Accessing and painting a large shopping center while packed with pedestrians
City Center
San Francisco
Preparing and coating a large structure / office building using boom lifts, ladders, and swing stages safely always takes a lot of focus. Doing it in a very busy shopping hub is another thing, and takes another level of focus. Target, Subway, and Chipotle are some of the tenants whose businesses we worked around (and over!), as well as a very busy bus stop.
The scope of work was to wash and prepare the walls and coat them, matching a very specific paint scheme—including getting key areas ready for large murals. In addition to paint prep, there were concrete spalls that needed repair and sealant that needed to be replaced.
These large city projects, with throngs of pedestrians next to and under your work, are not for hobbyists or anyone who doesn’t have safety as a top priority. Owners want to restore or refresh their buildings, but nobody wants anyone or anything to get hurt / damaged in the process.
What We Did
Coated walls and entryways in high-traffic retail and dining locations
Applied specialty graffiti coating at select ground-level locations
Repaired numerous concrete spalls
Prepared and coated site metal handrails
Accessed work with boom lifts, ladders, and swing stages
Project Details
Getting the access plan in place and equipment mobilized was first. All areas needed a specific safety plan for how we were going to access the work. Some areas, which we could only access with a swing stage, had (very expensive) glass decorative fins mounted to the wall surface around which our team had to work. Permits for pedestrian canopies were procured, and any pedestrian traffic routing plans were put into place.
With the site sectioned off, all areas were done in sequential order to coordinate with other trades and followed the same process: thorough cleaning of all substrates to receive a coating. All cracks or spalls were repaired, and any loose coating was removed to ensure the new coating was applied to a sound substrate.
Masking and site protection wereinstalled, including temporary, lightweight car covers installed by the ground crew for cars temporarily parked near the work area.
Any bare areas were primed with the appropriate primer, and two coats of the high-performance acrylic coating were applied, sometimes in the off-hours to avoid wind or seasonal moisture. In select areas at ground level, a special anti-graffiti coating was applied.
Once completed, the equipment was disassembled, moved to its new location, and reinstalled, following any new safety needs for that particular area.
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