What HOA boards should ask a commercial painter before a common-area repaint comes down to four areas: insurance and bonding limits, scope clarity for shared surfaces, scheduling around resident use, and warranty terms that survive turnover on the board. A repaint that’s well-managed costs the HOA once. A repaint that goes sideways turns into multi-year board agenda items.
By Mike Cuellar, owner of Appaloosa Painting Co. — serving Loudoun and Fairfax HOAs since 2008. Last updated 26 Jun 2026
What’s different about painting HOA common areas vs. residential interiors?
Three things HOA boards usually underestimate: liability exposure on shared surfaces, the volume of decisions that have to be documented in board minutes for a fiduciary record, and the timing pressure of resident-impact work. A commercial painter who’s done HOA work knows the documentation expectations and the politics. A residential crew taking a one-off HOA job typically misses both.
What insurance limits should a commercial painter carry for HOA work?
Three coverages, with these as floor levels for Northern Virginia HOA work:
- General liability — $2M per occurrence, $5M aggregate. Residential coverage is typically $1M per occurrence; HOA work needs higher because the at-risk parties include every resident plus the management company.
- Workers’ comp — required by Virginia law if the painter has employees. Verify before signing.
- Umbrella policy — $2M+ on top of GL. Standard for any commercial-grade contractor.
Ask for a certificate of insurance (COI) naming the HOA as additional insured. The painter should email it within 24 hours of asking. If they hedge, that’s the answer.
What should a commercial painter’s scope of work include for shared surfaces?
Common areas have surfaces with shared liability that residential walls don’t:
- Stairwells and hallways — fire-rated wall assemblies. Use of the wrong primer or finish can compromise fire rating. Spec must reference fire-rated products.
- Pool houses and locker rooms — high humidity. Anti-microbial finishes required, not standard interior.
- Lobbies and entrances — high-touch surfaces. Washable products required (Sherwin-Williams Emerald scrubbable line or equivalent).
- Mailroom and amenity rooms — typically the highest traffic per square foot in the HOA. Two coats minimum, urethane-modified finish for durability.
If your quote lumps these together as “common areas, two coats latex,” the painter doesn’t understand the use cases. Get separate line items per area.
How should the schedule work to minimise resident impact?
Three windows commercial painters in Northern Virginia typically work in HOAs:
- Early mornings (5-9 AM) for high-traffic areas like fitness centers and pool buildings before resident arrival.
- Mid-morning to early afternoon for less-trafficked corridors and back-of-house spaces.
- Weekend overnights for full lobbies or amenity rooms where resident displacement is too disruptive on weekdays.
The right schedule is documented in the quote with shift hours, days of week, and which areas are off-limits during work. Vague language like “we work around your schedule” means the painter hasn’t thought it through.
What warranty terms protect the HOA across board turnover?
Two-year minimum on labor with documented coverage events. The warranty should be in writing on the contract and should specify:
- What’s covered: peeling, flaking, color shift, finish failure on substrate
- What’s not: physical damage from residents, water intrusion from above, settling cracks
- How to claim: documented contact, response window (48 hours standard), repair timeline
Board terms in most Northern Virginia HOAs are 1-3 years. A warranty that requires the original signing board members to validate the claim is a warranty that won’t be honored when needed. Ask explicitly: “Will you honor this warranty if the entire board has turned over?”
What should HOA boards put in the RFP to get comparable quotes?
A one-page RFP gets comparable bids; a verbal request gets three different stories. Include:
- Map of areas to be painted with square footage estimates per area
- Current condition of each surface (newly built, previously painted, damage notes)
- Required products or constraints (low-VOC mandatory in amenity buildings, antimicrobial in pool areas, fire-rated in stairwells)
- Scheduling constraints (no work during Saturday morning yoga, no work after 7 PM in residential corridors)
- Insurance + COI requirements
- Warranty expectations (term length, covered events, response time)
- Deliverables (before/after photo log, product spec sheet, warranty document)
A commercial painter who responds to an RFP with a one-page quote is telling you they don’t do this work often enough to have a process.
What’s a typical timeline for an HOA common-area repaint?
A clubhouse interior runs 5-10 working days. A pool building exterior plus pool-area fencing runs 7-14 working days. A full common-corridor repaint in a 200-unit condo building runs 4-6 weeks with overnight work to avoid resident impact.
Add 2-3 weeks for product lead time on specialty finishes (fire-rated, antimicrobial). Add another 1-2 weeks if weather is a factor on exterior work.
How should the HOA document the work for the next board?
Three documents the painter should hand over on completion:
- Color and product schedule — every area, every product, every color reference. Saved with the management company.
- Photo log — before, in-progress, after, with timestamps.
- Warranty document — signed by both parties, with claim contact information.
This pack is what makes the next board’s repaint cycle smooth. Without it, the next board starts from scratch.
If you’re an HOA board researching commercial painters for an upcoming common-area project — request a written RFP response and walkthrough at appaloosapaintingco.com.
