project gained momentum, people began asking Hendren and Glenney for a formal icon to replace the existing symbol. With the help of designer Tim Ferguson Sauder, the accessible icon and the Accessible Icon Project were born.

The final icon is white within a blue square. The head, arm and leg are positioned to imply motion, and the limbs are rounded rather than squared, as they are in the existing International Symbol of Access. The wheel has two cutouts, both to emphasize motion and make stenciling easier.

If you ask Hendren, she’ll tell you that the project is so much more than the symbol that has stamped and stenciled its way onto streets and signs in hundreds of cities and a handful of states. It’s an activism project that aims to change the way we think about people with disabilities.

Replace a Worldwide Standard

The International Symbol of Access is one of many internationally recognized logos maintained by the International Organization of Standardization. Other symbols include symbols for explosive or poisonous materials, slippery floors and trip hazards. The purpose is, regardless of where you are in the world, you’ll have key information to stay safe. In fact, the International Symbol of Accessibility is probably one of the most recognized international symbols of all, due to its presence in nearly every place we go.

The symbol was chosen during a design contest in 1968. The winning symbol was created by Susanne Koefed, a Danish designer, and did not have a head. Within a decade, a head was added to the design and ISO and the United Nations adopted the logo. And in 1990, Congress passed the Americans With Disabilities Act.

As Slate reported in February 2014, “The presence of this single, attractive logo to signify a universal right for access helped create an atmosphere in which the world could begin to adapt to new building parameters and regulations. In many ways, the adoption of the international accessibility icon is a success story of a simple design changing the world for the better.”

To date, the Department of Justice, which enforces ADA specifications, has not made an official statement about whether or not the new symbol is considered equivalent facilitation.

The symbol is still up for debate with ISO, which claims it may not be representative of all disabilities of individuals in wheelchairs—particularly with the arm motion included in the active symbol—but Hendren and her collaborators attest that the icon is a symbol, not a literal representation. The goal is to encourage people to rethink disability.

The active accessibility icon is free and available to all on the public domain.