High-traffic areas, such as the hallways of aged care facilities, schools, and hospitals, tend to need to be cleaned or re-painted regularly. This is due to these hallways being used by wheelchair users, walker users, children, and heavy-duty machinery on a daily basis. It is important to ensure that these walls in the hallways are kept as clean and professional-looking as possible.
At SG Coatings, we pride ourselves on using high-quality materials, that will provide the best possible outcome for your commercial or residential property.
There are a number of professional painting strategies that can be utilized to ensure the hallways and other walls of hospitals, aged care facilities, and schools.
How do you choose the right type of paint for these high-traffic areas?
There are a few different strategies to be able to make sure you’re choosing the right type of paint for the required areas:
- For areas that have people traversing through on a regular basis, such as these kinds of hallways it is important to try and get paint that has anti-microbial or antibacterial properties included in it. This will be beneficial, especially in these types of environments, as many of the people that are going through the areas of aged care and hospitals in particular, are immune compromised. Even with schools, due to the bacteria and general bugs that children carry around on a daily basis, it is important to try and get the additional anti-microbial properties included in the paint you choose. Australian Paint Makers provides more information on anti-microbial paints.
- Choose paints that are either zero-volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) paints or even just low-VOC paints. This will allow the painting to happen even if there are people in the area, without causing additional distress due to the added fumes of paint.
- By having washable paints that will allow the maintenance staff to easily clean the walls on a regular or even daily basis, without compromising the longevity of the surface. This will also support a clean and professional appearance in aged care facilities and hospitals, whilst also being able to easily remove any graffiti or visible marks from school walls.
- It is recommended that for high-traffic areas such as hallways use either epoxy or polyurethane paints, as this will also contribute to more durable and low-maintenance surfaces.
Have professional painters correctly prepare the surfaces prior to their painting.
By using the following tips to prepare the surfaces prior to painting, you can ensure that the final look will be professional, clean, and welcoming for patients, clients, students, and others.
- Repair any damage to the walls made from cracks, holes, or general wear and tear as your first step. This will mean a smooth and neat look at the end of the process.
- It is imperative to thoroughly clean the surfaces of the walls prior to painting. This will remove any lingering grease, dirt, or bacteria to safeguard against further contaminants or the paint not adhering correctly.
- A primer must be applied after repairing and cleaning the walls. This will further guarantee the final result will have a professional and enduring finish.
- Use a professional painting team, such as SG Coatings to provide the highest quality of service, advice, and professionalism when consulting with you regarding the space that needs to be refreshed.
Colour is important.
When thinking about the areas you want to have painted, you need to consider the colour of the paint and the purpose of the room too.
- Schools:
- Bright, happy, and encouraging colours are typically used in schools, to help promote learning and harmony. These are colours such as yellow, green, and blue.
- The purpose of the room you are painting is important, to ensure you are getting the most out of the colours being used. For example, school hallways would benefit from a pale yellow or neutral colouring, whereas classrooms may be better with blues and greens which have been found to psychologically promote calmness, enhance concentration and promote well-being. Purple can be used to spark imagination, so this may be a good colour choice for an art room.
- Hospitals:
- Calming colours and neutral colours are important for hospital environments, as they are usually quite a high stress place to be.
- For children’s wards, it is good to have a beige coloured wall but liven it up and make it fun with colourful murals, noticeboards and kids’ artwork. This will promote the fun and provide distractions for children and their families in what can be a scary place or situation.
- For adults’ wards, you can use very pale colours, such as blues, greens or violets. It is very important to avoid bright or glaring colour schemes, including oranges, reds or yellows as this can incite energy inducing behaviours.
- For hallways, which are some of the highest traffic areas in hospitals, using beige or neutral colours is often a popular choice. In some hospitals, they do choose to use a feature colour to denote entries or specified areas.
- Aged Care Facilities:
- For aged care facilities, they tend to use pastel or paler colours, such as you would find in the average home. This is to encourage a feeling of homeliness, restfulness, peace and comfort.
- Many residents of aged care facilities may be experiencing the effects of either Dementia or Alzheimer’s. Therefore, by providing a calming and restful environment through the colour palate, it allows these clients to feel more at home.
- Our team at SG Coatings have written a blog that you can read titled 5 Key Considerations Before Hiring a Painter for Your Aged Care Facility.
The Department of Health have additional information on how and where to use colour.
Since 2014, our friendly and professional team at SG Coatings have been providing high quality service to both commercial and residential properties. We are available to speak with you about your next commercial painting project. Whether it is a small touch up job or a full-scale re-paint or refresh, we have the tools and expertise to support you through this process. We can provide a colour consultation or even an obligation free quote when you make contact with us.
