Permits and rules for commercial painting in Collier County

Painting and pressure washing both appear in s. 489.117, Florida Statutes, among the job scopes that a city or county cannot condition on a local license. The same section stops a local government from demanding a license before it issues a permit for those scopes. Section 163.211 ended older local occupational licenses on July 1, 2025. Collier County has no painting certificate, and this site does not claim one.

One narrow carve-out survives for tall work. A local government that licensed rooftop painting, coating and cleaning above three stories before January 1, 2021 may keep doing so. On any high-rise job we look for it.

Under s. 489.105 a general contractor license reaches every kind of construction work. Romco Builders is a licensed Florida general contractor, which helps when a repaint comes bundled with repairs.

Painting is absent from the Florida Building Code's section 105.2, the list of work that needs no permit; that list deals with gas, mechanical and plumbing items. The local building official makes the call, and a repaint that includes cutting into walls or repairing structure falls outside any minor-repair allowance.

Collier County's page on work exempt from permit describes a small-job exemption. It reaches only single-family detached structures, and the property cannot sit in a flood hazard area. A commercial building is outside it, so for unincorporated Collier we ask the county's building division what a given scope needs.

The City of Naples works differently. Its Design Review Board looks at architecture, landscaping, lighting and signage for new buildings, additions over 1,000 square feet, substantial facade changes and awning changes, in commercial, multifamily, planned development and public service districts. Single-family districts are left out. The page never names paint, so we ask Planning in writing whether a color change counts.

Everglades City has no building department. By its own account it contracts with Collier County for inspections and services. For Marco Island and Everglades City we found no published repaint or paint-color rule on 2026-10-14, so we ask the office directly and read any association or deed rules too.

EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting rule is triggered by paid work that disturbs paint in a pre-1978 home or in a child-occupied facility. That term means an older building, or part of one, that the same child under six uses regularly: a day care, a preschool or a kindergarten classroom. One can sit inside a commercial building.

Once the rule applies, an EPA-certified firm must do the work and follow lead-safe practices. The minor-repair carve-out stops at 6 square feet in any one room indoors, or 20 square feet on an exterior, and a prohibited practice voids it. EPA itself runs the RRP program in Florida, because the state has no authorization.

Workers have separate protection. OSHA's lead standard for construction, 29 CFR 1926.62, applies wherever an employee may be exposed to lead, and its definition of construction work names painting and decorating.

Anyone working from a scaffold higher than 10 feet above the level below needs fall protection. On a swing stage, which is a one-point or two-point suspension scaffold, a worker must have a personal fall arrest harness plus a guardrail. A competent person directs how a scaffold is put up, moved and taken apart.

Aerial lifts call for a body belt and lanyard tied to the boom or basket. Elsewhere, OSHA's general rule protects an unprotected edge at 6 feet or more above a lower level.

Rope access adds an owner duty in 29 CFR 1910.27. Before the system is used, the owner has to notify the contractor by letter that every anchor point was located, load-tested, certified and kept up, with a yearly inspection and a certification at least once a decade. On a tower in hurricane country we ask for those anchor records first.

A condominium or cooperative building of three or more habitable stories must have its first milestone inspection by December 31 of the year it turns 30, and another every 10 years, under s. 553.899. The local enforcement agency may pull the first inspection forward to 25 years where conditions such as nearness to salt water justify it.

Section 718.112 requires the structural integrity reserve study for such buildings to include waterproofing and exterior painting, and every condominium budget carries a reserve for painting. On a Gulf-side tower the repaint is often timed with the repairs those documents identify.

Florida sets no VOC limits of its own for building paint; its emission rules address industrial coating operations. The federal limits in 40 CFR Part 59 bind the manufacturers and importers of architectural coatings, and so they shape what a contractor can buy.

Wash water needs a plan. Florida DEP's mobile-washing guidance says wastewater may not enter a stormwater system without an NPDES permit. We found no Collier County rule written for washing buildings, so we plan to the DEP standard: drains covered, water contained, extra care near canals and bays.

Four public airports serve the county. The Collier County Airport Authority oversees Marco Island Executive, Immokalee Regional and Everglades Airpark, while Naples Airport answers to the City of Naples Airport Authority. At a secured airport area, 49 CFR 1542 requires a fingerprint-based criminal history check for unescorted access, and every person wears airport identification or travels with an escort. Badging and escorts are settled with the operator before any work is scheduled.