The shutter goes up and there it is. A pale, clouded shape across the glass, the sort of mark you would get if somebody had frosted a patch of the window on purpose. It will not wash off. A blade only makes it worse. By mid morning it is the first thing anyone coming into the shop looks at.
That is acid etched graffiti. A corrosive gel has been put onto the pane and left to work, and it has eaten into the glass itself. Nothing is sitting on the surface, which is exactly why nothing you have tried has shifted it.
We take it out where it stands, normally the same day, for a fraction of what a new pane would cost. No boarding up, nothing ordered in, nothing left covered while you wait.
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
On Rye Lane It Probably Did Not Happen At Night
Almost everyone assumes this is overnight vandalism. On a street like Rye Lane, where most frontages are shuttered from closing until opening, that assumption is often wrong, and it changes what you do next.
Think about what the shutter actually protects. It covers the main display glass from the moment you close until the moment you open. If your shutter is down and unmarked but the glass behind it is etched, the gel went on while the shutter was up. In other words, while you were trading, in daylight, with people on the pavement.
We see two patterns across Peckham and they need different responses.
Damage behind an undamaged shutter. Applied during trading hours. Your CCTV is worth pulling for the whole of the previous day rather than the night, and if you have staff on the door or a busy counter it is worth asking who was leaning on the window. This is also the pattern most likely to recur, because whoever did it was comfortable doing it in public.
Damage to glass that the shutter never covers. Transom and fanlight glass above the shutter line, the glazed panel beside the door, the stair window, the entrance to the flats above. Most Rye Lane shutters stop at the fascia and leave everything above it exposed all night. That is where overnight damage lands, and it is the glass people forget to check because it sits above eye level.
When you call us, tell us which of the two you have. It tells us where to look on the frontage, and it tells you whether a shutter is giving you the protection you assumed it was.
Recent Acid Etched Graffiti Removal Projects
Where We Get Called Out Around Peckham
Rye Lane. The bulk of our Peckham work. A long, dense run of independent retail, fabric and hair shops, phone and money businesses, food and drink, with narrow frontages packed tightly together and shutters on almost every one.
Peckham High Street and the Aylesham Centre approach. Larger units and the shopping centre entrances, with bigger panes than the Rye Lane frontages and a different replacement cost if it came to that.
Peckham Rye station and Blenheim Grove. The station approach and the arch and yard units around it, with heavy pedestrian flow funnelling through a short stretch.
Copeland Park and the Bussey Building. Converted industrial buildings with studio, bar and event frontages, a lot of original industrial glazing, and operators working evening hours rather than shop hours.
Peckham Levels and the multi storey. Glazing at upper levels and on the approaches, which brings access equipment and the building operator into the conversation.
Choumert Road and Bellenden Road. Independent cafes, restaurants and shops on quieter streets, with period shopfronts and a conservation area setting.
Queens Road and Peckham Hill Street. Mixed commercial and residential frontages away from the main run, where damage is often found later because the premises are not customer facing.
Narrow Frontages, Divided Inside
A practical point that catches out contractors who have not worked Rye Lane before. Plenty of units here are subdivided internally, with more than one business trading behind a single shopfront. A hairdresser at the back, a phone counter at the front, a stall by the door.
When the frontage is etched, the person who calls us may not be the person who holds the lease on the glass. We are used to that. We will quote the frontage properly, identify which panes are affected, and deal with whoever actually instructs the work without making it your problem to sort out first. If you are the one who noticed it, calling us costs you nothing and gets a written figure that everyone behind that shopfront can look at.
Conservation Areas And Older Shopfronts
Parts of Peckham sit within conservation areas, and the older frontages on Bellenden Road, Choumert Road and the side streets off Rye Lane include protected building stock.
Where a building is listed, altering it can require listed building consent, and carrying out works without that consent is a criminal matter rather than a paperwork problem. Protection frequently covers the shopfront, its surround and the opening, even where the glass inside is modern, and local shopfront policy in a conservation area is not permissive about replacement.
