How to Price Painting Elevator Doors and Frames

In an apartment building, hotel, office or hospital, the elevator lobby is one of the most looked at spaces in the building. The doors are scratched by carts and luggage, the frames are chipped by deliveries, and a lobby refresh often starts with the question of whether the elevator doors can be painted. They often can, but elevator entrances are not ordinary doors. They are part of a machine maintained by another trade, they are usually part of a rated opening, and the building needs them working.

This guide is for the painting contractor pricing the refinishing of painted steel elevator doors and frames. It explains what the painter can and cannot touch, how to count and band entrances, how to work with the elevator contractor and the building, and how to build a price that covers the constraints. For the lobby and common area side of hotel work, see hotel painting projects, and for pricing the stair core that usually sits beside the elevators, see how much to charge to paint a stairwell. This post is about the elevator entrances themselves.

What an elevator entrance is made of

Each floor has a hoistway entrance: a frame around the opening, one or more sliding doors, a header above and a sill at the floor. Inside the car there are car doors that move with the landing doors, and a cab with its own walls and ceiling. On many buildings, the landing doors and frames are painted steel. On others, they are stainless steel, bronze, or clad in laminate or panels, which are not painted.

The painter should identify the finish on every entrance on every floor. Stainless and other metal finishes are refinished by specialist methods, not paint. Painted steel doors and frames are what the painter prices. Mixed buildings are common: stainless on the ground floor lobby and painted steel on the upper floors, or painted doors inside stainless frames.

The car interior is a separate item. Cab walls may be painted steel, laminate panels, wood or metal, and cab renovations are often done by specialist cab interior companies. The car doors, which the passengers see from inside, may or may not be in scope.

What belongs to the elevator contractor

Elevators are maintained by licensed elevator contractors under service agreements, and many jurisdictions restrict who can work on or in the hoistway. The door operators, hangers, tracks, gibs, sills, interlocks, closers and safety edges are all part of the elevator system. None of them is a painting surface, and the painter should not touch or adjust them.

That means the painter needs the elevator contractor involved from the start. The contractor can take each car out of service, lock the doors open or closed as needed, and advise on what can be painted and how thick the paint can be on the door faces and edges. In some buildings, the contractor removes the doors for refinishing off site. The painter should never enter the hoistway, never remove doors on their own, and never paint in a way that could affect how the doors slide or seal.

The coordination has a cost. The elevator contractor time is usually billed to the owner separately, but the painter time spent waiting, scheduling around the contractor and working floor by floor belongs in the painting price. The general principle of making sure scope gaps between trades are written down is covered in painting scope gaps between trades.

Fire rated entrances and what stays unpainted

Elevator hoistway entrances are commonly part of fire rated assemblies, because the hoistway is a vertical shaft through the building. Rated entrances carry labels, and those labels must stay legible. Inspectors check them, and a painted over label can cause a failed inspection or a replacement.

The requirements for rated openings belong to the fire door standard, the entrance manufacturer, the elevator code and the local authority, not to the painter. For owners who need the detail, the NFPA development page for the fire door standard is one starting point. In practice, the painter masks every label, avoids painting any seals or gaskets, and asks the elevator contractor or owner before doing anything beyond surface paint. It is general information on pricing, not legal or safety advice, and the owner, elevator contractor and authority having jurisdiction set the requirements for each building.

Counting entrances floor by floor

Elevator entrances are priced by the unit. A building with a bank of cars serving many floors has an entrance for each car at each floor, plus any rear or side openings. A count of entrances, with the number of door panels per entrance, gives the basis for the price.

Door configuration matters. A single speed door has one panel sliding to one side. A two speed door has two panels that telescope. A center opening door has two panels meeting in the middle, and a two speed center opening door has four. More panels mean more faces, more edges and more masking. Frames vary too: a narrow frame, a wide frame with a header and returns, or a frame with integrated hall buttons and lanterns.

A practical banding might be single panel entrances, two panel entrances and four panel entrances, with a separate band for wide or ornate frames. Car doors and cab interiors are counted separately. The count is easy to take floor by floor on the walk, and easy for the owner to check. Counting and banding works because each band carries a timed rate, as explained in painting production rates.

Hall buttons, lanterns and the details in the frame

Elevator frames carry fixtures: hall call buttons, hall lanterns, position indicators, floor numbers, braille plates and sometimes fire service signage. These are electrical and accessibility fixtures. The painter should mask them in place and not remove them, since removal usually requires the elevator contractor and may affect wiring.

Masking these fixtures on every entrance takes time, and the tape has to come off cleanly without damaging the fixture finish. Floor numbers and braille plates on the jambs are especially important: they must stay legible and in place. Frames with many fixtures sit in a higher band than plain frames.

Prep for scratched steel doors

Painted steel elevator doors are usually finished in a baked enamel or a hard field applied coating. Years of carts, luggage and deliveries leave scratches, dents, chips and scuffs, especially at cart height and at the leading edges. The prep is similar to any hard painted steel: cleaning and degreasing, sanding scratches smooth, filling where needed, abrading the sound finish and spot priming bare metal.

