Painter gear in Staten Island

Painter gear in Staten Island has its own uniform, and the uniform is on purpose. White pants, white t-shirts, clean shoes, and a drop cloth are not a costume — they are how a painter walks through a finished house and a customer's living room without leaving a mark, and how the customer recognizes the trade in the first place. Quazi Supply at 519 Port Richmond Avenue stocks the painter's kit specifically. Eleven to eight, seven days a week.

White canvas painters' pants. The classic Dickies painter pant. The Carhartt double-knee in natural. The reason for white is two-fold — first, primer and white-paint splatter blend in, so the pants look clean for longer; second, it is the trade uniform that customers recognize, and a painter in white pants in a customer's hallway is identifiable as a painter, not a stranger. We carry 28 to 50 waist, 28 to 36 inseam.

Hammer loop on the side, knife pocket, side leg pocket for a brush or scraper, and a reinforced knee. Some painters prefer the bib overall, especially for ceiling work — the bib catches drips on the chest before they get to the t-shirt. We stock the Dickies and Carhartt bib overalls in white.

White t-shirts. Plain heavyweight cotton crew-neck, six-pack or the bag of twelve. A painter goes through t-shirts faster than almost any other trade — primer does not wash out of cotton in any reliable way, so the shirts get rotated to drop-cloth duty after a few months and a new pack comes in. We stock blank Hanes and Gildan in heavyweight cotton, M to 4XL. If your shop wants the company name screened on the chest or the back, we run that on the building — apply for a fleet account at /services/fleet-and-crew-accounts/apply for volume pricing on five units or more.

Long sleeves in winter and for primer work. Long-sleeve white t-shirts, white henleys, white sweatshirts. The shop-name screen print works on these too. For exterior work in cold months, a white painter's jacket — a duck canvas jacket in natural — works for cold-season exterior. We do not stock the specialty Filson-style painter's jacket; the Carhartt natural duck jacket is the closest substitute.

Shoes. Indoor work is the hardest call. A clean canvas shoe is the standard for painters working in finished homes — a white or off-white canvas slip-on or low-top with a non-marking outsole. Vans-style canvas shoes work. The reason is no scuff on hardwood, no track on light carpet, and an easy slip-off-and-back-on at the door. The trade-off is no toe protection and no ankle support — fine for indoor work, wrong for ladder work all day.

For exterior painting and ladder-heavy days, a soft-toe leather work boot with a non-marking outsole. Wolverine Raider, Carhartt Soft-Toe in the lighter weight, Red Wing soft-toe. Slip resistance matters — the painter on the second-floor ladder does not want a wet rung to be a problem.

Gloves. Solvent-resistant. Nitrile-coated, not latex. Latex breaks down with mineral spirits and lacquer thinner; nitrile holds up. Standard nitrile-dipped grip gloves for water-based work, full-coverage nitrile gauntlet gloves for solvent and oil-based primer work. We stock both. The full-coverage gloves are the call for any cabinetry refinishing, lacquer work, or oil-primer day.

Drop cloths. Canvas drop cloths in 9x12 and 4x15. Plastic for one-day jobs. Painter's tape — we carry the green Frog Tape, the blue 3M, the standard masking. Plastic sheeting in 4-mil and 6-mil for masking off doorways and HVAC returns.

Brushes and rollers. We carry the consumable end of the painter's kit — roller covers in three weights, three-and-a-half-inch trim brushes, two-and-a-half-inch sash brushes, four-inch wall brushes. For specialty brushes — Purdy, Wooster, the higher-end synthetic blends — we stock the most-asked-for and we order in for the rest. Foam rollers for cabinet work. Roller frames in 9-inch and 18-inch.

PPE. ANSI Z87.1 safety glasses for overhead work — primer dripping into your eye is the most-common painter ER visit. A respirator for spray work. A half-face with organic vapor cartridges for solvent-based spraying — lacquer, oil primer, polyurethane. P100 cartridges plus organic vapor for the worst combinations. 3M and Honeywell both stocked.

Hat. A painter's cap — the canvas eight-panel cap with a brim — keeps splatter off the head and out of the hair. Practical and traditional both. We carry plain white and we will print a shop name on the front.

Custom printing. Shop name on white t-shirts in a contrasting color, on hoodies, on caps. Run on the building, no third-party turn.

Jobsite delivery across the five boroughs. Same-day across Staten Island. If a crew is short on drop cloths or rollers in the middle of a job, call the counter, we will run it out.

519 Port Richmond Ave. Eleven to eight, seven days a week. Open Sundays.