Comparing Services: Commercial Paint Vs. Residential Paint

Eddie Shekari
December 19, 2022
If you’re seeking to renovate your home or commercial building, it might be challenging to manage the contractors, schedule, and execute your vision with a team, especially when painting your interiors and exteriors. It can be even more confusing to determine the difference between residential and commercial painting services since both offer the same general services. 

In this blog, we’ll dig into the key differences in commercial paint vs. residential paint jobs and how you can choose the best option for your paint project.

Commercial Painters’ Services

Commercial painting services tackle large-scale paint jobs for buildings like restaurants, office buildings, and stores. Bigger, multi-family residences, like apartments and condos, are other types of projects that commercial painting companies take on. 

Commercial building projects can involve a range of services for remodeling a large space. Commercial painting services strive to be versatile and offer a range of services for big areas and interior painting. Beyond painting large commercial walls, their services extend to painting epoxy flooring installation, using sandblasters, faux finishing, and electrostatic painting services. These services include brick waterproofing, concrete ceiling repair, roof coatings, metal door paintings, and stenciling. 

residential painter

Residential Painters’ Services

Residential painters take responsibility for smaller paint jobs and offer their services in the spaces of your home. They usually provide a few employees based on their specific skill set in the painting industry. Your painting team is curated to complete your unique residential projects.

Like commercial painting projects, residential painting jobs can include a diverse set of services beyond interior and exterior painting, like cabinet painting, wallpaper removal & hanging, plaster & drywall repair, garage painting, and deck & fence staining. 

Estimated Completion Time

Residential painting companies can quickly complete their paint jobs in your house and will naturally take less time than a commercial painting job. Residential spaces are much smaller and require simpler materials. Residential painting services commonly work the standard workday hours on a Monday to Friday schedule, eight hours a day. But with such personalized projects in residential spaces, the schedule can be adjusted based on the homeowner’s ideal timeline. Residential painting services place the most value on attention to detail and the client’s satisfaction, so the approach to these projects is usually relaxed and flexible. 

With commercial painting, larger surfaces may take longer to paint and require a bigger team to complete the job. These services can usually accommodate the business owner’s schedule with flexibility, mainly because the larger scale painting companies can provide more employees with a wider range of availability for the paint job. Renovated areas are usually closed off from the public while commercial painters work. They may offer the option to complete the on-site projects outside operating hours—weekends, holidays, and evenings—to avoid interfering with the establishment’s functioning. 

Because commercial painting services manage their project around business operations, timeliness and efficiency need to be top priorities for the painting team. Renovation projects can be costly for a business owner, and any delay can push the client out of the initial budget. 

professional commercial painter

Materials

Commercial painters manage broader surfaces with unique textures, like wood, concrete, marble, metal, and reinforced plastic, to paint, and to complete such a job calls for sophisticated equipment. Commercial painting services commonly use types of machinery like pressure washers, sandblasters, paint sprayers, scaffolding, and aerial lifts.

For bigger renovation projects, commercial painters are required to have experience with the equipment and materials used to paint these large services. The safety of each team member is a big priority, so training is an essential part of commercial painting services. Commercial painters are subject to painting at incredibly high heights and heavy machinery. 

Because residential painting services are in charge of smaller painting jobs, the paints used for residential paint jobs are usually sold at common home improvement stores, like Lowe’s or Home Depot. Tools and equipment of residential painting services—paint brushes, paint rollers, ladders, cleaning materials, and painting trays—are simple. 

The experience of residential painters can be limited in comparison to the experience of a commercial painter. The painting procedure of a residential project is consistent, simple, and mostly the same. The painting skills gained in residential painting can be challenging to transfer to commercial painting because commercial painting requires much more training and experience. However, residential projects can be more personalized and focused on detail, so the project managers may have extensive experience in selecting the best colors for interior and exterior services and protecting furniture during the painting project.

Professional Painting Services in Houston, TX

Now that you have a better understanding of the difference between commercial paint vs. residential paint jobs, it might be refreshing to know that there are professional painting companies that specialize in both residential and commercial paint jobs. 

Pro Painters is one such company in the Greater Houston area, and we specialize in residential and commercial painting and can take care of your woodworking and power washing needs. Pro Painters has been painting residential and commercial buildings in the greater Houston area using only the highest quality materials and expert craftsmanship for over 20 years. Contact us today for a free quote and consultation—no project is too big or small for us.

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Eddie Shekari

Eddie founded Pro Painters in 1995 to meet the growing need for high-quality residential and commercial painting needs in Houston. In nearly 20 years, Pro Painters has exponentially grown our client base, serving residents across the greater Houston area. Our core principles have helped us achieve the highest standard of workmanship and customer satisfaction. Our years of experience have allowed us to become an extension to our customers as the all-in-one solution for home makeovers.