When you begin to notice signs that your warehouse is past due for a fresh coat of paint, you may wonder how to complete this important job. After all, your building runs around the clock and you cannot stop operations. But the walls, ceiling deck, and structural steel are desperate for some fresh protection and the longer you wait, the better chance more costly problems may develop.
Scheduling often becomes the biggest challenge in warehouse painting projects, but a skilled warehouse painting contractor will have strategies to work around this issue.
Why Warehouse Painting Can’t Run on a Standard Commercial Schedule
What “operational” actually means for a paint schedule
Because a warehouse does not operate on a standard 9-5 timeframe, scheduling a paint job during non-operational hours is near impossible. Instead, the job must be done during operations and completed in zones while the work around the painters continues to happen.
The three surfaces that set the timeline
The biggest factor in the painting timeline are the three surfaces that need to be addressed. Each surface has different prep strategies and cure times:
- Concrete Floors: Due to heavy traffic, cure times are longer.
- Overhead work- Ceilings, Trusses, and Decking: Takes more time because of the difficulties of reaching the high ceilings.
- Walls and High Bay Vertical Surfaces: Varying substrates take varying amounts of time to cure. These areas also play a significant role in dictating the zoned painting.
What deferring the repaint actually costs
When certain projects take more effort to figure out, it can be easy to put them off. However, what could be a faster repaint can quickly become repairing deteriorating substrate, disrupting operations even more than the repaint job would have.
While contractors may prefer a complete shutdown to get the job done, it is much better to do the work in a phased manner than to continually push it off until there is a shutdown window.
The Walkthrough That Determines Both Scope and Price
Identifying every substrate before pricing
The walkthrough is one of the most important parts of the warehouse painting quote. A contractor that simply calculates the square footage of the project will not be quoting accurately. Your warehouse is made up of many different substrates that all require different prep, coatings, and cure times. Be sure that every substrate in your building is identified before pricing is finalized.
Access obstacles that change the number
Another factor that can drive the number up in a quote are the access obstacles. Are there narrow aisles? Fixed machinery? Slab load capacity limits? All of these obstacles will determine what strategies and extra time is needed to do the job well. In some cases, specialized scaffolding must be built or standard lifts won’t fit. These are all ways a quote can be impacted.
Why an incomplete scope becomes a change order
When you receive a quote with an incomplete scope from a warehouse wall painting company, the number may look nice upfront, but it will almost always change. You are not getting a deal, you are simply delaying a change order that will reveal the honest costs later on after the contract is already signed.
Phasing the Job Zone by Zone Around Live Operations
Full shutdown versus phased execution
A quality warehouse painting job can be done in two ways. Either by fully shutting down your operations or a phased warehouse painting which is almost always the better choice when it comes to finances. The phased execution will take more time, but will allow you to maintain operations.
Building the zone map around racking aisles and shipping schedules
Zoned painting involves locations shutting down strategically to maintain order fulfillment and shipping schedules. The planning involves creating the map around racking aisles and shipping schedules. Doing so might look like dividing racking aisles into multi-bay blocks instead of full aisles or avoiding peak times for the different loading docks.
Night, weekend, and shutdown-window scheduling
Another strategy that warehouse painting crews use is to schedule their work around the off-shifts. If daily operations are too much and cannot handle the additional work being done, painters can do their work during the graveyard shifts, weekends, or other windows of time where few to no people are working.
Protecting inventory, racking, and equipment
The zoned approach during the daytime working hours requires special steps to protect inventory, racking, and equipment. Your warehouse painter will use the following protections depending on your location and requirements:
- Floor-to-Ceiling Containment Curtains
- Direct Racking and Inventory Draping
- Running Industrial HEPA Air Scrubbers
- Heavy Duty Plastic to Seal Equipment and Control Panels
- Dryfall Coatings
Lift Access and Working Overhead in an Active Warehouse
Boom lifts and scissor lifts against racking aisle width
Addressing the ceiling overhead can be one of the most challenging aspects of your contractor’s job. When your warehouse is still operating, boom lifts and scissor lifts are fighting against the widths of your racking aisles. Turn radius, width, and tail swing must be considered. In complex situations where there is not much room for a lift, custom scaffolding might be made.
Which OSHA fall protection standard actually applies
OSHA requires different fall protection standards for different activities and locations. If you are a facility manager, you may be aware that your warehouse is governed as a general industry under 29 CFR 1910.28(b)(1)(i) which requires you to have fall protection at 4ft.
When your warehouse painting contractor in Arizona sets up fall protection, they are operating as construction under a 6 ft fall protection as governed under 29 CFR 1926.501. Both your general industry standard and the construction standard can apply in the same location. What matters most is the activity.
Sprinkler heads, lighting, and conveyors
Warehouse ceiling deck painting can be complex as it is covered in sprinkler heads, light fixtures, conveyor lines, electrical conduit, and ductwork. Painting a warehouse without shutting down can make painting around this overhead web dangerous and a potential safety hazard. Bumping a moving conveyor or covering a sprinkler head can cause issues. Precautions must be taken.
