Commercial Painting Services

In the construction service industry, customers typically are concerned about getting three main things from their coating contractors: quality, speed & low price. While coating companies would love to be able to offer all three of them at the same time, it is impossible to do so.

Unfortunately, you only get to choose two of those three for your project. Want a quality job (high-quality craftsmanship, high-quality materials, high-quality level of service, high-quality character people) and you want it done quickly (a crew of workers that can accomplish a lot of work in a short amount of time), then it’s going to cost you more to hire a coating company that can provide those things for you. Want a quality job, and you don’t want to spend a lot of money, then it’s going to take longer to get the job done. This coating guy is a one man show that doesn’t have employees and the costs that come with them. That installer is typically a great craftsman and can produce excellent work. Unfortunately, you will have to endure a longer timeframe to get the work completed since you will only have one person working on your project. Want your coating project completed quickly and you don’t want to pay a lot, then you will end up with a lower quality job. The lower quality is a result of less time spent properly preparing the surfaces, less time spent applying the coating properly and precisely and the use lower quality materials that don’t cost as much. If you are not concerned about the quality and you want it done quickly, you will probably save some money. Roe Painting proudly offers quality work, completed quickly, with great service, by quality people using high-quality coatings. If this is what you are looking for, and understand the costs that come with it, we would love to help you get your coating project completed. Just fill out the form below to receive a quote and we will contact you to set up an appointment.

If proper preparation is completed before an exterior repaint and if you use high quality exterior paint, you should be able to get 10+ years between paint jobs.  Proper preparation would include pressure washing, scraping and sanding to remove loose paint, spot priming any raw wood areas or repaired areas and then sealing up splits, cracks and gaps with a high quality exterior caulking.  Once that is done, apply two coats of a high quality paint.  We would recommend using a product like Sherwin Williams SuperPaint Exterior or better.  Like anything else, you will get what you pay for in paint quality.  Higher cost paints have better ingredients and for the same labor, will give you more time between exterior paint jobs.

If it is new construction commercial painting, then lower quality, contractor grade paint is what is typically used.  See the question below about contractor grade paint and regular paint.  If it is a commercial repaint project, then the paint quality is typically stepped up to provide more durability and washability.  Sherwin Williams SuperPaint would be an example of a medium quality, commercial grade paint that you would use in a repaint situation.  It looks nice and provides good durability and washability at a reasonable price.  You could also use Sherwin Williams ProMar 200, which is a step below SuperPaint, if you wanted to save some money, but we wouldn’t recommend going any lower than that in a repaint situation.

The cost to paint a skyscraper, or very large commercial building, is very difficult to determine.  It’s not like painting a 2,500 square foot, single story house.  There is so much more to consider that affects the cost.  The surfaces are more varied and may require special paints.  The sheer size of the project may require special equipment like boom lifts, scaffolding or swing stage equipment.  The volume of surfaces being painted will require more labor and material to coat them.  Generally, large commercial painting projects are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to paint.  It’s not unheard of to have painting projects that get into the millions of dollars when the project is extremely large or difficult to paint. 

Absolutely.  Exterior metal surfaces like metal siding or steel beams or structures can be painted like any other surface.  It just will require specific preparation, primers and finish paint.  The preparation is generally pressure washing to remove dirt or anything else that would interfere with the adhesion of the paint.  Once washed, some sort of scuff sanding or etching needs to be completed before priming with a primer that is specifically designed for the type of metal you are painting.  These primers usually address things like inhibiting rust or acting as a tie coat between the metal surface and the finish paint.  A good bonding primer, like UMA by XIM is a good example of what should be used if you wanted to paint prefinished metal siding and ensure that the paint won’t peel later.  Once you have prepped and primed the metal surface, you need to choose a finish paint that is specifically designed for exterior metals.  There are many paints that would work, but one of the most common is what’s called a DTM, or Direct To Metal paint.  This is typically an acrylic, water based paint that has good adhesion to metal surfaces, some sort of rust inhibiting ability and good color and gloss retention.  Don’t be afraid to paint a metal building.  Just make sure you have good preparation and the right primer and finish coats.

Commercial new construction painting typically only requires two coats of paint.  The first coat is usually a tinted primer and the second coat is usually a contractor grade finish paint.  See the question and answer below about contractor grade paint.  In some cases, self-priming contractor grade can be used instead of a tinted primer and finish coat.  It would still typically require two coats of paint for complete coverage and a consistent looking finish.  In the new construction setting, some builders want the painting contractor to provide a “maintenance coat”, or final finish coat at the end of the project.  This would increase the final number of coats to three.  Many times during construction, the painted surface gets damaged by other trades, or holes are made after that fact to move electrical or plumbing and then are patched.  Rather than try to touch up all the damage or patches, which doesn’t look that great, a final finish coat is applied at the very end once all the other trades are done and just before occupancy. 

