Exterior Painting in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs

The biggest drivers are the size and height of the house, the substrate and how much preparation it needs. A single-storey rendered home that only needs a wash and two coats is a very different job from a two-storey weatherboard with flaking paint, rotten boards and rusted gutters that all have to be fixed before paint goes on. Access matters too: scaffolding or a boom lift for high gables adds to the price. Colour changes from dark to light, heritage detail work and the number of trim colours also move the figure. We do not publish prices because no two exteriors are the same, but our <a href="/blog/how-much-does-it-cost-to-paint-a-house-in-sydney/">Sydney house painting cost guide</a> walks through each factor, and every quote we give is written and itemised.

It depends on the size of the house, the amount of repair work and the weather. Preparation is usually the longest part of an exterior job, because washing, scraping, sanding and priming have to be done before the first finish coat. Dulux lists a re-coat time of two hours for <a href="https://www.dulux.com.au/paint/weathershield/weathershield-low-sheen/">Weathershield Low Sheen</a> at 25 degrees, but that stretches out on cool or humid days, and the same page says not to paint when rain is forecast. We give you a written timeline with your quote and build in a buffer for weather. If a storm front comes through we stop, protect the work and pick up when the surfaces are dry.

Autumn and spring give the steadiest conditions in the Eastern Suburbs: mild days, lower humidity and fewer afternoon storms than summer. Dulux's <a href="https://www.dulux.com.au/paint/weathershield/weathershield-low-sheen/">Weathershield application notes</a> require the temperature to stay above 5 degrees during application and drying, and warn that rain or overnight dew on a drying coat can damage or remove it. That makes winter mornings and humid summer evenings the times we work around, not rule out. We can paint exteriors most of the year here; we just plan the day so each coat has time to cure before dew settles, and we do not start a wall if rain is forecast.

In most cases repainting an already painted surface is treated as maintenance. Randwick City Council's <a href="https://www.randwick.nsw.gov.au/planning-and-building/heritage-conservation/looking-after-your-heritage-house">heritage house guidance</a> says repainting existing painted timberwork and metalwork does not require consent, that Council does not require you to use particular colours, and publishes suggested Victorian, Edwardian, Interwar and Postwar schemes. It also asks that original face brickwork not be rendered or painted. Waverley Council issues a <a href="https://www.waverley.nsw.gov.au/planning/application_forms_and_certificates/heritage_exemption_certificate">Heritage Exemption Certificate</a> for minor works such as painting within its prescribed heritage colour scheme, instead of a full development application. We will tell you if your job looks like it needs a certificate before we start, and we are happy to work from a period scheme.

Salt air is hard on paint, so the honest answer is: as long as the preparation and maintenance allow. We use exterior acrylics such as Dulux Weathershield, which Dulux <a href="https://www.dulux.com.au/paint/weathershield/weathershield-low-sheen/">guarantees against peeling, flaking and blistering for as long as you live in your home</a>, provided it is applied to a sound substrate and maintained to the instructions. Those instructions matter near the beach: Dulux recommends washing coated surfaces every six months in coastal areas, rather than yearly inland, and applying a coat of its All Metal Primer on surfaces within one kilometre of the sea. We follow that system on every coastal job, and a gentle hose-down of the walls twice a year will keep the finish looking fresh for far longer.

We find them before we paint, not after. During the wash and scrape we probe every board, sill and barge board for soft timber. Small areas of surface rot are cut back to sound timber, treated, filled with a two-part exterior filler, sanded and primed. Boards that are rotten through are cut out and replaced with matching profile timber, then primed on all faces before they go up. Painting over rot only hides it for a season, and the paint fails as the timber keeps moving and holding water. If we find more damage than the quote allowed for, Trent will show you the boards and agree the extra with you in writing before any of it is replaced.