Overhead Coatings, Dry Fall, and Overspray Control
Where dry fall paint fits on open decks and joists
It’s important to note that this article does not address floor coatings or safety line stripping as it is outside of the purpose. However, when it comes to ceilings, Dry fall paint is the perfect solution for the angles and hard-to-reach areas of open decks and joists in your warehouse.
Dry fall is designed so that any overspray flash-dries into powder on its way to the ground. It requires a 10-15 foot drop, but upon flash-drying, the harmless powder can be easily swept up or blown. This relieves the need for drop cloths.
Containment and ventilation in an occupied bay
Because any overhead painting will be done nearby active operations, containment and ventilation systems are required to prevent overspray, dust, and volatile organic compound fumes from reaching the areas around it. For adequate containment and ventilation, the following actions can be taken:
- Hanging floor-to-ceiling plastic sheeting
- Using overlapping sheeting for access points
- Setting up industrial HEPA air scrubbers and negative air machines
- Using low-VOC paint formulas
- Shutting off and sealing supply and return vents inside the contained area
Structural steel systems for humidity, wash-down, and chemical exposure
Structural steel painting in high-humidity, wash-down, or chemically exposed areas cannot be done in the traditional manner. Prep is the most important step in these spaces and must be done thoroughly and with the right tools. Paint applied to poorly prepped areas will quickly delaminate, bubble, and peel.
When applying the specialized paint for these spaces, the cure times will be much longer and the VOC fumes may be more significant requiring a strong ventilation system.
Cure Time and When a Zone Returns to Service
Dry to touch, recoat window, and full cure
After paint is applied, the drying and bonding process happens in three phases. First, the paint will be dry to touch and no longer tacky. This phase happens within a few hours, but does not mean the space is ready for operation.
The second phase is curing. Curing takes several days and is the process of chemically bonding with the substrate. The last phase is the recoat window. If missed, the old paint will be too hard and glossy to allow the new coat of paint to chemically bond.
How Arizona heat and low humidity change the schedule
The state of Arizona can make the warehouse painting challenging. The low desert humidity can have a favorable impact on drying times, but the high heat can make application difficult. On the opposite spectrum, monsoon humidity can make the work much more complex. The scheduling of the job may be dependent on the climate.
What happens when product goes back under a wall too soon
When you put heavy product back against a wall that is dry to the touch, but not cured, the soft resin fuses to the packing materials, pallets, and product instead of the wall. This causes:
- Coating delimitation
- Packaging and product damage
- Trapped solvents and gummy coatings
- Pigment transfer onto the product instead of the wall
Questions Facility Managers Ask Us About Warehouse Painting
Can you paint a warehouse while we’re still running shifts?
Yes! In fact, this is often the most cost effective way to get your warehouse recoated with protective paint. We will split your location into zones, ensuring every operation still has the ability to function, even if in a lesser capacity. Our goal is to do the job with as little disruption as possible.
How long does a warehouse repaint take if we can’t shut down?
The timeline for a warehouse repaint in a location that is still operating varies. What determines the length of time is not the square footage of the warehouse, but how the shifts operate, what containment needs to be set up, the prep that needs to happen, and how long different coating cure times take.
What do you need from our operations team to phase the job?
Be prepared to have a schedule of cleared racks, if necessary, and cleared zones that fit your operations so the painters can do their job. You will also need to shift forklift paths and dock bays that are handling products away from the painting zones.
Do you have to empty the racking, or can you work around it?
Not necessarily. In most cases, painting around racking is an option. Your painter will protect it by draping plastic sheeting over the top shelves. However, in some instances where the racking is largely in the way, or if you want to get the job done quicker, you may consider clearing it out.
How long before we can put product back against a painted wall?
Most paints are dry to the touch within hours, but they are not fully bonded to the substrate. Curing takes several days. You can put your product back, just leave a gap until cure time is done. But if you truly need to put the product back right away, there are options, just talk to your painter.
What happens if a coating gets damaged after we resume operations?
When paint coating gets damaged, who handles this damage depends on how it happened. If it occurred because of mechanical operations, you will typically need to cover the damage yourself. However, if the damage is a result of poor prep or application, your painter should take responsibility.
Which OSHA fall protection standard applies inside our building?
When it comes to OSHA fall protection standards, general industry buildings require a 4 ft. fall protection, but construction work, including your warehouse painting contractor in Arizona, are governed under a 6 ft. fall protection. And where there is crossover and ambiguity, the more strict protection will always apply.
Planning Your Warehouse Repaint Around Your Operation
When you have a working warehouse that cannot be shut down in the near future, don’t wait until you have the perfect block of time. Instead, consider a phased painting while operations continue. While this may be more time-consuming and create a scheduling problem, it will be much less costly in the end as you work to protect your building.
Our painting contractors at AZ Commercial Painters have years of experience and the tools necessary to ensure you don’t have to shut down while we do the important job of protecting your warehouse. Schedule a consultation today!
ACP Commercial Painting Company
Phone: 480-604-2886
