A commercial health care centre,
painted over five nights.
Five brand colours matched exactly. Open on time every morning.
Unison Health Care asked us to paint their newest facility, and this time it was the whole centre — reception, lobby, corridors, more than one area at once. The building couldn't close for any of it, though, because a health centre sees people every day it's open, so we worked the nights instead, five nights start to finish, and had the doors open on time every morning.
The job at a glance
- Client
- Unison Health Care, Toronto
- Relationship
- 5+ years, many buildings
- Facility
- Unison's newest location
- Scope
- Interior repaint, 5 brand colours
- Colour approval
- Drawdown card, dried, checked before painting
- Paint supplier
- Maple Paints on St. Clair
- Supplier relationship
- 10 years
- Products
- Benjamin Moore
- Schedule
- 5 nights, after hours
- Sequence
- Corridors first, 1 area a night
- Result
- Open on time, every morning
- Coverage
- $4M liability, WSIB, 2-year warranty
The constraint
Closing was never on the table.
Unison's been our client for over five years now, across many buildings, and this one carries five brand colours — so our job was to match them exactly.
Most repaints get to work in an empty building — a vacant floor, a weekend shutdown, somewhere that's closed for a while — but a health centre doesn't get any of that, because it sees patients every day it's open. So the real question wasn't whether we could paint the walls — it was whether we could paint them and still have everything back in place before the doors opened again.
01 · The colour work
Five colours, matched exactly.
The work started at a paint store on St. Clair, with samples on the counter.
Matching a colour isn't the same as choosing one, and nobody at Unison was waiting to hear what we thought of colour number three — they needed colour number three, exact. Most repaints come back close enough, and if you know the building, you can tell the difference.
The exact colour codes weren't available to us on site, though, so we took the samples we had straight to Maple Paints on St. Clair — our supplier for ten years — and went back and forth with them until every one of the five was right. Then we drew each colour down on a card and let it dry, because wet paint looks different from dry and dry is what actually stays on the wall. Only after that did we touch a wall, and every colour was already assigned to its area, so nobody had to work it out on the night.
02 · The supply chain
Ten years with the same paint shop.
The match is only as good as the shop that mixes it, and we've used Maple Paints on St. Clair for ten years now, so they know exactly what our work has to survive. If a colour's off, they mix it again — they don't just call it close enough and send us on our way.
That's why we put an exact colour match in writing before a job starts, and it wasn't a one-time thing at Unison. It's how we work with every client.
03 · The plan
You plan around a building before you paint it.
Painting around people means planning first and painting second, and that starts months before a crew ever shows up. We split the building into areas and started with the corridors, then took the rest one area a night, so there was only ever one part of the building out of use at a time. Each area came with its colour already picked and its protection worked out, and every reset had to be finished before the doors opened — not a quick tidy-up, but a return to exactly the way the space looked before we got there.
Most of the work happens before anyone ever picks up a roller.
04 · The nights
Every night went the same way.
Five nights, start to finish, and each one went the same way: we covered the surfaces, put the coats on, and gave the paint real dry time instead of just enough to look dry. Then we put everything back — furniture where it stood, floors clear, no tape, no drop sheets, nothing left sitting in a space the public walks through.
A good night only ever left a short list of things to check, and by morning the only sign we'd been there at all was the paint.
The finished work
05 · The result
Open on time, every morning.
Five nights of painting, and the centre opened on time every one of those mornings — that's the result a building manager actually cares about, and everything else here is just how we got there.
The walls now carry Unison's own colours, in the areas they picked, matched rather than approximated, and the building looks like itself again.
We couldn’t ask a health centre to close so we could paint it. So we worked when nobody was there, and it was ready before anyone showed up.
06 · The relationship
Over five years. Many buildings.
This wasn't a first job for us, and it won't be the last — we've painted with Unison for more than five years now, across many buildings, and that history's a big part of why they let us work in an occupied one at all. You don't hand an occupied building to a contractor you're still testing. You hand it to the one you've already watched do the work, more than once, in more than one place.
Most of that work happens overnight, the same way it did here — we clean up, reset, and have the space ready before the doors open, and the last night at Unison ended the way the other four did: gear in the van, lights off, doors locked behind us. A few hours later, the doors opened again, same as they had all week.
Property managers, facilities and GCs
Walk us through your building.
If you run a site that can’t go offline — a clinic, a school, a municipal building, a managed portfolio — we’ll walk it with you and come back with a fixed quote and a night-by-night sequence. No charge for the walkthrough.
- Occupied-facility work: nights, weekends, one area at a time
- Brand-colour matching committed to in writing before we start
- $4M commercial general liability insurance
- WSIB coverage on every crew member (Ontario)
- Certificate of insurance naming your organisation on request
- References from institutional clients, on request
References
The suppliers, products and coverage behind this job.
- Maple Paints & Wallpaper — 635 St Clair Ave W, Toronto
The paint store on St. Clair where the five brand colours were matched, mixed and drawn down. Our supplier for ten years.
- Benjamin Moore — Maple Paints & Wallpaper retailer listing
Benjamin Moore’s own store locator entry for the St. Clair shop, confirming it as an authorised Benjamin Moore retailer.
- Benjamin Moore Canada
The paint used on this project. We work in Benjamin Moore products throughout.
- Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB Ontario)
Ontario’s workplace insurance board. Our crew is WSIB-covered; a clearance certificate is available to your procurement team on request.
Facilities & healthcare FAQ
What facilities managers ask first
- Can you match our brand colours exactly?
- Yes, and we'll commit to that before we start. We send your colour references to our supplier of ten years, get them mixed until each one's exact, and then dry and check them before you approve anything — dried paint looks different from wet, so we always check dry. Every colour's assigned to its area before the crew starts, because we treat your brand colours as a spec, not a guess.
- Can you paint our building without closing it?
- Yes, and it's most of our commercial work. At one Toronto health centre we did the whole job over five nights, one area at a time, and the centre opened on schedule every morning, because we work around your hours and hand each area back ready to use before you open. Nights and weekends are just how we schedule this kind of job — it's not a rush charge, it's the plan.
- What does the site look like in the morning?
- Like nothing happened, except the paint. We protect the surfaces before we start, give the paint real dry time, and then reset everything — furniture back where it was, floors clear, no tape, no drop sheets, nothing left sitting in a public space.
- Are you insured and covered for institutional work?
- We carry $4M in liability coverage, keep a WSIB-covered crew, and back every job with a 2-year workmanship warranty. We use Benjamin Moore products throughout.
Occupied building, brand standards, tight window?
Let’s plan it around your hours.
Clinics, schools, municipal buildings, and managed portfolios — exact colour matching, work sequenced around your operating hours, one area at a time. Send the details and we’ll come back with a fixed quote and a sequence.