Painter in Box Hill North, VIC
Box Hill North, between Station Street and the creek
Box Hill North is a suburb of original houses and the townhouses built behind or beside them. Painting here is split between the two: a post-war house being freshened up by owners who have been there for years, and a row of two or three townhouses that need their walls, ceilings and cladding done before they are sold or let. Both sit in the same streets off Station Street and Middleborough Road.
Original houses usually have a driveway and open street parking out the front. Townhouse sites are tighter, with a shared driveway, neighbours' cars parked along it, small courtyards, and front doors that face the driveway rather than the street. Ladders and planks have to fit around that shared space, so it helps to know which car spaces are yours and whether the owners corporation has rules about when trades can work.
The older houses are 1950s and 60s weatherboard and brick veneer with timber eaves, timber or steel window frames and plasterboard ceilings. Weatherboards on the weather side need scraping, sill repairs and a good primer. The townhouses are newer, with square set plaster inside, rendered panels and fibre cement outside, and tall stairwells that need a platform rather than a stepladder to reach the top of the wall.
What we do here most
What Box Hill North keeps needing
Most of the work is getting a property ready for its next occupant, whether that is a buyer, a tenant or the owners themselves.
Residential painting
A townhouse freshened up between tenants
A townhouse between tenants usually needs scuffed walls, marked doors and the stairwell repainted within a short window. The job is quoted room by room so the owner or the property manager can choose, and the stairwell is planned first because it needs a platform. Small holes from picture hooks and doorstops are filled as part of it.
Exterior painting
Weatherboards repainted on an original post-war house
Original weatherboard houses here often have chalky, faded paint on the north and west sides and flaking on the boards nearest the ground. The loose paint is scraped back, and because old paint may contain lead, it is wetted and sanded by hand with dust controlled. Soft boards are replaced, and the whole house is primed where bare and given two coats, so the colour is even from the street.
Walls and ceilings
Water stained ceiling under an upstairs bathroom
In two storey townhouses, the ceiling under an upstairs bathroom is the common place for a stain. Once the plumber has found the leak and the plaster has dried, the stain is sealed with a stain blocking undercoat and the whole ceiling is repainted, so the repair does not show as a patch.
Carpentry and fixing
Rotten fence palings and a sagging side gate
Fences between original houses and new townhouse sites often date from the first house, with rotten palings and a gate that drags on the path. Broken palings and rails are replaced, the gate is rehung, and the fence can be painted or stained afterwards so the new timber matches the old.
If it is urgent
If water comes through a ceiling in Box Hill North
- 1Work out whether the water is coming from upstairs plumbing or from the roof by checking whether a bathroom or laundry sits above the stain. Put a bucket under any drip and switch off the power at the board for any light fitting near it.
- 2Leave the wet ceiling sheet alone and do not paint over the stain. If the townhouse is part of an owners corporation, do not start repairs to the shared roof or walls until the manager knows.
- 3When you call, say whether it is an original house or a townhouse, which room and which level, and whether there is a shared driveway or a car space we can use. If an owners corporation manages the site, have their contact handy.
Common questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Which parts of Melbourne do you work in?
Melbourne's eastern and inner south-eastern suburbs, from Box Hill, Blackburn and Doncaster through Balwyn, Kew and Camberwell to Richmond, Toorak, Malvern, Prahran and Caulfield. All 25 suburbs are listed on the service areas page. If yours is not there, ask anyway, because the list is where the work goes most often rather than a fence.
Do you do plastering as well as painting?
Yes. Cracks, holes, water damaged patches and loose ceiling sheets are repaired and sanded before the paint goes on, so the repair and the painting are planned as one job rather than two trades working around each other. Most repaints in older houses need some of this, and it goes on the quote as its own line.
Can you fix rotten timber or a sticking door while you are here?
Yes, carpentry and fixing is one of the services, and it usually goes alongside the painting. Rotten weatherboards, soft window sills, loose skirting, sticking doors and broken fence palings are the common ones. Mention them when you call so they are in the quote rather than found on the day.
Do you do insurance repair work?
Yes. Painting and plaster repairs after a leak, a storm or an impact are one of the services. If you have a claim number or an assessor's report, send it with your enquiry and the quote is written against the same items, which makes the two easy to compare.
Do you give a written quote before starting?
Yes. You get it in writing before any paint is bought, listing the rooms or walls, the repairs, the preparation and the number of coats. If something changes once work starts, such as rot under a window sill, it is written down and you decide before it is done.
What do you need from me to quote?
Which rooms or which sides of the house, roughly how big they are, and a few photos taken in daylight. Point out anything flaking, cracked or stained, because preparation changes a quote more than size does. For outside work, say whether the house is single or double storey.
Can you help us choose colours?
We can talk through what tends to work on the house you have and how a colour behaves on that surface in that light. A sample patch on the actual wall is the most reliable way to decide, and it is worth doing before a full tin is bought. The final choice is always yours.
Do I need to move the furniture out first?
No, though clearing small and fragile things off shelves and walls helps. Larger furniture is moved to the middle of the room and covered, and floors are covered before anything is opened. Tell us about anything that cannot be moved, such as a piano or built in shelving.
What hours do you work?
Monday to Friday, 7:30am to 5:30pm. If you live in an apartment or a townhouse with set hours for trades, tell us when you call and the work days are planned inside them.
How long does a room or a house take?
It depends on the preparation more than the painting, so the honest answer comes with the quote rather than before it. A bedroom with sound walls is a different job from one with cracked plaster and a stained ceiling. Outside work also depends on the weather, because paint needs dry surfaces and mild days to go on well.
What happens if it rains during an outside job?
Work on the outside stops while the surfaces are wet, because paint put over damp timber or render does not hold. The day is moved rather than pushed through, and inside work can sometimes fill the gap. We let you know as soon as a day has to move.
Is old paint on an older house a problem?
It can be. Paint on houses built before the 1970s may contain lead, and that changes how it should be prepared, because dry sanding it spreads the dust. Tell us roughly when the house was built and we will talk it through before anything is quoted.
Everything we do here
Services in Box Hill North, VIC
These are the eleven things we do across Melbourne, done here to suit original post-war houses and the townhouses that now share their streets.
Also nearby
We work in these suburbs too
Local, and on the phone
Painting work in Box Hill North
Call or email and say whether it is an original house or a townhouse, and whether anyone is living in it. That decides how the days are planned and where the gear can go.
0431 639 501Monday to Friday, 7:30am to 5:30pm
Not urgent? Send us the job instead