Anti-climb paint
non-drying paint designed to deter climbing
Anti-climb paint (also known as non-drying paint, anti-intruder paint, anti-vandal grease) is a class of paint consisting of a thick oily coating that is applied with a stiff brush, trowel or by hand using a protective glove. In appearance it is similar to smooth gloss paint when applied but it remains slippery for a minimum of three years, thereby hindering an intruder from gaining a foothold.
Uses
It is used to prevent climbing on objects such as lamp posts, walls and fences. It owes its effectiveness to the fact that it is based on a non-drying oil and keeps the surface greasy and slippery. As an additional advantage, it leaves its mark on the person touching it and hence makes it possible for intruders to be identified.
Anti-climb paint is often used to deter burglars seeking to enter a building by climbing up to a higher entry point, such as a window on an upper floor.
Characteristics
Anti-climb paint continues to work in hot or cold weather conditions, adhering to the surfaces to which it is applied.
It can be used on most building materials. It is particularly effective in preventing climbing on walls, parapets, boundary fences, down pipes, lamp standards and roofs.
The paint's outer surface may appear to be dry, but attempting to climb over it will reveal the soft paint underneath.
“Anti-climb paint” enters the record as non-drying paint designed to deter climbing. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Anti-climb, paint and non-drying can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 30, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q4774339. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Anti-climb paint” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.