Commercial Painting in San Antonio

Painting from a drywall crew

Most commercial painters stop at the surface. When they hit a hole, a crack or a water-stained ceiling, they paint around it or tell you to find a drywall contractor. We are the drywall contractor. A-Best has hung and finished drywall in San Antonio since 2003, so we cut out bad board, patch it, match the texture, prime it and paint the wall as one job.

That is what most commercial repaints actually need. A suite between tenants has anchor holes, dents and a patched-over leak. An apartment turn has doorknob holes and nail pops. A warehouse office has years of cart and pallet-jack damage along the lower walls. Paint alone fixes none of that.

Commercial painting is part of our commercial drywall work, and it runs alongside our tenant finish-outs and multi-family jobs. Painting a home instead? See house painting in San Antonio.

What we paint

• Offices & conference rooms: walls, ceilings, doors and frames
• Retail suites: between tenants or before an opening
• Warehouse offices & break rooms: the finished side of the building
• Apartment units & common areas: turns, corridors and leasing offices
• Drywall ceilings & soffits: flat finishes that hide seams under the lights
• Patch-and-paint repairs: holes, dents, cracks and water stains

Why touch-ups show, and how we stop it

The most common complaint about a commercial repaint is patches that still show once the paint dries. There are two causes. The first is flashing: joint compound soaks up paint differently than the painted wall around it, so a patch that only gets spot-painted dries to a different sheen and shows up as a dull or shiny square when the lights hit it. We prime every repair and then paint the whole wall from corner to corner, not just the patch.

The second is texture. A smooth patch in the middle of an orange-peel or knockdown wall shows from across the room, whatever color is on it. Matching texture is everyday work for our drywall crews, so the repair disappears before the first coat goes on.

Office lighting shows everything

Rows of ceiling fixtures and daylight through storefront glass skim across a wall and pick out every seam and sanded joint. Paint won't hide that, and a higher sheen makes it worse. Where the lighting is harsh, the wall may need a smoother drywall finish before it is painted. Our guide to drywall finish levels explains when a Level 5 skim coat is worth paying for. If your job needs one, we tell you before we start, not after the paint is on.

Working in occupied buildings

Most commercial painting happens while the building is open. We mask off the work area, keep paths clear for staff and customers, and clean up at the end of every shift. Where people will be back at their desks the next morning, we can use low-odor, low-VOC paint. For apartment turns, we work to your make-ready schedule so the unit is ready for the next move-in.

Kitchens, restrooms and walls that get scrubbed

Paint is not always the right finish. Restaurant kitchens, food prep rooms and some restrooms need walls that are smooth, durable and easy to clean, and flat or eggshell paint won't stand up to daily scrubbing. In those rooms we install FRP (fiberglass reinforced plastic) panels, then paint everything around them, so one bid covers both.

Who we work for

We work directly for property managers, building owners and businesses, and as the painting or drywall subcontractor for general contractors. You get a free written bid, a certificate of insurance for your file, and one point of contact from the walk-through to the punch list.