Industrial Painting: The Best Time to Do It

With all that goes on in an industrial facility, finding the right time to coat or touch up your surfaces is a daunting task. And yet, properly maintaining your equipment and infrastructure is necessary to keeping everything functional and well-protected. So, how can you invest in industrial painting without putting a major pause on your operations or getting in the way of production?

The answer will vary from one business to the next. Ultimately, though, you want to work with a contractor that’s able to work with your schedule and that gets the job done on time. Here are some key considerations when finding the best time to paint your industrial facility.

Inside or Outside?

Broadly speaking, whether you’re painting the inside or outside of your facility can determine which time of year and day is best to get it done. Different seasons bring variations in temperature, humidity, and general weather conditions, all of which can affect how well paint adheres to a given surface. Not only that, but painting when it’s dark out can be a dangerous proposition, even with a good light setup, so the amount of daylight factors into exterior painting, too. 

So, when applying industrial coatings to your exterior surfaces, tanks, pipes, and other equipment, it’s best to wait for moderate weather. When it comes to interior painting, on the other hand, you have much more leeway. After all, the internal conditions of a facility can be adjusted and optimized for painting. That said, while you can paint your interior any time of the year, you still have to contend with more routine challenges such as working around personnel and maintaining interior air quality.

During a Facility’s Downtime

Perhaps the best time to hire industrial painting contractors is when (and if) your facility has some temporary downtime. During this break, machines may be turned off, workers might not be inside, and operations might not have to resume for several days or weeks, meaning painters have plenty of room and time to do a good job. This downtime might be during a major holiday or around a regular inspection period.

Of course, not all facilities experience a prolonged shutdown. Some have to keep running 24/7. These perpetually active places require maintenance painting, too, though. If your facility can’t come to a complete stop, you may have to slow down or deactivate certain parts of your workplace temporarily to allow for safe and proper industrial painting.

On the Off Hours

Instead of undergoing larger shutdowns once or twice a year, some facilities power down (or at least slow down) daily between certain hours (usually overnight) or during the weekend. For these places, interior industrial painting can occur pretty much all year round, but it might have to get done at odd hours. Additionally, painters or coating services might still have to deal with operational activity and personnel, but to a far lesser degree than they would painting during normal working hours.

Whenever it’s Right for You

Sometimes the hardest part about completing your industrial or commercial painting is finding a contractor that can work with your schedule. Your facility may be wide open on the weekends or between 1 A.M. and 6 A.M., for instance, but can you find painters who will work at those times? Not always. But rest assured that there are companies out there committed to serving their clients in any way they can.

Painters USA offers evening and weekend work at no extra cost in order to avoid disturbing our clients’ normal production schedules. Our plant shut down service enables us to work around the clock to get your big projects done in a short period of time without interrupting workflow. To learn more about us, our flexibility, and our many services, contact Painters USA today at 1-800-999-8715.