Commercial painting permits and rules in Palm Beach County

Section 489.117 of the Florida Statutes puts painting and pressure washing on its list of work no city or county may license, and it bars a local government from requiring a state or local license to pull a permit for that work. Local occupational licenses adopted before 2021 expired on July 1, 2025, under s. 163.211.

The statute keeps one carve-out for towers. A local license for coating and cleaning work on roofs above the third story may continue, but only where the city or county had one in place before 2021. On an oceanfront high-rise we ask the building department whether one exists.

Romco Builders is a licensed Florida general contractor. Section 489.105 defines a general contractor's scope without a limit on the type of work, which helps when paint is one trade in a larger repair contract.

The state code's own permit-exempt list (Florida Building Code section 105.2) does not mention painting, so counties and cities amend it. Palm Beach County's amendment for unincorporated land lists "painting, papering, carpeting, and similar finish work, with no electrical or plumbing work" among the items that need no building permit, and Boynton Beach and Palm Springs carry the same wording in their own amendments.

That covers the coating, not the repairs. Spalled concrete, structural cracks and railing anchors are permitted work under the engineer of record, and a lift or truck in a public street can need a right-of-way permit. Those are scoped and permitted as their own items.

The Town of Palm Beach sends a change of color on a commercial building, or on one under the Landmarks Preservation Commission, to the Architectural Commission's chair, who passes it to staff or to the full commission. The town's review guide asks for current color photos, swatches and a color drawing, plus a condo association letter for a condo building.

Boca Raton requires a permit to paint the exterior of any structure other than a single-family home or duplex. Colors from the city's adopted palette get staff review; others go to the Community Appearance Board, which also approves any painting of stone, brick, pre-cast panels or architectural concrete.

Royal Palm Beach sends any change of color from repainting a commercial, industrial or multifamily building to its Planning and Zoning Commission. Tequesta's Planning and Zoning Board makes the final call on color-only changes. North Palm Beach counts color as an external architectural feature that needs site plan and appearance approval. Greenacres treats a color change as a minor site plan amendment decided by staff.

Wellington needs no paint permit, but colors on non-residential buildings and on multifamily buildings of more than six attached units must match the Architectural Review Board's color chart or be approved by it. In Delray Beach, a change of colors on a commercial, multifamily or mixed-use property is a Level 1 site plan application, which the director decides or sends to a board.

Historic rules usually exempt a repaint in the same color and catch a change. Delray Beach requires a certificate of appropriateness for changes of color in its historic districts, Jupiter requires a special certificate from its Historic Resources Board for a change of color, and Lantana and Boca Raton exempt only maintenance that does not change the color.

West Palm Beach is the exception among the larger cities: its historic preservation staff answer that they do not regulate paint colors, though a certificate is still needed for other work that changes a building's exterior appearance.

EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule reaches any paid job that disturbs old paint in pre-1978 homes and apartments, and in buildings of that age where young children spend regular time. A child-occupied facility can be one suite in an older plaza, such as a day care, a preschool or a kindergarten classroom regularly used by the same children under six.

When the rule applies, the job must be done by an EPA-certified firm using lead-safe practices, with small carve-outs for minor interior and exterior areas. EPA runs the program in Florida itself. Separately, OSHA's construction lead standard, 29 CFR 1926.62, protects workers wherever they may be exposed, and it counts painting as construction work.

OSHA requires fall protection on scaffolds more than 10 feet above a lower level. On a two-point suspension scaffold, the swing stage that hangs down the face of an A1A tower, every worker must be protected by a personal fall arrest system as well as a guardrail, and the rig is erected, moved and taken down under a competent person.

In a boom lift basket, OSHA's aerial lift rule calls for a body belt with a lanyard attached to the boom or basket. Rope descent work puts a duty on the owner: under 29 CFR 1910.27, nobody may use a roof anchor until the building owner has told the employer in writing that the anchorages have been identified, tested, certified and maintained. Those records are on our list for the first site visit.

Section 553.899 requires a milestone inspection of condo and co-op buildings three habitable stories or taller by the end of the year they turn 30, then every 10 years, and lets the local building official require it at 25 where salt water calls for it. For unincorporated land, Palm Beach County's building division sets the first inspection at 25 years for buildings within 3 miles of a coastline.

Section 718.112 lists waterproofing and exterior painting among the items a condo's structural integrity reserve study has to cover. On a coastal tower, the repaint is usually planned after the repairs those reports call for, so new coating does not go over concrete that is about to be cut out.

Florida DEP's guidance for mobile washing says wastewater may not go to stormwater systems without a permit, and the same care applies to washing a building: drains are covered and runoff is kept out of lakes, canals and the Intracoastal. Building paint sold here meets the federal VOC limits in 40 CFR Part 59, which bind makers and importers; the state has not added a stricter rule of its own.

At an airport, federal rules require a fingerprint-based criminal history check for unescorted access to secured areas, and anyone without it must be escorted. At DJT, formerly PBI, the county's Security Badge Office fingerprints by appointment, and appointments are booked only by a company's authorized signatory. We plan badging before a start date is set.