specialist
Graffiti removal
Removing graffiti costs £150 to £400 for a typical tag and £400 to £1,500 for a large piece or a sensitive surface. Speed matters more than price: paint keeps curing for weeks, so a tag removed within days comes off with far less work than the same tag left for a month.
What this covers
What it costs. Graffiti removal costs £150 to £400 for a typical tag on an ordinary surface, £400 to £1,500 for a large piece or porous stone, and £15 to £40 a square metre for anti-graffiti coating. Full cost breakdown.
What the job covers
- Graffiti removed from brick, render, stone, metal and glass
- Poultice removal on porous stone, which is slow and does not damage it
- Etched or scratched glass, which is replacement rather than cleaning
- Anti-graffiti coating applied afterwards, sacrificial or permanent
- Rapid response contracts for landlords, schools and retail parks
What is involved
The surface decides everything. Painted metal, glass and coated cladding release paint readily with a solvent. Brick, render and natural stone are porous, the paint goes into them rather than onto them, and the method is a poultice that draws it back out over hours. Pressure on porous stone removes the paint and the face of the stone with it, which is why a listed or historic wall is specialist work and not a pressure washing job.
Glass is the case people get wrong. Tags scratched or acid-etched into glass are not on the surface, and no cleaning removes them. The options are polishing, which works on shallow marks, or replacement. A firm that promises to clean etched glass has not looked at it.
Anti-graffiti coatings come in two kinds and the difference is worth knowing before buying one. A sacrificial coating comes off with the paint and has to be reapplied each time. A permanent one survives repeated cleaning and costs more up front, which pays back on a wall that is hit regularly and wastes money on one that was hit once.
Choosing someone for the job
Ask what the surface is and what method follows from it. Brick and painted steel are two different jobs and one answer for both is the wrong answer.
On anything historic or listed, ask specifically about poultice removal and about consent. Cleaning a listed building can itself need consent, and the wrong method is permanent.
Ask whether a coating is sacrificial or permanent, and which they are quoting. It changes what the next removal costs more than it changes this one.
Common questions
How quickly should it be removed?
Within days where possible. Paint continues curing for weeks and bonds harder into porous surfaces, so the same tag costs considerably more to remove a month later.
Can graffiti be removed from brick?
Yes, with a poultice that draws the paint back out over several hours. Not with pressure, which removes the face of the brick along with the paint.