There is a pale, clouded shape sitting in the glass that was not there when the place was locked up. It looks as though one patch of the window has been deliberately frosted. Nothing removes it, and if a blade has already been tried there are now scratches over the top of the original mark.
This is acid etched graffiti. A corrosive gel was spread on the pane and left to work into the surface, pitting the glass so that it scatters light instead of passing it cleanly. Nothing is lying on top to be lifted away. The surface itself has been changed.
We take it back out. The pane is restored where it sits, usually inside the same working day, with no boarding, nothing on order and a fraction of the cost of replacement.
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Check Which Side Of The Line You Are On Before You Report It
Aldgate has a quirk that costs businesses time every year, and almost nobody thinks about it until they need a crime reference number in a hurry.
The boundary between the City of London and Tower Hamlets runs straight through this area. In places it runs along a street. That matters because the City of London is policed by its own force, separate from the Metropolitan Police, with its own reporting arrangements. It also means two different local authorities, two sets of licensing and highways regimes, and two different answers to almost any administrative question about your frontage.
For a damaged window the practical consequence is simple and worth getting right first time.
Report to the right force. Criminal damage at a premises on the City side goes to the City of London Police. On the Tower Hamlets side it goes to the Met. Report to the wrong one and you are not refused, you are redirected, and the reference number your insurer wants arrives days later than it needed to.
Know your side before it happens, not afterwards. If your premises sits near Houndsditch, Middlesex Street, Aldgate High Street or the Minories, it is worth establishing which authority you are in on a quiet afternoon rather than on the morning you are dealing with a vandalised frontage.
The same applies to everything else. Licensing, waste, highways permissions, street trading, business rates queries. Two regimes, one district, and a boundary that does not follow any logic you can see from the pavement.
We work both sides daily and it makes no difference to us. It makes a considerable difference to how quickly your paperwork comes together.
Recent Acid Etched Graffiti Removal Projects
One Street, Two Completely Different Weekends
The second thing about sitting on a boundary is that the character of the district changes as you cross it, sometimes within a few hundred metres.
The City side empties. From Friday evening until Monday morning the offices around Fenchurch Street, Leadenhall Street and Houndsditch are close to deserted, and the units serving them close with them. That leaves long runs of glazed frontage entirely unobserved for two and a half days.
The Whitechapel side does not empty at all. Whitechapel High Street, the streets towards Commercial Road and the residential blocks behind them stay busy through the weekend, and Middlesex Street runs a Sunday market that brings substantial crowds into a district that is otherwise quiet.
So the exposure pattern differs by address rather than by area. A City side frontage is most at risk across a weekend nobody is watching. A Whitechapel side frontage is most at risk in a crowd where nobody stands out. Both of those produce the same damage and neither responds to the same prevention thinking, which is worth knowing before anybody recommends anything to you.
Where We Get Called Out Around Aldgate
Aldgate High Street and Aldgate Square. The junction and its approaches, with the heaviest passing exposure in the district and frontages facing open space on several sides.
Whitechapel High Street. Retail, food and hospitality on a route that stays busy long after the City side has gone quiet.
Middlesex Street and Houndsditch. Where the boundary actually runs, with market trading at one end of the week and complete silence at the other.
Leadenhall Street and Fenchurch Street. Corporate ground floor glazing, reception screens and the food and drink units serving the offices above.
Minories and Mansell Street. Hotels, newer residential blocks and mixed use frontage on busy through routes, exposed after dark.
Goodman's Fields and the newer development. Recently completed ground floor retail and residential entrance glazing, often still within defect liability arrangements.
St Botolph Street and the streets behind the church. Quieter frontages away from the main routes, where damage regularly goes unnoticed for several days.
New Buildings, Specified Glass
A good deal of what has gone up around Aldgate in the last two decades uses engineered glazing rather than ordinary glass. Low emissivity for thermal performance, solar control on the exposed elevations, anti-reflective where a reception or a retail unit needs to be seen into. Each of those carries a functional coating, and on many units the coating occupies a face that matters.
