Miami Beach ยท 33139
Salt shortens every coating interval on the Beach, and a maintenance plan copied from an inland building underestimates all of them.
Three things run at once here and all of them attack a coating. Ultraviolet breaks down the binder all year, driving rain arrives for half of it, and salt reaches everything within a few miles of the water and accelerates corrosion under the film.
The practical effect is that a product rated for a decade elsewhere can be finished here in five or six years, and sooner on a west elevation. Planning on the label rather than on the exposure is how a building ends up needing repair rather than repainting.
What we get called for here
What is different here
Railings, frames and fixings near salt water corrode from the edges and the fasteners inward. On the Beach they usually need attention on a three to five year cycle rather than the seven to ten a stucco wall might get.
A pressure washer aimed at a failed sealant joint drives water into the wall and strips sealant that had years left. Joints get repaired first, then the wash, then the coating.
Paint lifting off in blisters is water behind the film trying to escape, so recoating fails the same way. The source has to be found first, and here it is usually a failed joint, a blocked scupper or a parapet detail.
In practice
Hotels and restaurant frontages never get a quiet week, so the scheduling problem is as real as the coating one. Elevations get taken in sequence rather than all at once, noisy and disruptive work gets a window agreed in advance, and frontage work is planned around trading rather than negotiated on the morning.
Season matters too. The dry months, roughly November to April, give lower humidity, fewer afternoon storms and a longer usable working day, but they are also the busiest trading months on the Beach. Wet season work is possible and we do it, with the forecast watched and elevations sequenced around rain, and it takes longer.
Painting, caulking, sealing, pressure washing and the surface repair around all of it are performed by our own W-2 employees and require no Florida contractor licence. Where a wash or a survey exposes a roofing detail, a structural crack or an electrical fitting that has taken water, those are licensed trades and we scope and coordinate them rather than coating over the symptom.
Common questions
Roughly five to seven years on coastal stucco with sound substrate, and three to five on previously coated metal, railings and trim. Salt, ultraviolet and driving rain all run at once here, so a product rated for a decade inland can be finished in half that on the Beach.
Salt corrosion working under the film, starting at edges and fixings. Coating over it without taking the metal back and priming properly traps the corrosion and the new film lifts the same way. Metalwork near the water needs a shorter cycle than the walls around it.
Yes, by sequencing elevations rather than taking the whole building at once and agreeing windows for anything noisy or disruptive. Frontage work gets planned around trading. Tell us your pattern when you raise the job so it is priced that way from the start.
The dry season, roughly November to April, gives lower humidity and fewer storms, though it is also the busiest trading period on the Beach. Wet season work is possible with the forecast watched and elevations sequenced around rain, and it takes longer.
Further reading
Also in Miami Beach
One number for the whole scope, including the make-good after another trade has finished.
Everything we do in Miami Beach
Other submarkets we have written up
The same trade by property type
Background-checked, insured and on our payroll, so one company stays accountable for the result. Tell us the property and the problem and we will come back with a window.
