Painter in Bulleen, VIC
Bulleen, back from the Yarra flats
Bulleen sits on the edge of the Yarra flats, with Bolin Bolin Billabong, Bulleen Park and the Heide Museum of Modern Art on its river side, and streets of family houses running back from Manningham Road and Bulleen Road. Most painting here is in those houses: original post-war homes being repainted by owners who have been there a long time, and the larger rebuilds that have replaced some of them.
Many blocks are a good size and many houses have a wide driveway, so the vehicle can often park close to the work. Many houses have a front fence and a gate, and often a dog behind it, so the gate key or code and where the dog will be are worth sorting before the first morning. Front gardens are often neat and planted close to the walls, with paving and garden beds that are covered before work starts.
The original houses are brick veneer or full brick from the 1950s and 60s, and many have rendered fronts, arches over the porch and windows, tiled or terrazzo steps and timber or aluminium windows. The render cracks around the arches as the house settles and needs filling and a coating made for render. Inside, plaster ceilings with decorative cornices and centre pieces are common, and the newer rebuilds bring square set plaster, tall entries and wide stairs.
What we do here most
What Bulleen keeps needing
Most jobs here are a rendered family home being kept looking sharp, or a rebuild getting its first coats.
Exterior painting
Rendered arches and porch on a 1960s house
Rendered fronts with arched porches and windows turn up on many original houses here, and the render cracks around each arch as the house settles. The cracks are opened and filled with a flexible filler, loose paint is removed, and the front is coated with a paint made for render so it can move with the wall. The tiled steps are covered throughout.
Walls and ceilings
Decorative cornices in a long held family home
Many original houses here have decorative plaster cornices and centre pieces in the living rooms, painted over a few times since they went up. Cracks along the cornice are filled, the ceiling is painted with a brush around the detail and a roller across the flat, and the walls are finished so the room looks done rather than patched.
New build painting
A tall entry and stair void in a rebuild
Rebuilds here often have a double height entry, a wide stair and long walls of new plaster. Every surface is sealed before the top coats, the void is reached from a platform, and the work is planned with the builder so floors, joinery and the stair treads are protected the whole way through.
House repainting
An original house freshened up for the family
Long held houses here often need the inside repainted as children move out or family moves back in. Rooms are worked through one at a time, cracks and holes are filled, and the colours are recorded so later touch ups match. The exterior timber, eaves and window frames can be done in the same job or later.
If it is urgent
If water comes through a ceiling in Bulleen
- 1Check whether the stain lines up with a gutter, a valley in the roof or a bathroom on the other side of the wall. Put a bucket under any drip and switch off the power at the board for any light fitting near the water.
- 2Leave a sagging ceiling alone and keep people out from under it. Do not paint over the stain or knock at a loose cornice, and let a roofer or plumber fix the leak first.
- 3When you call, tell us which room, whether the ceiling has a decorative cornice, and whether the leak has been fixed. Say how the front gate opens and where the dog will be, if there is one.
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 Bulleen, VIC
These are the eleven things we do across Melbourne, done here to suit rendered family homes and the larger rebuilds near the Yarra flats.
Also nearby
We work in these suburbs too
Local, and on the phone
Painting work in Bulleen
Call or email and say whether the front is rendered or face brick, and how many rooms you want done. That is most of what the quote depends on.
0431 639 501Monday to Friday, 7:30am to 5:30pm
Not urgent? Send us the job instead