Curlew
Montessori.
Repainted over March break. Not a whiff of paint on Monday.
A Montessori school has two non-negotiables. The building has to be ready for Monday — and it can’t smell like a paint job when thirty children walk back in. Curlew gave us the March-break week to repaint the whole place: classrooms, halls, the lot. The job was to hand it back fresh, not fumed.
The brief
No smell. No closed days.
March break is the only window a working school can really give up. Miss it and you’re painting around children — which, in a Montessori room built on low shelves and floor work, you simply don’t do. And the usual catch with a fast repaint is the smell: that flat, chemical haze that hangs around for days. In a childcare space, that isn’t an inconvenience. It’s a non-starter.
№ 01 · The window
One week, in shifts.
We took the keys the day break started and ran the schedule in shifts — overtime on both ends of the day — so every classroom, hallway, and common room got two full coats and proper dry time inside the week. The reopening date was the fixed point. Everything else bent around it.
№ 02 · The air
Zero-VOC, and scrubbers running.
Two things kept the smell out. We specced zero-VOC paint throughout — no off-gassing, safe to occupy the same day — and ran commercial air scrubbers in every room as we worked, cycling the air so nothing settled or lingered. By handover, the building smelled like a building. Not a paint can.
№ 03 · Monday morning
Doors open, on schedule.
The school reopened on time. Staff walked into fresh cream walls and crisp white trim; the children into rooms that looked new and smelled like nothing at all. No carried-over days, no airing-out, no “keep the windows open for a week.” Just a school, ready for its kids.
The finished school
Schools & childcare FAQ
What administrators ask first
- Can you paint a school or daycare while it stays open?
- We schedule the work into the closures a school already has — March break, summer, PA days, weekends, and evenings — so we never paint around children. For Curlew we took the full March-break week and handed the building back before staff returned.
- Is the paint safe for a room full of kids?
- We use zero-VOC paint on childcare and healthcare projects — no off-gassing, no chemical haze, safe to reoccupy the same day. Paired with commercial air scrubbers running through the job, the space smells like a building, not a paint can, by handover.
- How do you keep paint smell out of an occupied building?
- Two things: zero-VOC, low-odour product throughout, and commercial air filtration running in each room as we work so airborne particulate and odour are pulled out continuously rather than left to settle and linger.
- Can you hit a hard reopening deadline?
- Yes — institutional deadlines are most of our commercial work. We staff in shifts and work overtime on both ends of the day to get two full coats and proper dry time inside the window. The reopening date is the fixed point everything is built around.
- Are you insured and cleared to work in a school?
- Yes — $4M commercial liability, WSIB-covered crew, certificate of insurance on request, and we accommodate vulnerable-sector and site-access requirements common to schools and childcare centres.
School, daycare, or clinic on a deadline?
We’ll have it ready for Monday.
Zero-VOC, scheduled into your closure, handed back fresh and smell-free. Send the details and we’ll send a fixed quote within one business day.