Paint Booth Installation Overview & Checklist
Whether your considering a paint booth for a new facility, relocating an existing paint booth, or looking to make an upgrade to your existing building , there are quite a few steps that are involved in getting a paint booth installed and properly permitted. The intent of this guide and checklist is to provide a quick and easy overview of the various organizations and individuals you will want to call and coordinate with to ensure your paint booth installation is smooth and to minimize any risk of potential regulatory challenges. Will cover the steps in great detail as well as a short summary as a checklist at the end of the article.
Step 1 - Crticical Certifying Bodies to Contact
When considering installing a paint booth it can be helpful to initiate contact with your authority having jurisdiction for safety compliance. In most areas this will be your local fire marshal who will be responsible for approving a paint booth in your facility. By contacting them at the start of evaluating a potential paint booth you can ensure that there are not any additional unique criteria for paint booths that your local authority wants in place; nationally paint booths have a variety of codes that apply including NFPA 33, the International Building Code, and OSHA regulations. Your local authority is responsible for ensuring a paint booth meets the proper requirements and is being evaluated in accordance with national regulations. Your local authority can request requirements beyond the national standards and so involving them prior to pursuing a provider for a paint booth can help ensure the process is as smooth as possible. Additional pertinent certifying officials include your building inspector and insurance company. Both of these groups should be notified at the start of considering installation of a paint booth. The building inspector will help to determine any specific requirements that will be required to obtain an occupancy permit. A building inspector can often require engineer stamped drawings or atleast submittal drawings of a paint booth, submittal drawings are often issued after an order is placed while engineered drawings will typically require an upfront fee to obtain, knowing your building spectors requirements can help you know if you will have to work with your paint booth provider on engineered drawings prior to purchasing the paint booth. The insurance company is important to notify because they will often reassess your insurance coverage based on whether your adding painting or making your current paint process safer. Finally in addition to the fire marshal, building inspector, and insurance company, you will also want to ensure you have obtained any critical state permits. Whether your spraying water or solvent based materials, you will want to contact the EPA for your state. The EPA will want to learn more about what you will be spraying and the volume you will be spraying to help determine what level producer of hazardous air pollutants you will be considered. Coordinating with them will ensure you obtain proper permits.Step 2 - Look at Paint Booth Options
Step 2 can occur while your discussing details with the various organizations mentioned or it can occur first to see if the project makes sense from a budget standpoint. By knowing any local requirements that are beyond national standards you can ensure a potential paint booth vendor will be able to modify their equipment to properly meet the additional local standard. Otherwise any quotation by a paint booth provider should show that national requirements are met or if they are not that the booth is deemed compliant by your local authority.
Step 3 - Verify Local Authority Acceptance of Plans
After receiving quotes for a paint booth and a fire suppression system, you will then want to speak with the certifying officials again based on the paint booth you will be moving forward with. You will want to ensure they see no problems with the paint booth manufacturer and planned installation of the booth and verify if any additional paperwork will be required (submittal drawings etc). If these additional drawings are required you may want to verify your paint booth provider can / does offer that with paint booth purchase.Step 4 - Order your Paint Booth & Continue Permitting Process
After verifying everything with the local authority and building inspector as well as state permitting agency, next you can order the paint booth. If submittals are required you will want to make sure your paint booth provider will provide them. While waiting for drawings you should continue to finalize any details for occupancy and environmental permitting as well as coordinate any specifics of your specific paint booth project like installation service scheduling (if offered by the paint booth provider and selected), drawing submission for approval, and preparing the space for the booths arrival.
Step 5 - Prepare for paint booth arrival, Receive paint booth and Install Properly
After all details have been verified the final step will be to prepare space for the paint booth to arrive. It is also important to coordinate with the paint booth manufacturer to ensure you have proper equipment onsite for unloading of the paint booth. Letting the manufacturer know prior to delivery of the booth will ensure they select a freight company that is set up with any additional accessories needed for your delivery like a lift gate. After receipt of the booth uncrate it and verify you have received all listed items. Install in accordance with instructions.
Step 6 - Local Authority official visit
After installation the final step that is often required is the certifying official will want to visit. By coordinating with the local authority throughout the process it is much less likely that they will be surprised by anything that you have done (as long as you communicate well with them throughout the project).
Checklist of Process
- Prior to evaluating booth purchase or while evaluating paint booth project - contact EPA for environmental permits, building inspector for occupancy related permitting requirements, insurance company to verify and needed rate changes, and local authority having jurisdiction for code enforcement (commonly your fire marshal) to ensure booth considered will meet requirements and learn any specific local requirements for your paint booth project
- Gather paint booth proposals and fire suppression system proposal for the paint booth
- Submit proposal of choice to fire marshal and building inspector to ensure they are satisfied with code compliance of desired paint booth and verify if engineered drawings may be needed prior to ordering of a potential paint booth or if submittal drawings will be needed. Verify the paint booth provider you are considering can meet all drawing and design requirements for your paint booth.
- Order the paint booth
- Coordinate with city where paint booth will be placed and building inspector to ensure any drawings and additional documentation is in place
- Install paint booth
- Verify with fire marshal and building inspector if any additional review is required by them
- Verify with the state that proper environmental permits have been obtained before using the paint booth