Painters in Epping
Estate houses coming up on their first repaint, and older brick and tile a few streets away. Two different jobs in the one suburb, and both of them start on the north wall, because that is the one the sun has been working on since the day it was handed over.
What Epping houses ask for
- The estate houses are hitting their first repaintA large part of Epping went up in the last fifteen years, and those houses are now at the age where the outside stops looking new. What went on at handover was builder's grade work: thin, applied fast, and specified to get through inspection rather than to last fifteen years. It holds up for roughly five to eight, and then it goes all at once rather than gradually. If your house was new when you moved in and you have never painted it, this is the year to look at it properly.
- The north wall goes first, and it is not closeNew estates are planted out with young trees that do not shade anything yet, blocks are open, and the streets run wide. The north and west elevations take sun all afternoon with nothing in the way, and Epping runs hotter and drier than the bayside suburbs. On most houses here the sunny wall is chalking and flat while the shaded side still looks reasonable, which is why an exterior in this suburb rarely wears evenly.
- Render cracks are normal, and they are fixableRendered facades and brick veneer with rendered features are everywhere in the newer streets. In the first years a house settles, and hairline cracks open around windows, along the corners and above door heads. Painting over them hides the crack for one season and it comes back through. They get cut out, filled and made good first, so the repair sits under the paint instead of the other way around.
- Eaves, fascias and the garage doorThese are the parts nobody looks at until they are photographing the house for sale. Eaves and fascias take the weather but no washing rain, so they collect grime and go grey rather than fade. The garage door is the largest single surface on the front of most estate houses and usually the most sun struck, so it dates the whole facade on its own. Done as a set with the front door and the window frames, it changes the look of the house for a fraction of a full exterior.
- Inside, three or four years of a family shows up on the wallsEstate houses are built for families and they show it: hallway walls at pram height, scuffs down the stairs, marks around light switches and door handles, and the odd patched hole. The original coat is usually a flat, low sheen paint that marks easily and does not wash. A repaint in a washable finish through the traffic areas, hallway, stairs, family room, is the job people here ask about most.
- The older streets are a different house entirelyAway from the estates, the original part of Epping is brick homes from the sixties through the eighties with concrete tile roofs. Those roofs are the thing to watch: the tiles themselves last, but the surface coating chalks and goes porous, moss takes hold on the shaded pitch, and the whole house reads as tired even when the walls are fine. Washed back under pressure and refinished, the same house looks twenty years younger.
If you are not sure what your house needs yet
Most people here call about one thing and find out the house needs something else first. This is the order we look at it in, and you can check most of it yourself before anyone comes out.
- Stand at the north west cornerRun your hand down the sunny wall. If it comes away with a fine white dust, the coating has chalked and it is past the point where washing helps. That wall sets the timing for the whole exterior.
- Look up at the eaves and the fascia lineIf they read grey rather than white, that is dirt sitting on a surface that never gets rinsed by rain. It is the cheapest part of a facade to bring back and the one that makes the biggest difference from the street.
- Check the corners of the windowsFine cracks radiating from window and door corners are settlement, not damage. They need cutting out and filling before paint, and they will keep reappearing if they are simply covered.
- Look at the roof from the far side of the streetIf the tiles look patchy, dull or have dark growth on the shaded pitch, the roof is doing more to age the house than the walls are.
- Then decide how much to do at onceDoing the whole exterior in one go costs less per square metre than coming back for it in pieces, because the access, the preparation and the setup are the same either way. But if the budget only stretches to part of it, the sunny elevation, the eaves and the garage door are where the money shows.
Painting services in Epping
The same range we bring to any Melbourne home, whether the job is one room or the whole house inside and out. In Epping it is usually one of two jobs: an estate house getting its first proper exterior, or an older brick home where the tile roof is what actually needs doing.
Whose job is it
A homeowner, a builder, a business owner and someone with a period house worry about completely different things. Pick the one that fits and you will get the answers written for you.
Homeowners
- You stay in the house while we work
- Covers down before anything starts
- One fixed price, not an hourly rate
Builders
- We hold the date we gave you
- Sequenced around the trades behind us
- Priced in a day or two
Commercial
- Staged or overnight, you keep trading
- Access and hours agreed up front
- Shops, offices, schools, warehouses
Heritage
- Ornate plaster cut in by hand
- Old surfaces sanded, not covered
- Council checked before colour
Painting a home in Epping?
Tell us the address and what you are planning. We will come and look, tell you honestly what needs doing first, then give you one fixed price.
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