Painters in Essendon
Weatherboard, Californian bungalows and period brick, on the wide streets north west of the city. Nearly every job in this suburb begins with timber: boards, fascias, window frames and verandah posts that have been through a few too many summers.
Weatherboard, bungalows and the north west weather
- Weatherboard, and plenty of itEssendon and the streets around it are full of timber homes, and weatherboard is the least forgiving surface there is. Paint sitting on a board that was not sanded lifts within a couple of summers, usually along the bottom edge first. Boards get sanded back, gaps and splits filled, bare timber primed, and only then does a finish coat go on. Skipping any of that is why so many weatherboard houses need doing again far sooner than they should.
- Californian bungalowsThe interwar bungalows here come with the details that take the most time: gable ends, wide eaves, verandah posts, timber window frames and leadlight sashes. Frames and sashes are the parts people most often paint straight over without preparation, and it shows within a year. On a bungalow they get sanded properly. It is slow, and it is the single reason the finish holds.
- Period brick and renderAlongside the timber sit Victorian and Edwardian houses with rendered facades, deep cornices and ceiling roses inside. Render gets every crack raked open and filled long before colour comes into it, and ornate plaster takes a brush rather than a roller.
- Exposed to the weather from the north westThese are wide, open streets without much shelter, and the north and west walls take the sun all afternoon. Those elevations fade and chalk first, which is why an exterior here rarely wears evenly and why the sunny side often needs attention before the rest.
- Inside a bungalow is its own jobThe interiors here carry as much timber as the outside: picture rails, wide skirtings, panelled dados, built in cabinetry and solid doors, most of it under decades of old enamel or varnish. That has to be sanded back before anything new goes on, or the fresh coat sits on top of a surface it cannot grip. Ceilings in these houses are usually high and often decorative, so cutting in takes longer than the square metres suggest.
Doors, windows and the enamel work
On a bungalow the joinery is the slow half of the job, and it is the half that decides how the house is lived in during the job. Worth understanding before the quote rather than after.
- Enamel is a different job from a wallWalls go on with a roller and are touch dry in a couple of hours. Doors, frames, sills and skirtings take a finish that flows out slowly so it levels without brush marks, which means it stays wet far longer. In a house with this much timber, the joinery alone can take as long as every wall put together.
- Oil based work needs about eight hoursWhere an oil based finish suits the timber, allow around eight hours before it is properly hard. A door done in the morning is left open until the next day rather than shut that evening. Water based finishes are quicker, and the right choice depends on whatever coating that timber already carries.
- Whether you need to be out of the houseFor walls and ceilings, no. Rooms are ventilated as we go and most households stay put right through. Doors and windows done in oil based enamel are the single exception worth discussing up front, and it matters more where there are small children, elderly parents or pets at home.
- Sashes that no longer moveDouble hung windows in these houses have often been coated so many times that the sashes have sealed shut. That changes how the window is prepared, so it is worth pointing out at the quote rather than discovering it on the day.
- Leadlight takes masking, not speedColoured glass and lead came cannot be cut around quickly. Masking them properly is slow work, and it is the whole difference between a clean line at the glass and paint sitting on the lead.
Work we have done in Essendon
Not every job in the area is a house. This one was a school, and it shows how we handle metal and colour on a site that stays in use.
School entrance colonnade, bare steel to full colour
Bare steel columns on a school entry here in Essendon, brought up in a sequence of colours the client picked out. Steel from top to bottom, so it wanted a system made for metal rather than whatever goes on render or timber: primed first, then finished, with the perforated canopy above cut in around every edge. Photographed from each end, before and after, plus a close look at the finished canopy.
Painting services in Essendon
The same range we bring to any Melbourne home, whether the job is one room or the whole house inside and out. In Essendon the timber usually goes first: weatherboards, fascias and window frames on the sunny side, well before the brickwork or the inside needs anything.
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 Essendon?
Tell us the address and what you are planning. We will come and look, then give you one fixed price.
Get a free quoteRequest a free quote
Tell us about your project and we'll get back to you, usually within a day, with a fixed, no-surprises quote.
Thank you, your request is on its way
Mark will get back to you within one business day, usually a lot sooner.
Got photos of the space? Send them through on WhatsApp and we can put a price together faster.