Restoration lifts an extremely thin layer from the outer surface. Where that surface carries a coating, working through it does not repair the pane. It ruins the coating and leaves a panel reading differently in colour and reflectivity from every one beside it, which on a repeating elevation is visible from across the junction and is a worse outcome than the mark that started it.
Identification therefore precedes pricing. We establish the make up of the unit, any coating it carries and which face that coating occupies, then read the damage against it. The conclusion goes to you in writing, and where that conclusion is replacement rather than restoration we say so plainly.
Replacement Set Against Restoration
| Fitting a new unit | Restoring the existing unit | |
|---|---|---|
| Lead time | Weeks for a coated or oversized unit | Usually the same working day |
| Coated and specified glazing | Specification has to be matched exactly | Unit and its performance retained |
| Weekend access on the City side | Crew, vehicle and permissions across days | One technician, short window |
| Matching a repeating elevation | New glass beside weathered glass | Original panels kept throughout |
| Meanwhile | Hoarded on a frontage facing open space | Nothing covered at any point |
| New build defect arrangements | An intervention in a building still under warranty | Nothing altered or substituted |
| Cost | The unit, the fitting and the downtime | Up to 90 per cent less |
The underlying numbers are at glass replacement vs protection: the true cost, and the decision at should I replace or restore etched graffiti glass.
Do you need graffiti removed from your property? Get a fast, hassle-free quote today! Click here to get a professional graffiti removal quote or call us today on: 020 8050 5997
Sorting Out What You Are Dealing With
Three sorts of damage look alike from the pavement and each needs a different response.
Paint or marker sits above the surface. Dense colour, a crisp boundary, and a fingernail rides up where it begins. Solvent takes it off and the pane underneath is undamaged.
Acid etching occupies the surface itself. Washed out and hazy while still letting light through, with a barely detectable roughness sitting at the same level as the glass around it. The boundary trails away where the gel ran before it was cleaned. Against a lit interior it is far more obvious than from outside, which is why staff generally notice it before customers do.
Scratching is mechanical. Fine, brilliant, deliberate lines from a blade, a stone or a key, and a fingernail catches and sits in them.
There is a photographic comparison at glass scratching vs acid etching, and the hazy appearance is examined at white frosty window graffiti. On the spread of the method across the city, see the rise of acid-etch vandalism in London.
The First Hour After It Is Found
Residue left on the pane is an active chemical. The gel injures skin and eyes. Nobody handles it, and on a frontage facing open space that means restricting access to the glass rather than simply briefing staff.
Keep blades and abrasive pads off it. Scraping puts permanent scoring into glass that would have recovered fully, and drawing a cloth through wet gel carries the damage onto panels that were unaffected.
Proprietary removers do nothing. There is no paint film to dissolve, and on coated or filmed glazing an unknown product introduces a second problem alongside the first.
Where residue is visible and it is safe, flush it with cold water in quantity, gloved and with eye protection, letting it carry away rather than wiping across the pane.
Photograph every affected panel immediately, dated, from both faces. Note when the glass was last known to be clean, because on a weekend closure that window can be three days wide and the first thing you will be asked about.
Then report it, to the correct force for your side of the boundary. The reference number is normally required before an insurer will engage. There is guidance on the sequence at what to do when your shop window is vandalised.
How The Work Is Done
Establishing the pane. Float, toughened, laminated, coated, mirrored or a sealed unit, whether film is applied and to which face, and how far the acid has travelled.
Depth reading and a concealed trial. The approach is proved on a small area out of view before the full panel is committed to.
Masking and containment. Frames, gaskets, seals, manifestation, applied film and signage are protected, and slurry is contained and kept off a footway that may be carrying office traffic within the hour.
