While we can’t prevent graffiti, we can combat it with graffiti removal techniques that don’t involve painting over the graffiti. This past year the Friends of the Mount Vernon Trail have experimented with different graffiti removal methods.
If the graffiti is on a metal surface, we use Krud Kutter Graffiti remover with a hard bristle hand scrub brush. If the graffiti is really stuck on, we also use a hard bristle brush attachment on the end of a drill to loosen up the paint. After applying the spray and scrubbing, the graffiti typically comes off with a paper towel. 

For larger graffiti on porous surfaces we use Graffiti Solutions Elephant Snot. The graffiti is first treated for 30 minutes with Elephant Snot graffiti removal. Elephant snot is highly viscous and sticks to the graffiti to dissolve and loosen the paint. Due to a lack of water resources we use a RYOBI 40V EZ Clean Power Cleaner with buckets of river water to wash off the graffiti remover. 

Check out our YouTube channel for a playlist of graffiti removal videos.

If you hate graffiti as much as we do, send us an email at hello@mountvernontrail.org. We are currently recruiting volunteers to be part of a graffiti removal team. We will do a quick training session on removing graffiti and provide you with supplies for removing small sections of graffiti. If we find graffiti on the trail we will notify the graffiti removal team and those who are interested can remove it when they have free time. This is a great opportunity for those who can’t volunteer on Saturdays but still want to give back to the trail.