Painting common areas and stairwells of apartment buildings in Geneva

Working in occupied premises: residents’ passage comes first

In a stairwell there is no closed-off site: it is the only way in and out of the flats. The whole method revolves around this constraint.

• Work flight by flight — one side of the stairwell, or every other flight, is painted, always leaving a clear route and a usable handrail.
• Controlled drying — freshly painted areas are marked off while they pass the dust-free and drying stages, never closed off in a single stretch.
• Progress signage — dated notices at the entrance and on the landings: what is painted, what remains, the precautions for the day.
• Agreed timing — noisy or odorous phases (sanding, first coat) are scheduled within windows agreed with the property manager or the condominium.

The aim is simple: a tenant or co-owner must be able to come home at any hour without being blocked or getting their shoes dirty.

Protecting floors, handrails and shared fittings

A common area is full of items that can neither be removed nor damaged: steps, stair nosings, handrails, letterboxes, the intercom, landing doors, the lift. Protection is set up before the first brushstroke.

Item	Protection applied
Steps and landings	Non-slip sheeting, cardboard or fixed site matting
Handrail	Protective film, fixings removed only where necessary
Letterboxes, intercom	Careful masking, access maintained
Entrance door, landing doors	Masking tape, handles left clear
Lift car and threshold	Surrounding area protected, call button left free

Protections are put up at the start of each phase and removed as work proceeds, so as not to turn the building into an obstacle course. Keeping fire-service access and exits clear remains the priority.

Surfaces specific to staircases

A stairwell is not painted like a living room. The surfaces here are varied, often high, sometimes old, and heavily used by the through-traffic.

• Stairwell walls — large surfaces, hand and removal-day marks, old patch repairs. Preparation, filling and reworking to restore an even shade over the full height.
• High ceilings and openings — accessed by mobile scaffold tower or a platform suited to the tight footprint of a stairwell; the stair void is made safe.
• Joinery and woodwork — frames, landing doors, balustrades, panelling. Keying and a finish suited to a surface that takes knocks.
• Handrails and metal — specific treatment of metal parts (handrails, ironwork) with a product suited to a very high-contact area.
• Dados — more exposed lower bands, given a finish that stands up to cleaning.

The choice of finishes (degree of matt, washability) is discussed according to the actual use of each area and the look sought by the condominium or owner.

Planning with the property manager or condominium so residents are not disturbed

In a building, the client is not the resident: it is the property manager, the agency or the condominium. Renovhome SA aligns its work with their processes and their calendar.

• Purchase order in the requested format — signed PDF, the property manager’s own platform or approved email.
• Resident information — a dated notice announcing the start, the areas concerned and the precautions, posted in advance and kept up to date.
• Agreed phasing — order of the flights, handling of bin days, deliveries and lift use.
• Dedicated contact — one person follows the job from measurement to handover; the property manager has a single contact, not a switchboard to call back.
• Condominium decision — for a co-ownership, works approved at the general meeting are commissioned on the basis of a detailed quote that the administrator can present to the co-owners.

A well-prepared common-areas project shows above all in this: no one in the building has had to change their habits.

Cleanliness, confidentiality and compliance

Three requirements weigh particularly heavily when working in the shared spaces of an inhabited building.

• Continuous cleanliness — the premises are cleaned at the end of each phase, not only at handover. No paint tins or dust sheets left lying around a hall over the weekend.
• Confidentiality of mandates — Renovhome SA never discloses the names or contact details of the property managers, agencies and condominiums it serves. This discretion is part of the service: a property manager has no reason to see its buildings displayed as public references.
• Cantonal compliance — a company (SA) registered with the Geneva Commercial Register, company ID CHE-356.898.007, a member of the Geneva employers’ association for construction trades (GGE), with professional liability insurance (certificates available on request).
• Warranty — completed works carry the two-year Swiss legal warranty (Art. 371 CO, Swiss Code of Obligations) covering defects in the work.

Statements and invoices are drawn up in the format expected by the property manager, with the purchase-order reference, so they fit into its accounting without friction.