Planning a Commercial Repaint Around a Working Building

Nobody wants to close the doors to repaint. Offices have to run, classes have to meet, a church needs its sanctuary on Sunday, and a plant has to keep production moving. The good news is that a commercial repaint is really a scheduling problem as much as a painting one. Spies Painting works on commercial and industrial properties of every size, from two offices to two hundred, and says its crew will accommodate your schedule. Here's how to set a repaint up so the building keeps working.

Decide the scope first

Some jobs are a single area: a worn lobby, a hallway, one production room. Others take in the entire property, inside and out. Spies Painting handles both interior and exterior work, and either extreme is fine, but you'll want to decide early which one you're planning. A clear scope makes an estimate more accurate and lets the work be broken into pieces that don't shut down the whole building at once.

Break the building into zones

The easiest way to protect operations is to treat the building as a series of zones and work through them one at a time. A school might take its hallways, then classrooms, then the gym. An office can move department by department so staff relocate for a short stretch and then come back to a finished room. A plant can sequence work around lines that run and lines that rest.

Be honest about which areas are hardest to give up. The conference room used for client meetings, the reception desk, the loading area, the room that must be ready for an event: name them early so they can be scheduled for the times that hurt least.

Interior work in an occupied building

Inside, the practical issues are furniture, floors, access and air. Furniture and equipment need to be moved or covered, floors protected and walkways kept clear. Ventilation matters, so talk about how fresh air will reach the areas being painted and how long people should stay out of them. Tell the painters about anything sensitive: medical areas, computer rooms, areas with food or children.

Interior finishes also vary a lot by room. A reception area, a gym or a corridor that takes carts and traffic doesn't need the same coating as a quiet office, and conversations at the estimate stage keep you from paying for the wrong thing in the wrong place.

Exterior work and the Wisconsin calendar

Outside, weather runs the schedule. Paint needs reasonable temperatures and dry surfaces, which in this part of the country means planning exterior work for the warmer part of the year and leaving room in the plan for rain days. Good exterior work starts with washing and repair: loose paint scraped, damaged surfaces fixed, dirt and chalking cleaned off. Painting over a surface that isn't ready is how a new coat starts peeling.

If you're doing both interior and exterior, it can make sense to line them up so the same crew handles one project from start to finish. Customers have described Spies Painting painting an interior one year and finishing the exterior the next, which is a reasonable way to spread out the work and the budget.

What to have ready for the estimate

• The areas you want painted, inside and outside, and anything you want left alone.
• The hours and days the building has to stay fully usable.
• Rooms that are hard to vacate, like reception, a sanctuary, a gym or a production area.
• Any colors, branding or finish requirements, such as washable walls or high-traffic areas.
• Deadlines tied to events, inspections, holidays or the school calendar.
• A contact person who can make decisions on site.

Choose the contractor who asks questions

Look for a contractor who walks the building, asks how it runs and talks about sequence before talking about paint. Spies Painting is a member of ABC, Associated Builders and Contractors, and SSPC, the Society for Protective Coatings, and works with Sherwin-Williams and Hallman Lindsay products. It also has its own shop, which helps when a job involves metal items like railings, chairs or equipment that can be prepared and painted off site and returned.

Spies Painting doesn't publish prices, because every property is different. The estimate is free. If you're thinking about repainting a Fond du Lac office, school, church, plant or storefront, call (920) 921-7107 and describe how your building runs. The schedule can be built from there.