Exterior painting
Exterior painting in Melbourne
Weatherboard, render, brick and trim. We assess the surfaces and repairs needed, then quote the preparation and finish.
Why exteriors fail early
An exterior repaint that peels after three years almost never failed because of the paint. It failed because it went onto a surface that was dirty, damp, chalky or moving.
Melbourne is hard on the western and northern walls of a house. Summer sun breaks down the old coating until it powders off on your hand, and painting over that is like painting over dust. Weatherboards swell and shrink through winter, so any timber that's gone soft at the ends or under a windowsill will split the new film open no matter how good the topcoat is. Render still holding moisture from a leaking downpipe will blister. These problems need attention before repainting.
The preparation, in order
Every exterior job we do starts with a wash to strip off dirt, salt, mould and chalked-out old paint. Then scraping and sanding everything loose back to a sound edge. Timber repairs come next: replacing rotted boards and sills, re-nailing what's lifted, filling and sanding. We rake out the gaps around window frames and joins and re-caulk them, because that's where water gets in. Bare timber, bare render and any rusted metal get spot-primed before a topcoat goes near them.
Surfaces behave differently. Weatherboard is a lot of linear metres and a lot of edges, so it takes longer than its wall area suggests. Render wants a masonry system and any hairline cracking cut out first. Painted brick needs ongoing maintenance and can be difficult to return to its original finish. Trim, gutters and downpipes are usually the last thing done and the first thing people notice.
Old paint on an old house: lead
Anything built before 1971 is likely to have lead paint somewhere in the layers, usually on the weatherboards, window frames and eaves. It's under later coats, so you can't see it, and most of Melbourne's inner north is that era.
It matters because it changes the prep. Dry sanding it, power sanding it or burning it off puts lead dust and fumes through the yard, the soil and the house. Young children and anyone pregnant are the ones at risk. The paint sold today is effectively lead-free, so this is only ever about what's already on the building.
We're set up for it. On a pre-1971 house we test before anything gets sanded, and where lead turns up we work wet, sheet the ground so nothing ends up in the soil or the veggie patch, use a vacuum sander rather than an open one, and take the waste away instead of leaving it in your bin. No dry sanding, no heat gun, no blasting.
Tell us the age of the place when you call and it goes in the quote, priced, instead of turning up as a variation once the first board is open.
The best time of year in Melbourne
October through April is the reliable window. Paint needs the surface above roughly 10°C to cure properly, and a Melbourne winter morning leaves dew on the boards until mid-morning, which cuts the working day in half and risks a coat that never hardens. Deep winter also means timber and render still damp underneath, which you can't see and paint can't stick to.
The other half of it is sun. We won't paint a wall the sun is beating on; we follow the shade around the house, because a film that skins over before it flows out leaves lap marks. If the forecast turns, we ring you and move the day. We will call you to confirm the revised date.
What affects the price
- Access. Single storey off ladders is one price; a second storey, a steep block or a wall you can only reach off a scaffold is another
- How much repair work the timber or render needs, which is the biggest variable on an older house
- The amount of trim, fretwork and window sashes versus flat wall
- Whether bare surfaces need a full prime coat before two topcoats
- Colour change, and whether gutters, fascia and the garage are in scope
What to ask any painter
Ask what happens if they open up a board and find rot. Is it in the price, or is it a variation, and at what rate? Ask whether the quote includes a full wash and what they're washing with. Ask how many coats, on which surfaces, and what primer is going on the bare spots. If the house is pre-1971, ask how they're handling lead paint. And ask whether the job is quoted to AS/NZS 2311, the Australian standard for painting buildings, which sets out the required surface preparation. Ask for the surfaces and preparation to be listed so you can compare quotes.
The roof is worth pricing at the same time, because the access is already set up and a faded roof undoes a fresh exterior from the street. See roof painting. Inside work is on the interior painting page, and we quote turnovers and pre-sale work for property managers.
From our work
See a related project
Full Exterior Render Repaint · Coburg
An exterior render repaint in Coburg. The photographs show the render before and after the work.
Preparation and aftercare
Read our painting preparation and aftercare guide for arranging access, protecting belongings and checking when the painted surface is ready to use or clean.
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