What Do Commercial Painting Contractors Do?

If you are a business owner who has commercial space, you want to ensure that your space is graced with a clean and professional look. One way of achieving this is to give it a fresh painting. Now, painting is not just painting. There are professionals who have the expertise to get your commercial space painted to give it the impressive look it deserves. Hiring a residential painter with no experience in commercial painting could be a great mistake.

In this article, we discuss what commercial painting is all about and what commercial painting contractors do.

What Is Commercial Painting?

What Is Commercial Painting?

Commercial painting is all about having your business space painted. While this definition may be considered narrow, it remains the most succinct one. Of course, commercial painting can be classified into varying sizes and scales. For example, painting a restaurant and painting an industrial building is not the same. 

A typical fancy restaurant will prioritize aesthetics, making use of more colors and textures all around the space. The case will be different for a warehouse location where only a single color may suffice. Although a larger space, a warehouse will be less complex to paint.

Being able to gauge the scope of the painting accurately will help to determine the right commercial painting contractor to hire among many.

Different Types of Commercial Painting Jobs

The work of a commercial painting contractor often goes beyond just painting your commercial space. So, it is important that the kind of painting be considered before hiring one. There are two major types of commercial painting jobs.

Exterior painting: The exterior of your business is what customers will first see and you want it to make a great impression. A dull, old, chipped, or cracked exterior paint might not do a good job at impressing your customers; it may even drive some away. Giving your commercial building a fresh coat is the way out. A commercial painting contractor with enough experience will assist you in choosing the best paint type and applying it properly to get your desired finished look.

Interior painting: While the exterior painting draws the customers, the interior painting must do the job of living up to their expectations. You want to paint the interior of your business space in a color that complements your brand enough to impress your customers.

Commercial painting contractors can serve all kinds of properties. If you are wondering whether your property falls within the work scope of a painting contractor, check the list below:

  • Apartment complexes
  • Shopping malls
  • Retail stores
  • Condominiums
  • Warehouses
  • Industrial and manufacturing facilities
  • Office buildings
  • Banks and other financial institutions
  • Medical offices and facilities
  • Restaurants, bars, cafes, and coffee shops
  • Schools and other education centers
  • Boutiques and hobby shops
  • Gyms, yoga studios, and fitness centers
  • Churches and other religious institutions
  • Hotels and hospitality

What is the difference between commercial and industrial painting?

While these two types of painting both involve painting a space or building for the purpose of business, they are done with opposite aims in mind. Because the goals of painting and industrial painting are different, a painting company approaches both in different ways.

To simply put, if you are painting a business space where customers will visit, then  painting is it. An example is painting a retail store. 

Yes, it is important that durable paint is used for commercial painting, but it must also leave customers with a positive feeling. In fact, a commercial painting job has many similarities to a residential painting, except that it is on a larger scale.

On the other hand, industrial painting prioritizes function over aesthetics. The aim of this kind of painting is to create a lasting layer of paint that can withstand the harsh conditions of a business environment such as a manufacturing plant.

How do you quote a commercial painting job?

Estimating a commercial painting job accurately requires that the project scope is assessed, coupled with technical considerations. The following are some of the things to put into consideration when calculating the cost of a commercial painting job

  • The space size: The easy way to calculate the area that is to be painted is to multiply the height by the length of all the walls in the space, after which the figures are added to get the entire square footage. Note that there may be areas on the walls that don’t require painting, such as the doors and windows. These areas should be subtracted from the total square footage.
  • The required amount of paint: A typical 400-square-foot smooth surface will only require a gallon of paint. A gallon will also suffice for a 300-square-foot textured surface.
  • The total cost for materials: Some of the things to consider when calculating the cost of materials include brushes, paint trays, rollers, drop cloths, etc. And, of course, you will have to calculate how many gallons of quality paint will be required based on the size of the space to be painted
  • Labor costs: Commercial painters either charge by the hour or per square foot. In the case of hours, you may want to establish how long it would take a painter to complete the job. Your calculation should include tasks relating to preparing the wall like washing, scraping, caulking, primer application, etc.

Don’t forget that the cost of painting a commercial space is influenced by the size of the space to be painted. Considering this, painters who don’t charge by the hour charge by square footage. This is based on the fact that things like the difficulty of the preparation tasks, complexity of the trim details, obstructions, and safety tasks all have considerable effects on the painting job. Most painting contractors factor in all these determinants.

To learn more about how to cost a commercial painting job, check out Home Advisor’s guide.

Final word

Knowing the differences between commercial painters and industrial painters will make your life much easier, as you will know which one is suitable for your job. Commercial painting contractors have the needed skill set and equipment to transform your business or commercial space in a way that will leave a positive impression on your customers.

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