Nothing about the building changes when we restore it. The same glass sits in the same frame in the same opening afterwards, which means there is no application to make and nobody to wait on. For anyone holding older Peckham stock that tends to settle it before the cost is even discussed.
Replacing It Versus Restoring It
| Fitting new glass | Restoring what you have | |
|---|---|---|
| Timescale | Days to weeks once measured and ordered | Usually the same day |
| Shutter and fascia interference | Shutter housing often has to come off to fit | Shutter stays exactly where it is |
| Transom and fanlight glass | Small awkward panes, bespoke cuts, full price each | Treated in the same attendance as the main glass |
| Meanwhile | Boarded, on a street that lives on passing trade | Nothing covered at any stage |
| Older openings | Non standard sizes, bespoke order, longer wait | Size and shape make no difference |
| Conservation and listed fabric | Consent may be required | Nothing altered, no consent question |
| Cost | Full price of the units and the fitting | Up to 90 per cent less |
That shutter row deserves a second look. To fit new glass behind a roller shutter somebody usually has to deal with the housing and the guides first, which means another trade on site, another line on the invoice and another day. We simply work on the pane with the shutter rolled up and leave the assembly untouched. There is a fuller breakdown in glass replacement vs protection: the true cost, and the choice itself in 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
Etching, Scratching Or Paint?
Three problems that look alike from the pavement and need three different answers.
Paint or marker sits on the surface. Solid colour, hard edge, and your fingernail climbs over it. The correct solvent lifts it off.
Acid etching is inside the glass. Milky, pale, still translucent, with a faint chalky feel that sits level with the surrounding surface rather than above it. You will usually see the edge feathering away where the gel crept downwards. Switch the lights on inside and it jumps out far more than it does from the pavement.
Scratching is cut in. Bright, thin, deliberate lines from a blade, a key or a stone, and a fingernail drops into the groove.
If you want to check yours against a photograph before calling anybody, there is a side by side comparison at glass scratching vs acid etching, and the specific frosted look is explained at white frosty window graffiti. For the wider picture see the rise of acid-etch vandalism in London.
What To Do Before Anyone Touches It
Anything wet on the glass is a chemical. Etching gel burns skin and eyes. Keep staff and customers away from it, and if your unit is subdivided tell the other businesses behind the same frontage.
Keep scrapers and wire wool off it. A blade leaves you with scratches on top of the etching, and wiping wet gel simply carries the damage sideways onto panes that were untouched.
No graffiti remover. It does nothing to etching and adds an unknown chemical for no benefit.
Flood it with cold water if residue is visible and it is safe, gloved, with eye protection, pouring rather than wiping.
Photograph it first, dated, from inside and outside, and photograph the shutter too. Whether the shutter is marked or clean is the single most useful thing in working out when this happened.
Pull the CCTV before it overwrites. Most systems loop within days. If the shutter is undamaged, look at the previous trading day rather than the night.
Report it and hold on to the reference. Insurers will want that number before they will discuss a claim, so log it as criminal damage early. We walk through the reporting steps in what to do when your shop window is vandalised.
How We Restore Etched Glass In Peckham
Identifying the glass. Float, toughened, laminated, coated, mirrored or a sealed unit, and how deep the acid has gone. Peckham runs from original single glazing in period shopfronts to modern units in the newer buildings and industrial glazing in the converted stock.
Reading the depth, then a trial patch. We measure the etch and prove the method on a small section out of view before committing to the full pane.
Masking and containment. Frames, seals, gaskets, shutter guides, vinyl lettering and signage all protected. On a pavement as busy as Rye Lane the working area stays tight and the slurry stays contained.
Working through the grades. We step down through abrasive grades, each finer than the last, taking off an amount of glass you could not measure by eye, and running the worked area well out past the tag so it fades into the pane instead of stopping at a line. Work the letters alone and you leave a dish in the surface that distorts the shopfront behind it, which is a bigger problem than the etching and far harder to put right.
