Painter in Box Hill South, VIC
Box Hill South, along Station Street
Box Hill South is mostly post-war houses and the units that have replaced some of them, on streets that run either side of Station Street towards Gardiners Creek. Painting here is a mix of original houses being repainted by long time owners, units being turned around between tenants, and newer townhouses that need their walls and ceilings done before they are sold. It is steady, practical work, usually a few rooms or one side of a house at a time.
Most original houses have a driveway and easy street parking, so access is simple. Unit blocks are different: a shared driveway, a row of car spaces and small courtyards, with neighbours coming and going all day. Ladders and planks have to fit around that, so it helps to know which spaces are yours, where the water tap is, and whether an owners corporation has rules about when trades can work.
The original houses are post-war weatherboard and brick veneer with timber eaves and window frames and plasterboard ceilings. Weatherboards need scraping and priming on the weather side, and the fascias behind the gutters often need repair. The units are usually brick with plasterboard inside, and they show the wear of years of tenants: scuffed walls, filled holes, marked doors and ceilings stained around the bathroom exhaust fan.
What we do here most
What Box Hill South keeps needing
Most jobs here are practical: a unit between tenants, the weather side of a house, or the cracks a long held house has gathered.
Residential painting
A unit repainted between two tenancies
Units here often need every wall, door and ceiling done in the short gap between leases. Holes and dents are patched, stained ceilings are sealed, and the rooms are painted in an order that lets the property manager inspect as each one is finished. The colours are kept to the ones on file so the next touch up matches.
Exterior painting
Weatherboards on the weather side of a post-war house
Original weatherboard houses here wear unevenly, with the north and west sides chalky and flaking while the front still looks sound. Loose paint is scraped back, and because old paint may contain lead, it is wetted and sanded by hand with dust controlled. Soft boards and sills are replaced, and bare timber is primed before two top coats. The whole house is then painted so the colour matches on every side.
Walls and ceilings
Mould around a bathroom exhaust fan
Bathroom ceilings in older units often carry mould around the exhaust fan and in the corners, from years of steam with too little air. The mould is cleaned and treated, the ceiling is sealed and painted with a paint made for wet rooms, and we suggest checking the fan if it is not pulling air.
Plastering
Cracked plasterboard joints in a long held house
Post-war houses here often show straight cracks along ceiling joints and at the corners of doorways, where the frame has moved over sixty years. The joints are cut back, retaped and set, and the patches are sanded flush before the room is painted, so the repairs disappear rather than show as lines under fresh paint.
If it is urgent
If water comes through a ceiling in Box Hill South
- 1Check whether a bathroom sits above or beside the stain, or whether it lines up with a gutter outside. Put a bucket under any drip and switch off the power at the board for any light fitting near the water.
- 2Leave the wet sheet alone and do not paint over the stain. If the unit is part of an owners corporation, do not start work on the shared roof or gutters until the manager has been told.
- 3When you call, say whether it is an original house, a unit or a townhouse, which room is affected, and whether the leak has been fixed. Tell us about the car spaces and whether a tenant needs notice before we come.
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 South, VIC
These are the eleven things we do across Melbourne, done here to suit post-war houses, rented units and the townhouses between them.
Also nearby
We work in these suburbs too
Local, and on the phone
Painting work in Box Hill South
Call or email and say whether the place is lived in, rented out or empty. That decides how the days are planned and who needs to know we are coming.
0431 639 501Monday to Friday, 7:30am to 5:30pm
Not urgent? Send us the job instead