Dents in elevator doors are difficult. Filling and sanding a dent on a sliding door face takes time, and the result is visible under lobby lighting, especially in higher sheens. Deep dents or bent panels are a replacement item for the elevator contractor. The painter should agree with the owner which defects will be filled and which will remain, and price the prep by condition band. The general method for pricing repair work as its own line is in how to price repairs on a painting job.

Film build, sheen and doors that slide

Elevator doors slide in tracks and run close to their frames and neighboring panels. A thick build of paint on the door edges or on the faces near the frame can cause rubbing or affect how the doors close. For that reason, the painter should keep the film thin and even, especially at the edges, and follow the elevator contractor guidance on what can be coated.

Sheen is a common owner choice. Higher sheens look richer and are easier to clean, but they show every dent and imperfection. Lower sheens hide defects but mark more easily. Many owners choose a satin or semi gloss as a compromise. The product is usually a durable enamel or urethane, sprayed or rolled with a fine finish roller. Solvent and waterborne choices are weighed in latex versus oil based paint.

One car out of service at a time

A building needs its elevators. In an apartment block, a hospital or a hotel, taking all the cars out of service at once is rarely acceptable. Most elevator refinishing is done one car at a time, often at night or on weekends, with each car out of service for a set period. The elevator contractor schedule and the building schedule together decide when the painter can work.

That sequencing adds time. The painter works on one car bank floor by floor, then waits for the next car to be released. Paint has to dry before the doors are returned to service, which may mean the doors stay locked for a set time after painting. Odor in a closed lobby may limit the products that can be used during occupied hours. These constraints belong in the price, and the method for pricing staged and after hours work is in how to price a painting job done in phases. In a condo building, the rules of the association add another layer, covered in how to price painting jobs in condo buildings.

Protecting lobbies, sills and passengers

Elevator lobbies are finished spaces with stone, tile, carpet and wall finishes that must be protected. Sills and thresholds are part of the elevator system and must stay clean and clear. In occupied buildings, passengers still use the other cars, so the work area must be signed, taped off and kept safe.

Protection takes time on every floor. Masking the floor, the walls around the entrance, the fixtures and the sill, then removing it all cleanly, can take as long as the painting on a single entrance. The labels and safety data sheets for the products used, and the system for communicating their hazards to others in the building, are explained on the OSHA hazard communication page. Where a car must be locked out of service while the painter works on it, the general principles of controlling hazardous energy are set out on the OSHA lockout page, though in practice the elevator contractor handles that step.

Building the elevator entrance price

A clear elevator line lists the entrances by band, with the count in each, and separate items for car doors, cab interiors if included, and any frames in a different finish. It states the prep assumed, the products and coats, what is masked, and what is excluded: all elevator equipment, sills, tracks, operators, fixtures, stainless and metal finishes, and any work in the hoistway.

The estimate should state that the elevator contractor must take cars out of service and advise on the work, and that their charges are billed separately. It should state the schedule assumed, such as one car at a time at night, and what happens if the elevator contractor is not available. The wording of those assumptions is covered in painting bid exclusions and clarifications, and the broader commercial estimate structure is in the commercial painting estimate guide.

Keeping records by car and by floor

Elevator entrances are repetitive, which makes them good to time. On each job, record the entrances by band, the condition, the method, the hours for masking, prep and each coat, and the time spent waiting for cars to be released. After a few buildings, those records give rates per entrance for the painting estimate rate card, along with a realistic allowance for the coordination that every elevator job needs.

With those rates, a painter can price a lobby refresh that includes the elevators with confidence, and offer property managers a way to transform the most visible doors in the building without the cost and downtime of replacement.

Frequently asked questions

How do painters price painting elevator doors?

Most count the entrances floor by floor, band them by the number of door panels and frame type, and apply a rate per entrance from their own timed jobs, adding car doors, heavy prep and coordination time as separate items.

Can elevator doors be painted in place?

Often yes, with the elevator contractor taking the car out of service and advising on the work. In some buildings, the contractor removes the doors for off site refinishing instead.

What parts of an elevator should painters never paint?

Tracks, sills, operators, hangers, gibs, interlocks, safety edges, fixtures and fire labels. Anything that is part of the elevator system belongs to the elevator contractor.

Are elevator doors fire rated?

Hoistway entrances are commonly part of rated assemblies with labels that must stay legible. The owner, the elevator contractor and the local authority are the ones to confirm what applies in a given building.

Why does elevator painting take so long?

Cars are usually taken out of service one at a time, often at night, and every entrance needs careful masking of fixtures, sills and lobby finishes. Waiting for cars and drying time add to the schedule.

Can stainless steel elevator doors be painted?

They generally are not. Stainless and other metal finishes are refinished by specialist methods, and painting them usually lowers their appearance and durability.