Graded abrasion. Successive stages, each finer than the last, remove a depth of glass no eye could measure, and the worked zone is carried well past the mark so it fades rather than ending at a line. Treat the lettering alone and what is left is a dished patch, a shallow lens ground into the panel, distorting everything viewed through it. On a large flat elevation that is conspicuous from a distance.
Cerium oxide finishing. The remaining haze is taken back under wet cerium oxide, judged from the side where daylight passes through the pane rather than reflects from it.
Assessment across the run. Each treated panel is checked from outside, from within against the interior lighting, at an oblique angle, and against its untreated neighbours, so a repeating elevation reads as a single continuous surface.
A single panel is normally complete within three hours. The removal is described at acid etched graffiti techniques and removal methods, the finishing at how to polish shopfront glass to optical clarity, and the equipment at acid etched graffiti removal equipment and materials.
And when restoration will not work, you hear it first rather than last. An acid burn that has reached unusually far down, a sealed unit whose seal was already gone, or a coating sitting exactly where the abrasive has to run all point the same way: the panel genuinely needs replacing. That assessment is put in writing before a penny is committed.
Work Completed Nearby
- Acid etched graffiti removal from glass in Shoreditch
- Acid etched graffiti removal in Hackney
- Acid etched graffiti removal in Farringdon
- Emergency acid etched graffiti removal in Dalston
Surfaces We Treat Around Aldgate
- Laminated shopfront and lobby glazing across retail units and office ground floors.
- Float glass and standard windows in the older Whitechapel side frontages.
- Toughened glass in lobby doors, atrium screens, stair balustrades and street furniture.
- Curtain walling and spandrel panels at ground and podium level.
- Glazing with film already fitted, checked face by face at survey so nothing is worked through by mistake.
- Sealed units, restored from the outer face with the cavity and its seal left closed.
- Mirrors and mirrored panels in hotel lobbies, bars and washroom fit outs.
- Frosted, etched and manifestation glass, where an existing pattern has to be reproduced rather than taken off.
- Lobby floor edges, door surrounds and cladding in polished granite and polished marble.
- Stainless steel and polished metal on frames, fascias, handrails and entry panels.
Every polished face is vulnerable to the same gel, and a frontage here is normally worked along rather than marked once. Where glass, stone and metal are all involved, the whole frontage is finished in a single attendance.
Occupiers We Act For
Office and building managers on the City side. Reception and ground floor glazing restored outside core hours, with documentation in advance.
Retail, food and hospitality on the Whitechapel side. Frontages worked around trading rather than around us.
Hotels and serviced accommodation. Entrance and street level glazing handled at the hour that disturbs guests least.
Managing agents and residential block managers. Communal entrance and stair glazing in the newer developments, with evidence formatted for service charge records.
Developers and contractors. Newly glazed elevations marked before handover or during a part occupied phase, restored rather than re-ordered.
Where The Cost Falls
The lease answers it on a conventional letting. The repairing covenant establishes whether the shopfront sits inside your demise, which on the Whitechapel High Street and Middlesex Street frontages it generally does. Communal entrances, stair glazing and the building envelope normally belong to the landlord and are recovered through the service charge, and on the larger City side buildings that boundary often sits further out than people expect.
On insurance, weigh our figure against the excess before notifying anybody, because a single restored panel will frequently fall beneath it and a claim producing nothing still registers at renewal. Several panels or a full elevation usually justifies claiming. Dated photographs from both faces and a written description of works accompany the job whichever route you take.
Reducing The Chance Of A Repeat
Restoring the panel deals with the damage in front of you. It deters nobody, and a frontage left unobserved across a City weekend is a straightforward target for whoever found it worthwhile the first time.
A sacrificial film bonded to the outer face is built to be ruined instead of the glass, and strips off and is renewed quickly at a small share of restoring the panel again. Where glazing is coated, low iron or anti-reflective the film has to be specified so that clarity and colour rendering survive, which is worth a proper conversation rather than fitting a standard product.