Cerium oxide to finish. The last of the haze goes under wet cerium oxide, and we judge it by standing where the light comes through the glass rather than where it bounces off.
Checked from both sides. From the pavement, from inside, and at a low angle in daylight, because on a narrow frontage people see your glass obliquely more often than square on.
A single pane is normally finished inside three hours. The method is documented at acid etched graffiti techniques and removal methods and at how to polish shopfront glass to optical clarity. If you are tempted to attempt it yourself, read DIY vs professional acid etched graffiti removal first.
We will also tell you when it cannot be done. Etching that has gone unusually deep, a unit with a failed seal, or a functional coating sitting where we would have to work through it can all mean the glass genuinely needs replacing. That comes at assessment, in writing, before you have spent anything.
Recent Work Across South London
- Acid etched graffiti removal in Waterloo
- Acid etched glass graffiti removal in Victoria
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What We Restore Around Peckham
- Float glass and standard windows in the Rye Lane and Bellenden Road shopfronts.
- Laminated shopfront glazing on refitted units and the larger High Street frontages.
- Toughened glass in entrance screens, doors, balustrades and shelters.
- Transom, fanlight and over door glazing above the shutter line.
- Sealed double glazed units, worked entirely from outside so the seal is never broken.
- Mirrors and mirrored panels in salons, barbers and restaurant interiors.
- Frosted, etched and textured glass, re-matched to the existing finish rather than polished away.
- Glass block in converted industrial frontages and lightwells.
- Stall risers, sills and thresholds in polished granite or polished marble.
- Stainless steel and polished metal on shutter boxes, frames, handles and kick plates.
Anything with a polished surface is vulnerable to the same gel, and these frontages tend to be marked along their length rather than in one place. So when glass, stone and metal are all involved, we bring what is needed for all three and finish the frontage in one go.
Who We Work For In Peckham
Independent retail on Rye Lane. One site, no maintenance contract, and a frontage that has to look right by opening. This is the bulk of our Peckham work.
Restaurants, bars and evening venues. Copeland Park, the Bussey Building and the Rye Lane food and drink units, worked around service rather than around us.
Building and estate operators. The converted industrial buildings and the multi storey, where glazing sits at height and access has to be arranged in advance.
Managing agents and landlords. Mixed use blocks and the flats above the shops, where entrance and stair glazing is communal and the cost goes through the service charge.
Shopping centre and arcade management. Entrance screens and communal glazing, with photographic evidence issued for reporting and recharge.
Whose Bill Is It?
The lease answers it. The repairing covenant tells you whether the shopfront sits inside your demise or forms part of the structure the landlord looks after and recovers through the service charge. On Rye Lane the shopfront is usually the tenant's. The entrance to the flats above, the stair window and the communal door normally are not. Read the demise plan as well as the wording before you accept a bill, and be aware that on a subdivided unit the person holding the lease may not be the person who found the damage.
Before you notify an insurer, put our figure next to your excess. One pane will often come in below it, and a claim that pays you nothing still shows up when the policy renews. Once the transom glazing and the door panel are in the count as well, the total usually justifies claiming. We issue dated photographs from both sides and a written description of works regardless, so the file is ready whichever way you go.
Keeping The Next One Off Your Glass
Restoration gets the frontage clear. It does not deter anybody, and if the damage was applied in daylight on a busy street, whoever did it was not worried about being seen and may well come back.
A sacrificial film goes on the outer face and absorbs the next attack so the pane does not. Replacing it is a few minutes' work at a small share of what a second restoration costs. The film is optically clear and your display will look no different. Put it on the transom and fanlight glazing too, since that is precisely the glass your shutter leaves uncovered every night.
Everything about it sits on our anti-acid etched graffiti protection page: the way the film works, its working life, pricing and whether it affects how a window looks. There is retail specific guidance at protecting retail displays from glass vandalism.
