Quarterly Repainting of a Storefront Window Display
Retail display window refreshes mostly start with a repaint. Retail stores love to keep their window displays in mint shape, probably due to the fact this is what potential customers look at before going into a store. Some retail outlets repaint their windows every couple of months. They are sometimes switching out the colors for that added bling on customers walk by trying to get them to look at what they have for sale. While color changes are significant, it can be a challenge, some stores have lots of windows, and if you're going from black to white, you're looking at a min. of 3 coats of paint. These jobs can sometimes be a challenge, even with blowers, heaters and dehumidifiers painting three or more coats in one overnight operation is exciting nonetheless. Painted walls have to be fully dry to touch before a new coat can be applied. You can never leave a display window job unless the walls are nothing more than 100% This is one time where time constraints put a little pressure on our painters. You would think hey it's a wall, not a big deal. Well, think of this nine times out of 10 these window display walls are packed with display product mannequins, etc. They all have to be removed and stored someplace else. Then you have to clean the area your working in usually there is a substantial amount of dust bunnies. Then you have to wash the walls. After this, there is often some minor repair, and then a full sanding to the wall before the new coats of paint go on. Any repairs get sealed to stop the final coat from flashing and showing repairs.
Then there you go again. You have to remove all the dust you created from sanding. At this point, you can start seeing up and start painting. First, one coat which looks more like a scratch coat when going from Black to White, in a smaller enclosed display window area this can take 1 to 3 hours. The issue is in a small, enclosed space. The humidity level increases and the only way to remove the airborne moisture is with blowers, heaters, or dehumidifiers. The drying time gets noticeably worse on the second and even worse on the third or more coats. The more layers of paint you apply, the longer the drying time gets. Usually, by the time we leave the site, the final coat can take up to 4 hours to dry to the touch.