The subject is set out at anti-acid etched graffiti protection, covering the principle it works on, how long it stays serviceable, what fitting costs and its effect on appearance. Office estate specifically is covered at corporate office glass protection.
Districts Adjoining Aldgate
The service in full, with our process video and the complete question set, is on the main acid etched graffiti removal page.
Aldgate Acid Etched Graffiti Removal: Frequently Asked Questions
Can the panel be restored or does it need replacing?
Restored, in the great majority of cases. Only a very thin skin of the pane has been attacked, and the work takes that skin off evenly and polishes the clarity back. Replacement becomes necessary only where the acid has travelled unusually deep, the unit had already failed, or a coating sits directly in the path of the work.
Which police force do we report this to?
It depends which side of the boundary your premises sits on. The City of London has its own force, separate from the Metropolitan Police, and the line runs through this district. Reporting to the wrong one does not lose you the reference, but it delays it, and your insurer will be waiting on that number.
How do we find out which side we are on?
Your business rates bill will tell you which authority you are in, and it is worth establishing on a quiet afternoon rather than on the morning you are dealing with a damaged frontage.
Our building is empty all weekend. Does that change anything?
It widens the window in which the damage could have happened, which matters for the report, and it explains why City side frontages are hit disproportionately. It also means we can often work at a time that suits you perfectly, because there is nobody to disturb.
Our glazing is coated. Is restoration appropriate?
It comes down to where the coating sits in relation to the etch. Abrade into it and the coating is finished, leaving one panel whose colour and reflectivity no longer match the run it belongs to. We confirm the make up before starting and will tell you straight when a panel should be left alone.
Several panels across one elevation are marked. How is that priced?
Each panel is priced on its own, but you are charged once for getting us there rather than per pane. If the run is too long for a single window, we order the work so the panels facing the junction are finished first.
Do we need to close or board up?
Neither. The panel never leaves the frame, so there is nothing to cover and no reason to stop trading.
Will the treated area be detectable afterwards?
It should not be. The work is carried well past the mark and faded out so no boundary remains for the eye to find. The failure to watch for is a contractor polishing the tag alone, which leaves a shallow lens in the panel that distorts whatever is behind it.
There is scratching in addition to the etching.
Both come out on the same visit. Etching and scoring respond to the identical sequence of abrasives and polish, so there is no second call out for the scratches. Only depth constrains us, and very occasionally a cut has reached beyond what polishing can lift.
Can you treat toughened, laminated and sealed units?
All three, yes. Damage of this kind lands on the exterior face, so nothing is done to the cavity or the seal of a double glazed unit. Each glass type calls for a different approach, hence identifying the pane before anything else.
What about the stone thresholds and the entry panel?
The same gel damages any polished surface, so granite and marble facings, steel frames, handrails and entry panels are all affected and all recoverable, and they are dealt with alongside the glass.
Our building is newly completed and still under warranty.
That argues for restoration. Nothing is removed, substituted or altered, so there is no intervention in the building for anybody to take issue with later.
What does it cost?
Measured against replacing the same glazing, counting the unit, the fitting, the access and the period the frontage spends hoarded, restoration comes in up to 90 per cent below. What sets our price is the area affected, the depth, the specification of the glass, the access and whether film follows. It is confirmed in writing beforehand. No lazy contractors. No hidden fees.
Should we notify insurers?
Hold our figure against the excess first. One restored panel commonly costs less than the excess itself, in which case notifying buys you nothing while still appearing at renewal. A full elevation usually justifies a claim.
The damage is several months old. Is it still treatable?
Almost always. Age lengthens the job because dirt and weathering work down into the pitting and there is more to remove, but the panel still clears.
How do we start?
Send photographs of each affected panel from outside and inside, and tell us the address so we can confirm which authority and which force apply. The photographs price the work, and knowing the side settles the reporting.
Do you need graffiti removed from your property? Get a fast, hassle-free quote today! Click here to get a professional graffiti removal quote or call us today on: 020 8050 5997
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