Areas We Cover Next To Peckham
- Nunhead
- East Dulwich
- Camberwell
- New Cross
- Brockley
- Honor Oak
- Denmark Hill
- Walworth
- Bermondsey
- Elephant and Castle
For the whole picture on the service, including our process video and the full FAQ, see our main acid etched graffiti removal page.
Peckham Acid Etched Graffiti Removal: Frequently Asked Questions
Can this be removed, or do I need a new shopfront?
Removed, in all but a handful of cases. The gel only bites a fraction of a millimetre in, so the work is to take that depth off the whole affected zone evenly and polish it back. The exceptions are an etch that has gone unusually deep, a unit whose seal has already failed, or a functional coating sitting exactly where we would need to work. We identify which of those you have before you commit to anything.
My shutter is fine but the glass behind it is marked. How?
Because it was done while the shutter was up, which means during trading hours. That is more common on Rye Lane than people expect. Pull your CCTV for the previous trading day rather than the night, and do it quickly before the system overwrites.
What about the glass above the shutter?
That is the part most shutters never cover, and it is where overnight damage tends to land. Transom and fanlight glazing, the panel beside the door and the stair window are all exposed all night. We treat them in the same visit as the main display glass, and they are worth protecting with film for the same reason.
Do I have to close or board up?
Neither, and that is the point of doing it this way. The pane never leaves the frame, the shutter stays up while we work, and you carry on trading.
Does the shutter have to come off?
No. We work around the housing and the guides and protect them while we do it. Replacing the glass is a different matter, because a fitter often has to deal with the shutter assembly before reaching the pane, which adds a trade and a day.
There are two businesses behind our shopfront. Who calls you?
Whoever spots it. We will quote the frontage properly with the affected panes identified, and deal with whoever holds the lease on the glass. You do not have to resolve that before picking up the phone.
Will the treated area be visible afterwards?
It should not be. The worked zone extends well past the mark and fades out, so there is no edge for the eye to catch. What goes wrong is a contractor polishing only the letters, which leaves a shallow lens that distorts whatever is behind it.
There is paint and scratching on there as well.
One visit covers everything. Solvent takes the paint, and the abrasion and polishing sequence handles the etching and the scratching together. How far in the damage goes sets the limit, and a really deep gouge is occasionally past saving.
Can you treat toughened, laminated and sealed units?
Yes to all three. Because the gel lands on the outside face, a sealed unit never has to be opened up. What does change between toughened, laminated and sealed glazing is the method, and that is why the pane gets identified first.
What about the mirrors and the steel in our salon?
Acid gel damages any polished face, so mirrors, marble sills, steel fittings and shutter housings are all affected and all recoverable. One attendance covers the lot.
Our building is in a conservation area. Does that change things?
It makes restoration the safer route. Consent can be needed to alter a listed building and going ahead without it is a criminal offence, whereas restoring the existing pane changes nothing about the building at all.
How much is it?
Add up a replacement properly, the pane, the fitter, the shutter work and the days you trade behind a board, and restoration lands up to 90 per cent below it. What moves our price is how much glass is affected, how deep it goes, what the pane is made of, how we reach it and whether you want film on afterwards. The number is confirmed in writing before we lift a finger. No lazy contractors. No hidden fees.
Should I claim on insurance?
Get the quote first and compare it with your excess. On a single pane the restoration often comes in underneath, which makes claiming pointless. Where the whole frontage including the transom glazing is affected, the arithmetic usually flips.
It has been there for ages. Too late?
Very rarely indeed. Age makes the job slower rather than impossible, because weathering works its way into the pitted surface and there is simply more to take back. The pane still clears.
Can you look after several units for us?
Yes. We handle multi unit and multi site work with one point of contact, consistent photographic reporting and a single invoice, which suits agents and building operators alike.
How do I get a price?
Send us two photographs, one of the glass and one of the shutter. Between them we can usually tell you what you are dealing with and roughly when it happened, and put a range on the cost while you are on the phone. Then we come and look, price it properly in writing, and book it in.
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
Other London Locations We Cover
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