Turnover and business painting for Fitchburg rentals and offices
For Fitchburg landlords and small businesses: repainting between tenants, one house color across every unit, and offices and shops painted on weekdays.
A lot of Fitchburg's interior painting happens on someone else's calendar. With owner occupancy at about 48%, many of the city's walls belong to landlords who repaint between leases, and a mix of neighborhoods with commercial and industrial property means offices and shops need fresh paint too, without closing for a week to get it.
This page is for those owners and managers. It covers what a turnover repaint includes, why one wall color across every unit pays off, painting offices and shops around a working day, and how to read and compare estimates before you sign one. For more about the city itself, see our Fitchburg page.
What gets repainted when a tenant moves out
A turnover repaint is mostly repair and coverage. Holes from picture nails and TV mounts get filled, scuffs along hallways and bedroom walls get covered, and the doors and frames that took a year of hands get a fresh coat. Ceilings come into it less often, usually when they've yellowed or picked up a stain.
Small holes are repaired as part of our work. Bigger damage, like a fist-sized hole or a water-softened patch, needs a drywall repair before we paint, so point it out when you describe the unit. A few photos of each room, plus close-ups of any damage, show George most of what he needs.
Most rooms take one to two days, and an empty unit goes faster than a furnished one because there's nothing to pull away from the walls. Interior work is priced by the square foot, paint included, so a unit's quote follows its floor plan.
One house color for every unit
If you own several units, pick one wall color and one trim color and use them everywhere. The next turnover gets simpler in three ways: nobody has to guess what's on the walls, a leftover can from the last job actually matches, and a quote for one unit reads like the quote for the next.
Choose a neutral that works with the floors and counters you aren't replacing, such as a warm off-white or a light greige, and record the brand, color name and sheen for each property. Our paint is premium Sherwin-Williams or Behr, Behr being the thriftier of the two, and if you'd rather standardize on a different brand, we build the quote around it.
Offices, shops and waiting rooms
We paint business interiors as well as homes: walls, ceilings, trim and doors in offices, retail space, studios and waiting rooms. The prep is the same as in a house. What changes is the traffic and the things that can't simply be shoved to the middle of the room.
Business walls collect a particular kind of wear: scuffs at chair and cart height, hand marks around doors and light switches, and holes from every sign and shelf that has come and gone. Those holes are the small kind we fill. Anything mounted on the walls comes down before we start, and computers, stock and files get moved or covered. If you lease the space, read the lease before choosing a color: some need the landlord's sign-off on wall colors, and some ask for the original color back when you leave.
Our commercial painting page gives the overview, and the post on commercial interior painting has a planning checklist for a space that has to stay open.
Painting around a business, Monday to Friday
We work Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm, so the plan for a business is built inside the working week. That usually means going area by area: a back office or storage room first, then the spaces customers see on the days they're quietest, with each area closed off while the paint is wet.
The EPA and NIOSH guide for building owners suggests doing odor-producing work like painting when a building is empty if possible, telling occupants ahead of time, and using ventilation to keep odors in the work area. In a shop that stays open, the practical version is a closed door, a fan pushing air outside, and a note to staff about which rooms are off limits on which days.
Tell George on the first call when your space is busiest and which rooms can't close at all. The written quote will say how the job is staged.
What a painting estimate should spell out
Wisconsin's consumer protection agency, DATCP, advises getting a full description of the job, a detailed list of materials down to the brand, and start and completion dates in writing. The state's home improvement rule, ATCP 110.05, requires a written contract whenever any payment is due before the work is finished, and that contract has to describe the work and the principal products.
For a landlord, the description should go address by address and room by room: which walls, ceilings, doors and trim, which repairs are included, and what's left out. Ours lists the work, the price and a start date. Our post on what a painting estimate should include has a checklist you can hold any quote against.
Comparing quotes, and checking insurance
DATCP's first rule for comparing bids is to make sure every contractor is pricing exactly the same work, and it suggests being wary of an extremely low estimate. Two quotes that look far apart usually cover different jobs, with ceilings, primer or a second coat in one and missing from the other.
Ask every painter for proof of insurance before anyone starts in a building you own. We're fully insured, we've been in business six years, and George learned the trade under a Chicagoland contractor. Our guide to comparing painting quotes includes a side-by-side worksheet.
The written quote is the price, no extra charge if the job takes longer than expected. Read about our interior painting, or request a free estimate for one unit or a whole building.
Common questions
Can you repaint an apartment between leases?
Yes. Send the move-out date as soon as you have it, and the written quote will come with a start date that fits the gap. Small holes are filled, worn walls and doors are recoated, and most rooms are done in a day or two.
Do you paint offices and shops?
Yes. We paint walls, ceilings, trim and doors in business spaces as well as homes, on weekdays between 8am and 5pm. The work is staged area by area so as much of the space as possible stays usable.
What should a painting estimate include?
A full description of the work, the paint and materials, the price, and start and finish dates, all in writing. Wisconsin requires a written contract when any payment is due before the work is done, and DATCP recommends listing materials down to the brand.
Are you insured?
Yes, GK Painting is fully insured. It's reasonable to ask any painter working in a building you own or manage for proof of coverage before the start date.
How do you price painting for several rental units?
By square footage, unit by unit, with paint included. Several units can share one written quote and one color plan, and each one is scheduled as it comes empty.
More in Fitchburg
Interior painting nearby
Helpful guides
Sources
- American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, U.S. Census Bureau, via Census Reporter
- Home Improvement Consumer Tips, Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection
- ATCP 110.05: Home improvement contract requirements, Wisconsin Legislature
- Building Air Quality: A Guide for Building Owners and Facility Managers (Section 5, Managing Buildings for Good IAQ), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and NIOSH
- Fitchburg, Wisconsin, Wikipedia