Theoretically, there is not a limit to how many times you can paint over paint.  As long as the paint you are painting over is intact and adhering correctly to the original surface or each existing coat of paint, the new paint will adhere to the existing paint without issue.  If you are painting trim surfaces like doors or windows, you may run into an issue with tolerances between the painted surfaces.  Meaning, the more layers of paint you add to a surfaces, the thicker it becomes and the space between two painted surfaces will eventually fill in if you keep painting them.  For example, the gap between a door and the door frame will get smaller and smaller with each coat of paint you put on the door and door frame.  If you keep repainting those surfaces, eventually, you may have issues closing the door properly since the door will now come in contact with the frame due to the many layers of paint that have closed the gap.  This is sometimes seen on very old buildings that have had many painted jobs completed on them.  In this case, extra sanding may need to be completed to the surfaces to keep the gap open.

There are many different theories on paint colors and how they affect moods and productivity.  There have been many studies and there is even a term called “The Psychology of Color” that goes into depth on how each color affects you.  To read more about this, we would suggest the article by Space Refinery on  Color Psychology: How To Choose the Right Colors for Your Workspace.  Once you have decided on the perfect color, we would love to help you transform your office into the most productive space possible!

Much like the question above about how long a commercial paint job should last, how often should ceilings be painted depends mostly on use, wear and tear or color choice.  If a ceiling is not cracked or damaged in another way and you like the color, you may never have to paint them. 

In general, interior paint jobs don’t “wear out” like exterior paint jobs because they are not exposed to the elements.  So, you only need to paint the interior because of wear and tear due to just working in the space or because you don’t like the colors anymore.  Theoretically, if you liked the color of your commercial building and you were very easy on the surfaces, you may never have to repaint the interior.  If you have a lot of traffic in your building or you are generally hard on the surfaces, then you are going to need to repair dings and nicks and probably spot prime and paint over scuffs and stains.  It’s hard to put a number on it, because each commercial space is different and what bothers one person may not bother another, but in general, you could expect to repaint the interior of your commercial property every 5 to 8 years.  Colors and styles generally have a 10 year lifecycle.  So if your interior was painted more than 10 years ago, those colors are more than likely not in style anymore and you may want to repaint.

Contractor grade paint typically refers to paint that is used during the construction of a building.  It is usually fairly low quality paint that is designed to be self-priming over new drywall and be easy to touch up at the end of the construction project.  It is not designed for durability.  The quality of contractor grade paint is just good enough to get the building painted and ready for occupancy and to do it as inexpensively as possible.  Regular paint would be a fairly large step up in quality, durability and washability.  In the commercial setting, it would be used for common areas, offices, exterior surfaces, trim surfaces, etc. where you wanted a more durable paint that would look nicer and last longer.  While it is more expensive than contractor grade paint, it’s still pretty reasonably priced and worth the extra money if your commercial space requires the durability it will provide.  If contractor grade paint is the paint you would use during the construction of the space, regular painting is the paint you would use when you are ready to repaint an area. 

As described in the above questions about how long should a good commercial paint last and what’s the difference between construction grade paint and regular paint, it is hard to put a time answer to that question.  Since construction grade paint is lower quality than regular paint, it won’t hold up as well and will certainly wear out or require repainting sooner than a regular or higher grade paint depending on how much use and wear and tear it receives.

Yes. The expression “you get what you pay for” definitely applies to paint quality and price.  Typically, the higher the cost of the paint, the better the quality because it is made with higher quality ingredients.  However, the next question you should ask is, “are higher quality paints worth it?”  The answer is, sometimes yes, and sometimes, no.  It depends on where you are using it and how well you want it to perform based on why you are painting something.  For example, if you are painting exterior surfaces and you want them to look nicer and last longer, then yes, a more expensive paint is worth it.  The more expensive the paint, the higher quality the ingredients are and the better it will perform as it’s designed.  However, if you are just painting interior walls and you are going to have normal use, then you don’t need to spend the money on the top of the line paint.  You could get by with a middle of the road quality paint.  If you are painting in a high use area, like a corridor in a hospital that gets a lot of wear and tear and needs to stand up to a lot of cleaning, then it would be worth it to spend more on a higher quality paint that is designed to handle those types of environments.