Painter in Burwood, VIC

Burwood, from the campus to Wattle Park

Burwood is a mix of post-war family houses, units and student rentals, spread either side of Burwood Highway from Deakin University's campus to Wattle Park. Painting here splits between houses being repainted by the people who live in them, and rentals being turned around between leases, often in a short window before the next semester. The streets off Elgar Road and Warrigal Road carry plenty of both.

Trams run along Burwood Highway, and streets near the campus can fill with parked cars during semester, so a job there needs a driveway or an agreed place to park. Away from the highway the streets are quiet and most houses have a side drive. Unit blocks have shared driveways and small courtyards, and rentals often mean keys collected from the agent and a tenant told when we are coming.

The original houses are 1950s and 60s weatherboard and brick veneer with timber eaves and window frames and plasterboard ceilings. Rentals show the same wear: scuffed walls, filled and refilled holes, marked doors and bathroom ceilings with mould around the fan. Weatherboard houses need the weather side scraped and primed, and soft sills replaced, before anything is repainted outside, so the new coats have sound timber under them.

What we do here most

What Burwood keeps needing

A lot of the work here runs to a lease date, and the rest is post-war houses being kept in shape by their owners.

Residential painting

A student rental turned around between leases

Houses near the campus are often rented by students, and the gap between one lease and the next can be short. Walls are patched where posters, hooks and furniture have marked them, ceilings are sealed, and the rooms are painted in an order that lets the agent inspect each one as it is finished.

Plastering

Patches over patches in an old rental

Rentals here often carry layers of old repairs, with patches over patches and dents behind every door. Each one is cut back, patched and sanded flush, and the wall is painted from corner to corner so the repairs do not show as brighter squares. Doorstops are fitted where a handle has been hitting the plaster.

Exterior painting

Weatherboards and sills on a post-war house

Original weatherboard houses here wear first on the west side and along the bottom boards, where the paint flakes and the sills go soft. Loose paint is scraped, and because old paint may contain lead, it is wetted and sanded by hand with dust controlled. Soft timber is replaced, bare boards are primed and the house is given two coats. The eaves, window frames and front door are done at the same time.

Interior painting

A family house repainted before it is let

Owners near the campus often repaint before letting a house for the first time, choosing finishes that will stand up to tenants. Walls go in a washable finish, doors and trims in a hard enamel, and the colours are written down so touch ups between leases match without repainting a whole room.

If it is urgent

If water comes through a ceiling in Burwood

  1. 1Check whether a bathroom or a gutter sits above the stain. Put a bucket under any drip and switch off the power at the board for any light fitting near the water.
  2. 2Leave the wet ceiling sheet alone and do not paint over the stain. If you are renting, tell the agent or the owner straight away and leave the repair to them.
  3. 3When you call, say whether it is an owner occupied house, a rental or a unit, which room is affected, and whether the leak has been fixed. Tell us whether parking near the house is tight during semester.
Call 0431 639 501

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.

Local, and on the phone

Painting work in Burwood

Call or email and say whether the house is lived in or rented out, and when it needs to be finished. For rentals, the next lease date decides how the days are planned.

0431 639 501

Monday to Friday, 7:30am to 5:30pm

Not urgent? Send us the job instead