Painter in Mont Albert, VIC
Mont Albert, around the Hamilton Street village
Painting in Mont Albert is mostly period houses that owners intend to keep. The streets around the Hamilton Street shops and the railway line are lined with Federation and Edwardian houses, and the interwar bungalows between them get the same care. Work here tends to be the slower kind: verandahs, timber windows, decorative ceilings and hallways, often done a few rooms at a time rather than all at once.
Most houses sit behind a front garden and a low fence, with a driveway or a narrow side path down one side. Street parking is usually easy away from the shops, but the hedges and established trees mean ladders go up carefully around gardens that have taken decades to grow. Where a house has no side access, ladders and planks come through the front door, so the hallway is covered first.
The Federation and Edwardian houses are red brick or weatherboard with timber fretwork, turned verandah posts, leadlight and tall lath and plaster ceilings with cornices and ceiling roses. Old paint on them may contain lead, and the detail is easy to lose under too many coats. Face brick that has never been painted is best left that way, and in a heritage area painting it can need council approval first.
What we do here most
What Mont Albert keeps needing
The common thread is period detail that has been painted over too many times, and the work is getting it back without losing it.
Painting and restoration
Verandah fretwork stripped back and repainted
Timber fretwork and brackets on a Federation verandah often carry so many coats that the edges have gone soft and round. Loose and flaking layers are taken back by hand, broken pieces are repaired or remade, and the detail is primed and painted in colours that suit the house. It is slow work, and it is quoted that way.
Walls and ceilings
Cracked lath and plaster ceiling in a hallway
Old hallway ceilings show fine cracks that run across the room and around the cornice. Where the plaster is still firmly keyed to the laths, the cracks are cut out, filled and reinforced before painting. Where it has come loose, that section is talked through with you first, because the repair is bigger than a fill.
Exterior painting
Timber sash windows that no longer open
Double hung windows on period houses are often painted shut, with flaking frames and cracked putty. The sashes are freed, the sills repaired, the putty renewed and the frames primed and painted, with the moving parts kept clear of paint so the windows open properly once the job is done.
Interior painting
A hallway and front rooms done in stages
Owners here often do the front of the house first, then the bedrooms, then the kitchen end, over a year or two. Each stage is quoted on its own, with the colours written down so the next stage matches. The hallway usually comes first, because it sets the colour for every door that opens off it.
If it is urgent
If water comes through a ceiling in an older Mont Albert house
- 1Look at the stain from below with a torch: if it is growing or dripping, put a bucket under it, move anything valuable out of the room, and switch off the power at the board for any light fitting near the water.
- 2Keep away from a lath and plaster ceiling that is bowing or cracking around the wet patch, because an old ceiling can come down in a heavy slab. Do not paint over the mark or pull at loose cornice.
- 3When you call, tell us the room, whether the ceiling has cornices or a ceiling rose, and whether the roof or gutter has been repaired yet. Say if the house is in a heritage area and whether there is side access or the ladders come through the front door.
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 Mont Albert, VIC
These are the eleven things we do across Melbourne, done here with the care that period timber, leadlight and old plaster need.
Also nearby
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Local, and on the phone
Painting work in Mont Albert
Call or email with roughly when the house was built and which part you want done first. The age decides how the old paint is handled, and the first room decides where the job starts.
0431 639 501Monday to Friday, 7:30am to 5:30pm
Not urgent? Send us the job instead