Condo Painting in Lowell, MA.

Census data place 35.4% of the city's housing units in buildings of five units or more, with 10.3% in buildings of 50 or more, and 26.6% in buildings with two to four units. Only about three in ten units are single-family detached houses. Not every multi-unit building is a condominium, but anyone who owns a unit or sits on an association board here is dealing with the same mix: old construction, shared walls, and residents who still need to get in and out while work is going on.

Condo painting splits into two kinds of jobs. Inside a unit, the owner hires and pays for the work within whatever limits the association sets. Hallways, stairwells, lobbies, entry doors and exteriors are common areas, and the board or its management company hires the painter. Your master deed and bylaws define which surfaces fall on which side of that line, including in-between items like unit entry doors and balconies.

Painting inside your own unit

Wall color inside a unit is generally the owner's call, but associations can set rules on work hours, elevator use, contractor insurance and where debris and drop cloths go. Read the rules or ask the manager before booking. If your unit's windows, entry door or balcony are visible from outside, check whether changing their color requires board approval.

If you rent the unit out, schedule painting between tenants when possible. In a building from before 1978, a child under six moving in triggers Massachusetts Lead Law duties for the unit owner, and any contractor disturbing over six square feet of a room's paint has to work under EPA lead-safe rules.

Common areas in occupied buildings

Hallways and stairwells can't be closed for a week. The workable approach is to paint in sections, keep one route through the building open and dry at all times, post notices a few days ahead with the schedule for each floor, and use low-odor coatings since residents' doors open onto the work area. Handrails and doors get a durable enamel that tolerates frequent cleaning.

With 75.1% of units in pre-1980 buildings, older common areas may have decades of paint on stair balusters, wainscoting and door casings. Scraping and sanding that paint in a building from before 1978 calls for containment and HEPA cleanup, which also keeps dust out of neighboring units. Our lead-safe painting page explains what those rules involve.

• Agree on which floors or stairwells are painted on which days
• Confirm where materials are stored overnight and how the site is secured
• Name one board member or manager as the contact for resident questions

Insurance paperwork before work begins

A board or management company may ask contractors for a certificate of insurance listing the association as certificate holder, and sometimes as additional insured. AJ Painting is licensed and insured; share your manager's required certificate wording when you request an estimate. Asking every contractor in the building for the same paperwork protects the association if a common area or a neighboring unit is damaged.

Buildings in a historic district

Condo buildings inside the Downtown Lowell Historic District face a stricter rule than most: altering any exterior feature, and interior work when it changes how the exterior looks, needs Historic Board review and approval before work starts. The Acre Neighborhood District has the same full-exterior review. Before an exterior repaint or a change to storefront, window or door colors in either district, the board should contact Historic Board staff.

For neighborhood housing details, see the Acre, Back Central and Centralville.