Surprisingly, there are many people who tend to see the residential and commercial painting in East Bay as one and the same. At first glance, residential and commercial painting may appear the same – they are technically “commercial” companies who provide services in exchange for profit.
While there are similarities, the differences between residential and commercial painters have far superseded those similarities.
The scope of the project
Looking at the size of the project, you can quickly see the difference.
Residential painting contractors are involved solely in residential projects, painting houses, apartments, condominiums, townhouses, and other living spaces. They may paint the entire residential building, or only the exterior part of it or only certain areas that need to be renovated and refurbished. Residential painting contractors mostly have a small crew who come to work usually on weekdays.
Commercial painting contractors, on the other hand, are focused mostly on bigger jobs, but they can tackle any project of different sizes. Commercial painting involves almost every type of establishment that runs from smaller retail shops and big shopping complexes to high-rise office spaces and airports. The scope of commercial painting calls for a bigger crew, more complex equipment, and different working shifts to get the job done within the deadline. Commercial painting contractors most likely have a staff devoted only to the organization and planning of the project before it begins. They also coordinate with other contractors as well.
Materials and equipment
As said before, residential painting contractors are focused solely on painting residential projects. For this reason, the materials and equipment they use are only for residential painting – hand brushes, rollers, painting trays, step ladders, drop cloths, cleaning materials, and so on. Residential painting contractors are trained to deal with a variety of surfaces such as textured ones (like stucco), metal and concrete aside from wood. They may even be trained to do light construction work, or popcorn ceiling removal (in older homes).
Commercial painters, on the other hand, have wider experience in dealing with different types of surfaces such as wood, concrete, marble, metal, reinforced plastic, and a lot more. Thus, they use complex equipment such as pressure washers, sand blasters, paint sprays, scaffolding, aerial lifts, and commercial/industrial-grade paints, primers, tints, and other specialty coatings. However, they may also use brushes, drop cloths, and rollers as well.
Job timeline
Residential painters work during weekdays (Monday through Friday). Usually, they work for eight hours a day. However, scheduling may also depend on the customer if he/she wants to get the project done sooner, so painters may also work during weekends by request.
However, scheduling can be quite problematic for businesses, as they also want to stay open for the customers as their own establishments go through a renovation project at the same time. The best commercial painting contractors will be ready to adapt to your schedule so that they can paint your establishment without causing disruptions to the normal flow of your business. This may require working at night, weekends, and holidays.
Many contractors offer only either residential or commercial painting service in East Bay. But there are others who offer both services, and there are some who even provide services for industrial painting jobs. If you are a customer looking for a painter, it’s important to know about the differences between residential and commercial painters so you know which is needed for your particular painting project.
