Painters Wembley
Character Home Painting Done Carefully
Wembley’s housing stock is among the oldest we work with, and it needs a different approach to a 1980s brick and tile home.
Pro Painting Works handles interior and exterior repaints on character homes across Wembley, along with the newer builds and renovations.
Dulux Accredited, fully insured, registrations PC 102205 and PP 101238.
Painting Character Homes in Wembley
Much of Wembley was built between the 1920s and the 1950s, and a lot of it survives largely intact. Tuck-pointed brickwork, weatherboard, rendered facades, timber sash windows, deep verandahs and decorative plaster inside.
Painting a house like that is slower than painting a modern one and there’s a reason for it:
Detail work: Picture rails, deep skirtings, decorative cornices, ceiling roses, panelled doors and fretwork all have to be cut in by hand. There’s no shortcut and a rushed job on a character interior looks rushed immediately.
Timber windows and doors: Original sashes, frames and French doors are worth preserving. They need careful preparation, and where putty has failed or the lower rails have rotted, that gets addressed before painting rather than covered over.
High ceilings: Standard on homes of this era and it changes the access requirements for interior work.
Original render and lime-based finishes: Older render behaves differently to modern acrylic render and needs a breathable system so moisture can move out of the wall rather than being trapped behind the coating.
Lead Paint in Older Wembley Homes
This is worth understanding before anyone sands anything on a pre-1970 house.
Paint manufactured in Australia before 1970 commonly contained lead, and it was in widespread use well before that. On a Wembley home built in the 1930s or 1940s, there’s a reasonable chance lead paint sits somewhere in the layers, particularly on exterior timber, window frames, doors and skirtings.
Intact lead paint that’s sealed under later coatings is generally not a hazard. The risk comes from disturbing it. Dry sanding, power sanding or scraping releases lead dust, and that dust is the problem, particularly in a house with young children or anyone pregnant.
We work to the appropriate methods on older properties: wet sanding rather than dry, containment and proper collection of debris, and no power sanding on suspect surfaces. Where a surface is badly deteriorated we’ll recommend testing before we start rather than guessing.
Most DIY jobs on character homes go wrong here, and it’s not a small thing to get wrong.
Exposure in Wembley
Wembley sits further inland than the coastal suburbs, roughly five kilometres back from the water, so salt is less of a factor than it is in Scarborough or Trigg.
The bigger issue here is the timber. Character homes have a great deal more exterior timber than modern ones, and timber moves. Hot days and cool nights expand and contract weatherboards, window frames and fascias daily, and a rigid coating cracks along that movement.
Which is why caulking and flexible fillers matter more on a Wembley exterior than on a brick and render home, and why a job done properly here takes longer than the same square metreage on a newer house.
What We Do in Wembley
Character interior repaints: walls, ceilings, cornices, picture rails, skirtings and panelled doors, cut in by hand.
Exterior repaints: weatherboard, tuck-pointed brick, render and extensive timber detail.
Timber window and door restoration painting: original sashes and frames prepared and repainted rather than replaced.
Fences and boundary walls: timber pickets, rendered front walls and Colorbond rear boundaries.
Work in and Around Wembley
Next door in Floreat we completed a full interior repaint on a four-bedroom character home, and we’ve done exterior and interior work through City Beach, Swanbourne and Menora.
Why It Helps That We're Close
Wembley is a short run from our Stirling base, so we’re on site quickly and back promptly if anything needs attention.
More to the point, character homes reward a painter who’s worked on them before. We know where the problems tend to be on a house of this era and we plan for them at quote stage rather than finding them on day three.
FAQ
Does my house have lead paint?
If it was built before 1970 there’s a reasonable chance lead paint is in the layers somewhere. We work to safe methods on older homes as a matter of course, and where a surface is badly deteriorated we’ll recommend testing before we start.
Can my original timber windows be repainted rather than replaced?
Almost always, and it’s usually the better option. Original joinery is often better made than a modern replacement. Where putty has failed or timber has rotted we sort that first.
Do you do decorative interior detail?
Yes. Cornices, ceiling roses, picture rails, deep skirtings and panelled doors, all cut in by hand. It takes longer and the result shows it.
Will a character home cost more to paint?
Generally yes, for the same floor area, because the preparation and the detail work take longer. We itemise the quote so you can see where the time goes.
Get a Quote in Wembley
Call Michael on 0406 615 503 or send through the form.
Character home or modern build, we’ll come out and quote it properly in writing.
Get a Free Quote!
Based in Stirling and on the tools six days a week. Send through a few details and we'll come out for a look at no cost.