Ads on Skyscrapers: How Painting a Tall Building Works

Getting on the outside for skyscraper maintenance and work is a death-defying task. Now, imagine a 10 story ad get painted on the exterior of a tall building in just a few days. How exactly does the ad get on a skyscraper? Here’s how painting a tall building works.

The industry’s best can paint a tall building ad in a week or so, with a team of 4 painters. Planning and producing the building advertisement starts weeks in advance of the painting. Here are the secrets.

Plan

First, the painters received a very detailed small version of the ad. Using a grid method, the squares are enlarged piece by piece to make a large plotted out map for the side of the building.

Secondly, pieces of material, about five feet wide, are used to create each individual square. An electric current pen is used to trace holes in the material to follow on the side of the building.

Climb

Next the team brings the material to the building area. The material is draped down the side of the facade to be painted. Charcoal is used to give the painters a basic stencil to work with when they are creating the painting.

Finally, the crew climbs into their scaffolding or other precarious methods of getting to the side of the building to paint.

How do painters get on the side of the building?

There are several methods to get to the side of the building and do their work.

Bosun’s Chair

A bosun’s chair is much like a swing, attached to a railing on the roof of the skyscraper. A single worker sits in it, while hanging all of their appropriate tools off of it. It’s a seated position so it’s comfortable for longer jobs, it also allows for easy movement around the project, independent of other workers. A word of advice: don’t forget anything.

Boom

A boom is one of the oldest ways to get a crew on the side of a building. It’s hauls more than one worker at a time, usually. Therefore, it is a fixed item on the side of the building, permanently attached, similar to an elevator…outside.

Carriage

A carriage is a more cost effective alternative to a boom. It’s mounted to the roof, but can move around the building allowing for one carriage to be used on multiple sides of the building. It will move several workers up and down the building.

Challenges of high building work

Painting, cleaning or making repairs on the side of a building is all more complicated by being high in the air. Forgetting a tool, dropping a screw or missing a paintbrush can make it impossible.

Heights

As you can imagine, working on the outside of a skyscraper is not for the faint of heart. Furthermore, if learning how painting a tall building works gives you sweaty palms and quivering knees, you’re not alone. Only the most steel willed painters can dangle stories above the pavement and produce a beautiful outcome.

Environment

The wind, rain, and heat is all amplified when you are high off the ground. You have to be prepared to work in these elements when they are all working against you. It doesn’t take a large gust or big rain storm to swing any of the contraptions around the side of a building like a fishing lure.