The Eiffel Tower is painted every seven years entirely by hand. No rollers or spray guns are permitted – only brushes.
There is 250 000m2 of surface to paint.
The weight of paint is about 60 tonnes.
The weight of eroded paint between two painting campaigns is estimated at 15 tonnes.
The tower has changed colour several times, passing from red-brown to yellow-ochre, then to chestnut brown and finally to the bronze of today.
The colour is slightly shaded off towards the top to ensure that the colour is perceived to be the same all the way up as it stands against the Paris sky.
The time required is 15 to 18 months (without ever closing to the public).
25 painters, working a standard 8 hours a day, are needed for the duration. All of them must be specialists for work on metallic structures at
heights and be completely unaffected by vertigo.
50 kilometres of security cords, 5 acres of protection netting, 1 500 brushes, 5 000 sanding disks and 1 500 sets of work clothes are needed.
