Painter in Richmond, VIC
Richmond, from Swan Street to Victoria Street
Richmond is mostly narrow streets of Victorian workers' cottages and single fronted terraces, with warehouse conversions and apartment buildings between them and along the main roads. Painting here is often a small house done properly: the front, the hallway, the rooms off it and the lean-to at the back. Swan Street, Bridge Road and Victoria Street carry the shops and the traffic, and most of the work sits in the streets behind them.
Many houses open straight onto the footpath with no side access at all, so ladders and planks come through the front door, down the hall and out to the back, with the hall covered first. Where there is a rear lane, the gear comes in that way instead. Parking is mostly permit only, so a visitor permit or an agreed spot is sorted before the first morning, and the warehouse apartments have lifts booked through the building.
The cottages and terraces are brick or weatherboard, with lath and plaster ceilings, timber floors, cast iron or timber verandah detail, and box gutters hidden behind the parapet. Old paint on houses of this age may contain lead, and many fronts have been painted over so often that the detail has gone soft. Many streets sit under heritage overlays, so changes to the front of a house can need a council permit, and unpainted face brick is left as it is.
What we do here most
What Richmond keeps needing
Most jobs here are small houses with no room to spare, where getting the gear in and out is half of the planning.
Exterior painting
A single fronted terrace facing the footpath
Terraces here open straight onto the footpath, so the front is painted from the street with the footpath kept clear for people walking past. The parapet, verandah and window frames are prepared and painted, and cast iron is cleaned and primed. Neighbours either side are told before ladders go up, because the walls and the verandah roof are often shared.
Walls and ceilings
Lath and plaster in a workers' cottage
Ceilings in cottages here are often original lath and plaster, cracked from more than a century of settling and traffic. Sound plaster is cut out and filled, loose sections are shown to you before any repair is quoted, and the ceilings are painted with the rooms covered. In a house this small, the rooms are done one at a time so you can still live in it.
Interior painting
A warehouse apartment with tall brick walls
Warehouse conversions here often have tall painted brick walls, exposed timber beams and steel windows. Painted brick is cleaned and patched where the mortar has gone, beams are prepared for the coating they already carry, and steel frames are treated for rust before painting. The lift and loading bay are booked through the building first.
Carpentry and fixing
A rotten back step and lean-to door
The lean-to at the back of a Richmond cottage often has a timber step, a door and window frames that have taken decades of weather. The step and the rotten parts of the frames are replaced, the door is rehung so it closes properly, and the new timber is primed and painted with the rest of the back of the house.
If it is urgent
If water comes through a ceiling in a Richmond cottage
- 1Look at where the stain sits: a box gutter behind the parapet, or a valley shared with the house next door, is the common source in cottages here. Put a bucket under any drip 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, because it can come down in a heavy slab. Do not try to clear a box gutter from the roof in the rain, and do not paint over the stain.
- 3When you call, tell us which room, whether the ceiling is lath and plaster, and whether a roofer or plumber has fixed the box gutter. Say whether there is a rear lane and whether we need a visitor parking permit.
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 Richmond, VIC
These are the eleven things we do across Melbourne, done here to suit cottages and terraces with no side access, and the converted warehouses between them.
Local, and on the phone
Painting work in Richmond
Call or email with the street and whether the house has a rear lane. In Richmond the parking permit and the way in decide the first morning more than anything else.
0431 639 501Monday to Friday, 7:30am to 5:30pm
Not urgent? Send us the job instead