A condo board approved a corridor colour from a paint chip and had all twenty floors done — by floor six, half the owners were asking to change it
A board president called me in after another contractor’s corridor repaint had stalled partway up the building. The board had picked a warm grey from a 5 cm paint chip at a meeting table, signed the contract, and the crew started at the top. By the time six floors were done, owners were emailing the manager that the walls looked purple under the corridor lights, the eggshell showed every roller lap, and the doors didn’t match the walls. Nobody had seen the real thing before it was on the walls. This post covers why I insist on a mock-up floor before a full corridor repaint, what it should include, and how the board signs it off. It’s for condo boards and property managers, not homeowners.
1. A paint chip is not a colour decision
A chip is a few square centimetres under the boardroom lights. A corridor is 60 metres of wall under your building’s actual lighting, with carpet, door colour and trim all reflecting into it. The same grey can read warm, cool or slightly purple depending on what’s around it, and it almost always looks darker on a full wall than on the chip.
Boards don’t make a bad choice. They just make it from the wrong information. Once 300 litres of paint are tinted and on the walls, changing your mind costs real money.
What to look at: Never approve a corridor colour from a chip or a screen. Ask to see it painted, full height, in the building.
2. Paint one whole floor first, not a patch
A 1-metre sample square on a wall helps a little, but it doesn’t show you what owners will actually see. I prefer to paint one full floor as the mock-up: walls, door frames, doors if they’re in scope, and the ceiling if it’s included. I pick a floor near the middle of the building, with typical lighting and traffic, and do it exactly the way the rest will be done.
That floor becomes the standard. The board, the manager and a couple of owners can walk it at different times of day before anything else is ordered.
What to look at: Ask the contractor whether the mock-up floor is in the price and schedule. If it isn’t, ask why.
3. Judge the sheen and workmanship, not only the colour
The colour gets all the attention, but most of the complaints I hear later are about sheen and finish. An eggshell that’s too shiny shows every dent and patch in the drywall under corridor lights. A flat that’s too dull scuffs the first time a suitcase hits it. I go through how to pick the right one in paint sheen and washability for common areas.
The mock-up also shows workmanship: how patches are feathered, how clean the cut lines are at the ceiling and trim, and whether the doors are smooth or brushy.
What to look at: Walk the mock-up floor with a flashlight held flat against the wall. Patches, laps and holidays show up right away.
4. Sign it off in writing as the standard for every floor
Once the board is happy, I put it in writing: the colour codes, the sheen for walls, trim and doors, the number of coats, and a short note that the mock-up floor is the quality standard for the rest of the building. A few photos go with it.
That one page saves arguments later. If floor 14 doesn’t look like the mock-up, it gets fixed, and nobody has to debate what “good” means. It also makes the end-of-job check much easier, which I cover in the deficiency walkthrough after a condo repaint.
What to look at: Make sure the sign-off names the product, colour, sheen and coats. “Grey, two coats” isn’t a standard.
5. Build a week of buffer into the schedule
A mock-up floor adds about a week to the start of a corridor job: a couple of days to paint it, a few days for people to walk it, and a quick board decision. Boards sometimes want to skip it to save time. In my experience it’s the cheapest week of the whole project. Changing a colour after 20 floors are done costs a lot more than waiting five days.
What to look at: Put the mock-up review on the board’s calendar before the contract starts, so the decision doesn’t stall the crew.
What to do if you’re seeing any of this
If your board is planning a corridor repaint, or one is already underway and owners are unhappy with how it looks, I’ll walk the building with you, set up a mock-up floor, and give you a written standard and a scope the board can approve. I work with condominium corporations and property managers across Ottawa — Kanata, Nepean, Barrhaven, Orleans, Westboro and Stittsville — on corridor and common area repaints. Call 613.325.3011 or email yasir@heims.ca.
— Yasir, HEIMS Construction
HEIMS Construction is an Ottawa-based commercial painting and drywall contractor serving condominium corporations, property managers and institutional clients across the Ottawa area. Fully licensed and insured, with $5M commercial general liability coverage.