Exterior Painting Perth

An exterior repaint is not decoration. It’s the layer keeping water, salt and ultraviolet off the building, and when it fails the damage underneath costs a great deal more than the paint job would have.

Pro Painting Works handles exterior painting across Stirling, Karrinyup, Scarborough, Trigg, North Beach, Doubleview, Wembley Downs, Floreat and City Beach.

Render, brick, weatherboard and fibre cement, using Dulux and Dulux Acratex systems specified for what Perth weather actually does to a west-facing wall.

Perth is a harder environment for exterior coatings than most of the country, and the suburbs along this stretch of coast are harder again.

Ultraviolet levels here are high and sustained. Cheap coatings chalk, which is the powdery residue you get on your hand when you run it down a sun-facing wall, and once chalking starts the film is breaking down and losing its water resistance.

Salt-laden air off the ocean accelerates everything. Homes in Trigg, North Beach, Scarborough and City Beach cop it constantly, and it attacks fixings and metalwork as much as the paint film.

Then there’s the movement. Hot days and cool nights make render and weatherboard expand and contract daily. A brittle coating cracks along that movement, water gets behind it, and the failure spreads from there.

None of this is unusual and all of it is manageable. It just means the product has to be specified for the exposure and the preparation has to be done properly, which is where most failed exterior jobs went wrong.

Surfaces We Paint

Rendered and Textured Walls

Common on newer builds around Karrinyup, Gwelup and the coastal developments. Render is durable but unforgiving of poor preparation, and it needs a coating system with enough flexibility to move with it.

Every render job starts with a pressure clean to remove salt deposits, dirt and chalking residue. Hairline cracks get raked out and filled with a flexible filler rather than a rigid one. Any blown or drummy sections need addressing before painting, because painting over a hollow patch of render is covering a problem you’ll be back for.

We use Dulux Acratex systems on render where the exposure warrants it. They’re membrane coatings built to bridge hairline movement and hold their colour through Perth summers.

Brick and Limestone

Painted brick is a big commitment, since it’s difficult to reverse, so it’s worth a proper conversation before you decide. Done well it modernises an older home dramatically. Done badly it traps moisture in the wall.

Brick needs the right primer and a breathable topcoat that lets moisture move out rather than sealing it in. Limestone, common through the older western suburbs, needs particular care because it’s porous and soft. 

Weatherboard and Timber

Plenty of older homes through Wembley, Floreat, Doubleview and Mount Hawthorn are weatherboard, and timber is the substrate that punishes shortcuts hardest.

Loose and flaking paint has to come back to a sound edge. Bare timber needs an oil-based primer to seal it. Gaps and joints need caulking properly, because uncaulked joints crack along every seam within a season and let water into the end grain.

We check for rot while we’re preparing, particularly at the bottom boards and around window sills where water sits. If something needs replacing we’ll tell you before we paint over it.

Fibre Cement and Fibro

Fibro cladding needs a specific primer. Skip it and you get efflorescence, the white salty bloom that pushes up through the topcoat as moisture moves out of the sheet.

Older fibro also needs handling carefully. Sheeting from before the late 1980s may contain asbestos, and it must not be sanded or disturbed. Where we suspect it, we say so and we work to the appropriate approach rather than pretending we didn’t notice.

Eaves, Fascias and Gutters

The details that make an exterior look finished. Eaves collect dirt and cobwebs and are usually filthy before painting. Fascias and barge boards are exposed and often the first timber to deteriorate.

Gutters and downpipes can be repainted where they’re sound, using coatings suited to metal with rust treatment underneath where needed.

Windows, Doors and Metalwork

Window frames, door surrounds, security screens, gates, railings and garage doors. Mostly hand-painted, because no spray gun gives you a clean line against brickwork.

Metalwork gets rust treated and primed with an inhibitive primer before the topcoat, otherwise the rust keeps working underneath and lifts the paint off within a year.