Sky’s His Limit : Address Painter Takes Higher Ground, Works on Roofs

Dean Scheller pulled himself out of the gutter to reach the top of his profession.

He is an address painter who goes door to door volunteering to stencil street numbers in exchange for a small donation. But instead of putting them on the sides of curbs, he paints them on the tops of buildings.

Only a handful of people ever see his handiwork, but in Scheller’s view, they are the ones who count.

“It’s for the police helicopter pilots,” he said. “In an emergency, they could save your life.”

In Los Angeles, curbside address painters are a ubiquitous bunch. They sweep through most neighborhoods every few years, slapping house numbers on the edge of sidewalks and then asking homeowners for a donation of $8 to $10.

City officials warned this week that some curb painters claim to be from charitable organizations. But no charities are licensed to paint house numbers, said Robert Burns, general manager of the city Social Service Department. To get a license, charities have to obtain permits from the city’s Bureau of Street Maintenance and show proof of public liability insurance and a surety bond approved by the city attorney, he said.

Scheller, 29, of Venice, was a curb painter for three years. He credits one of his customers for raising the roof issue.

“A resident over in East L.A. asked if I could paint his address on his roof as well as his curb. I thought it was a pretty good idea,” he said.

Compared to curb work, there’s more overhead in painting overhead. A ladder is needed, of course. So are the little glass beads that Scheller sprinkles over freshly painted numerals to make them reflect at night beneath helicopter spotlights.

So Scheller suggests about a $90 donation when he knocks on doors and makes his pitch. Despite the cost, he said nearly half of those he approaches grant him access to their roofs. Of the 70 rooftops he painted his first month of work in the downtown Los Angeles area, only four owners refused to contribute at least $20.

“I was glad to pay,” said Rae Ressel, financial director for a 6th Street silk-screen printing company. “Even if we’d thought of doing it, we probably wouldn’t have been able to get anybody up on the roof to do it. It probably would have been too small of a job for a commercial painter.”

Most property owners, such as Spring Street food wholesaler Pat Scher, said they go for the roof numbers for safety reasons. “If our burglar alarm goes off, the police can find us easier,” Scher said.

But Grant Iwata said he had the 4 1/2-foot-tall numerals painted in white on the roof of his 4th Street auto repair shop for the benefit of potential customers.

“I don’t have a break-in problem,” Iwata said. “For me, it’s more like advertising so I can show my address to the public. I have an angled roof, so you can see it from the street.”

Although officials recall that some Los Angeles Police Department Explorer Scouts helped organize a roof-number painting campaign a few years ago, authorities said they know of no other organized roof-painting effort.

“It’s a terrific benefit for us. It’s extremely valuable,” said Lt. Ken Hale, a commander of the 80-member Los Angeles police helicopter squadron. Three of the unit’s 17 aircraft are kept aloft at all times in the San Fernando Valley, mid-city area and south side.

As many as 7% of all addresses in the city already have street numbers painted on their roofs, Hale said. Most are on businesses, except in South-Central Los Angeles, where many homes have them.

“Any hillside residential area, with the winding streets, would benefit from them,” he said.

Scheller figures he can benefit from such places too.

He has formed a for-profit company called the “LA Youth Project” to handle roof painting assignments. So far he has hired eight workers.

His immediate goal is to line up insurance for his employees. One of them, Sarah Harrison, 22, broke her foot when she slipped on a steep roof; another, Geoff Welling, 30, said he has had to wrap his legs around chimneys to keep from sliding off.

Scheller paid $500 for Harrison’s medical treatment.

That is reason enough to have a lofty ambition, according to Scheller. “My goal in life is to be solvent,” the painter shrugged.