For our latest Project Blog entry, we're happy to present a very large ceiling project for one of the world’s biggest food companies. It was a challenging project, but with our extensive background in industrial and commercial painting, specifically for the food industry, the undertaking turned out quite well indeed.
All in all, we sent 30+ painters to work the job. Working an 8-day shutdown, our painters put in 12-hour around-the-clock shifts to complete the job in timely, efficient fashion. Ultimately, our painters coated 10,000 square feet of corrugated metal ceiling. But, before we could do that, we had to remove the existing coating down to the bare metal substrate before applying a two-part macropoxy.
To access the ceiling, we had to specialized scaffolding built around the plant's machinery (on the floor). This was necessary because we could not access the ceiling with lifts. And, since it is a food processing facility, we were required to have 100% containment of old and new paint, according to USDA and FDA guidelines.
Initially, we used hand tools to remove the existing coating. However, after the first day it became apparent that we would need to sandblast the paint off so that we could maintain the tight 8-day deadline we had to complete the project. In keeping with safety standards for containment, all of our employees wore full respirator masks to prevent inhalation of blast media and other waste. Clean-up consisted of shoveling this blast media and waste into garbage bags, then carrying them down 30 feet of scaffolding to be disposed offsite. The materials we used were all USDA and FDA compliant and stand up to the constant daily cleaning required in the food industry.
If your food processing industry facility needs similar ceiling work, feel free to contact us. We're happy to show you our past work, and come to the best approach for your facility.