Working in occupied premises

Decorating lift lobbies without stopping the lift

A lift lobby is one of the few spaces every resident or worker in a building passes through daily, which makes it hard to close and easy to damage the moment it reopens. Out-of-hours working is usually the only way to repaint one without leaving people without a lift for days.

Lift lobby with individually masked call buttons and freshly painted surrounding walls overnight

Working the lobby, not the lift shaft

We're decorating the lobby walls, ceiling and doors surrounding the lift, not the lift mechanism itself, so the lift keeps running throughout in almost every case. The main constraint is keeping the call button, indicator panel and door edges fully clear and unpainted at all times.

Protecting the lift doors and controls

Lift call buttons and floor indicators are masked individually rather than covered as a block, so residents can still call the lift normally throughout the work. Door edges and thresholds get careful masking too, since these move and flex constantly and poorly masked paint here chips almost immediately.

Call buttons and indicators masked individually, kept fully operational
Door edges masked to a line that survives repeated opening and closing
Threshold plates left completely clear of paint

Sequencing floor by floor overnight

In a multi-storey block we usually complete one lobby per night, allowing full drying before the first residents pass through in the morning. Starting a new floor's lobby only once the previous one has fully cured avoids a queue of half-finished spaces across the building at once.

One lobby completed and fully dry before the next is started
Ground floor and main entrance lobby usually held until last, being the busiest

Signage and temporary lighting overnight

Working overnight in a lobby means working under the building's normal lighting, which is rarely bright enough for careful finish work. We bring our own task lighting, and we sign the lobby clearly for any resident who does pass through late, directing them to the working lift car and a safe route past the wet paint.

How we work on this

We keep the lift itself running throughout lobby decoration in almost every case.
We mask call buttons and door edges individually so lifts stay fully operational during the work.
We complete and fully dry one lobby before starting the next, avoiding half-finished spaces across a block.

Questions we are asked about this

Will the lift itself be out of service during the work?

No, in almost all cases the lift keeps running — we're working on the surrounding lobby, not the mechanism, and we mask the buttons and doors so the lift stays fully usable.

How many lobbies can be finished in one night?

Typically one per night per team, to allow full drying before morning traffic, though this depends on the lobby's size and how much surface preparation is needed.

What if a resident needs to pass through while paint is still wet?

We keep a clear, well-lit path to the lift car at all times and sign the wet paint areas plainly, so anyone passing through overnight can do so safely.