Can I Pad my Parking Garage Pillar to Save My Paint Job?

December 27, 2007 3:36 PM

Where can I buy a padded jacket for the concrete pillar in my parking garage that I keep accidentally scraping my car against?

So, for the second time this year my mom has scraped the side of her car against a concrete pillar in our parking garage. The repairs are very expensive. I'm sure I saw a padded pillar jacket in another garage, something thick and squishy wrapped around the pillar to help reduce damage if someone were to accidentally touch the pillar with the side of their car. I know I could do this myself with carpet padding or something similar, but I'd really like to buy something pre-made that attaches with velcro or buckles. Can anyone help me find something like this online?

posted by bonheur to Shopping (11 answers total)

How about the ones they use for keeping water heaters insulated?
They are like duvets for cylindrical things. Might not stand up to being hit with a car, I would probably give it a few wraps with duct-tape.
posted by Iteki at 3:41 PM on December 27, 2007

Lagging Jackets they are called it would seem. Otherwise I would buy a bunch of that expanded foam lagging for regular pipes and duct tape a "fence" of it around your pole.
posted by Iteki at 3:43 PM on December 27, 2007

Are you in the US? McMaster-Carr sells 1" thick flexible polyurethane foam that has a vinyl facing on the front side (provides strength and abrasion resistance) and adhesive on the back side. The sheets are 4 1/2 feet wide and available in any length (up to 144 feet) for about $16 a foot.
posted by RichardP at 4:27 PM on December 27, 2007

How about the ones they use for keeping water heaters insulated?
They are like duvets for cylindrical things. Might not stand up to being hit with a car, I would probably give it a few wraps with duct-tape.

I've only ever seen people wrap a sheet of fiberglass insulation around water heaters--which wouldn't stand up well to impact at all. Heat insulation and impact resistance generally require fairly similar material properties, but in this case it doesn't quite work.
posted by LionIndex at 4:34 PM on December 27, 2007

my first thought was the padding used on football goal posts and equipment on ski mountains, but froogle tells me that stuff is in the 200 dollar range.

If not RichardP's excellent suggestion; might an old comforter plus duct tape work well? One that is very thick and being thrown out anyway?
posted by oblio_one at 4:38 PM on December 27, 2007

Compared to the self-adhesive foam I recommended earlier, I can also suggest a solution that's cheaper and that can be removed later, but it doesn't qualify as pre-made. Buy several 6' foam sleeping pads ($10 each) and a set or two of sleeping bag straps ($3 a pair) or a couple of lashing straps ($3 each). Then wrap the foam pads around the pillar and secure them with the straps.
posted by RichardP at 4:45 PM on December 27, 2007 [1 favorite]

I have seen used tires with a seam cut so they fit around the pole used to protect cars. You'd have to stack up a few and they might be wider than your space allows, but you can probably find used tires for free and they seemed to work well.
posted by 45moore45 at 5:52 PM on December 27, 2007

You could try moving blankets and secure them using ratcheting tie down straps. That solution should be pretty cheap and I think those blankets hold up pretty well. We used to get them out of the dumpsters of moving companies and golf courses.
posted by krisak at 6:03 PM on December 27, 2007

How hard is she hitting it, and how thick is the pillar?
posted by box at 10:46 PM on December 27, 2007

Instead of wrapping the pillar, can you do something to increase visibility, like painting it, or adding a mirror (to the parking space, or inside the car)?

I have a lazy eye and I use extra mirror kits you can get from auto supply stores.
posted by dhartung at 12:16 AM on December 28, 2007

Make sure you have permission from the owners before you start putting this stuff up. I would get it in writing, but maybe that's just me. (Besides, if you talk to them about it there's a teeny-tiny chance they might spring for the equipment themselves.)
posted by hjo3 at 1:23 AM on December 28, 2007