Commercial painting contractors come across varying projects with varying degrees of difficulty. Sometimes the prep work involves something as complex as wet blasting. And other times the prep work could be as simple as hand scraping peeling paint.
And then you have to consider how much containment is involved. Is there a sensitive product or equipment in the area? Will paint fumes be a problem? Does the project need to occur during a plant shut down, or during off hours? Did you bring your infrared thermometer to test the surface temperature?
And then there are many more questions and considerations that need to be addressed. But regardless of the situation, the final product needs to look like it was a factory finish.
So here are 4 varying projects, each one offering a unique perspective on where paint and commercial coatings can and should be applied.
Commercial Exterior
A facility in Pennsylvania needed their exterior siding painted. And although it appears easy, there were many challenges. The first one was applying the paint. Because the siding is corrugated, using a brush is not a practical way to apply the paint. So we had to apply the paint my atomizing it through a sprayer.
However, spraying outdoors is very challenging, especially if it gets windy. So in situations like this, we were challenged to actually spray apply the material, which is something we’d prefer not to do with a sprayer.
However, we took the appropriate pre-cautions, and set up wind screens, and other containment to prevent over spray from coming in contact with other equipment or buildings that weren’t meant to be painted.
Commercial Staircase
Commercial staircases can attract a lot of dirt due to the increased level of foot traffic that comes in these areas. But although the finish looks great, getting a 2 toned paint job on the risers, tread, and handrails is a challenging venture.
With painting, the rule of thumb is to start at the top. So here, we started on the hand rails, moving our way down onto the steps. The handrails needed an enamel coating. Enamel coatings get nice and hard, and can resist dirt more than an acrylic or latex paint.
Additionally, the steps were coated with a polyamine epoxy. But then, to reduce the gloss, and add some texture, we applied an aliphatic urethane as a top coat on the treads and landing pads. This gave the floors an abrasion resistant top coat that won’t amber, and will retain some texture to prevent slips.
Roof Top Air Handler Units
Unless you’re digging in the dirt for crickets or worms, you might find yourself on some roof tops. And those rooftops will probably contain some equipment that gets exposed to a lot of challenging weather elements.
So when considering the commercial coating, you’ll want to look for something that has great color retention and UV resistant, while also being able to maintain water exposure from snow or rain.
The best coating to consider to prevent sun damage is urethanes. Urethanes do a great job maintaining their color, without losing clarity, or chalking like epoxies.
However, urethanes don’t do well with sitting water. So in those situations, you’ll want to consider an epoxy. Epoxies do well with sitting water. But you’ll need to be cautious where you use them, because again, they can’t handle sunlight very well. So you might want to apply a UV stable epoxy ontop of those areas that might get an excessive amount of water.
Holding Tanks and Silos
Painting tanks and silos has become one of our bread and butter services. However, that’s not to say each new project doesn’t propose new challenges. Those challenges typically show up in the form of how to prepare the substrate, and how much containment should be considered for the surrounding area.
But when it comes to selecting a coating, we’ve pretty much concluded that we prefer aliphatic urethanes. Aliphatic urethanes offer 3 great features that we look for in exterior coatings.
First, they have great color retention. So even though that sun will shine on them non-stop for 16 hours, day after day, they maintain their clarity and will not chalk or fade.
Another reason is they offer more flexibility than epoxies. This is great because the thin steel likes to expand and contract when the temperature gets cooler or hotter. But because urethane can flex, it can move with the steel.
And lastly, it’s chemical resistant. So if bird shit or dirt gets on the surface, it will have an easier time washing off. If a contractor applies only an enamel coating, then it’s more likely to fail due to the excessive weather surrounding the area.
Overall, each of these projects requires different strategies to defeat and conquer. Each one required different commercial coatings, different applications methods, and different containment. But overall, as long as the customer hires an experienced commercial painting contractor, they are more likely to receive a satisfactory finish that can maintain adhesion and its integrity through the duration of the subrates existence.