Painting Services in New York, NY

Painting in New York City

Painting an apartment in New York is mostly not a painting problem. It is a surface preparation problem, a lead problem, and a building access problem, and the actual application of paint is the shortest part of the job.

Lead Paint Is the First Question

New York City has one of the strictest residential lead paint regimes in the country.

Local Law 1 of 2004 presumes lead paint in any multiple dwelling built before 1960 where a child under six resides, and requires the owner to remediate peeling paint and to use safe work practices. Buildings constructed between 1960 and 1978 fall under the same requirements if lead is known to be present.

Separately, the federal EPA Renovation, Repair and Painting rule requires that any contractor disturbing more than six square feet of painted surface inside a pre-1978 home be RRP certified, and that the work use containment, HEPA vacuums and wet methods.

What this means practically:

• Ask for the firm's EPA RRP certification number and check that it has not lapsed.
• A painter who plans to dry-sand old paint in an occupied pre-war apartment is breaking federal law and contaminating your home.
• Disclosure is required at sale and at lease of pre-1978 housing.

Testing costs $300-$600 for an XRF inspection of an apartment and is worth doing before a large job in an older building.

Plaster, Not Drywall

Most New York buildings older than the 1950s use three-coat plaster over wood or metal lath. It behaves nothing like drywall.

• Settlement cracks follow the lath lines and the corners of door and window openings. They reopen unless they are cut back to sound material, bridged with tape or mesh, and skim coated.
• Delamination — the plaster separating from the lath — sounds hollow when tapped. Paint will not fix it. It has to be re-keyed with plaster washers or cut out and replaced.
• Efflorescence and staining on a wall shared with the exterior usually means a masonry or parapet leak. Paint over it and it returns in a season.

A competent New York painter will spend more time with a taping knife than with a brush, and the estimate should show that.

Building Rules Shape the Schedule

In a co-op or condo, expect:

• Certificates of insurance naming the corporation and managing agent before anyone enters the building.
• Work hours limited to weekday business hours, with no odour-producing work during restricted periods in some buildings.
• Elevator reservations and masonite floor protection in common corridors, sometimes with a refundable deposit.
• Low-VOC or zero-VOC paint requirements in buildings with shared ventilation.

None of this is negotiable, and all of it lengthens the job. A two-bedroom that would take three days in a suburban house takes five in a Manhattan building.

Costs in New York City

Choosing Paint for New York Conditions

• Radiator heat dries interiors aggressively in winter. Latex applied in an overheated apartment can flash-dry and lap. Good painters slow the room down or work off-peak.
• Steam and cast iron radiators need a direct-to-metal primer if you are painting them; standard wall paint will chip off within a season.
• Kitchens and baths in old buildings are often poorly ventilated, so a mildew-resistant coating is worth the upcharge.
• North-facing rooms in a dense city with limited direct light will read considerably cooler than a colour chip suggests. Sample on the actual wall, in the actual room, before committing.

Tips for New York Homeowners

1. Confirm EPA RRP certification in writing for any pre-1978 building. Not the salesperson's word — the certificate.
2. Fix the leak before you fix the stain. Painting over an active masonry leak wastes the whole job.
3. Budget prep separately from paint. In New York the prep is the job.
4. Get insurance certificates moving early — buildings routinely take a week to approve them.
5. Sample colours on the wall you are painting, not on a chip and not in a showroom.