Millwater · Hibiscus Coast
House painters in Millwater, for the first repaint.
A lot of Millwater homes are coming up to their first full exterior repaint. We're Dulux Accredited painters working across the Hibiscus Coast, and we've already repainted in the estate. Here's what we found on one Millwater house, and straight answers to what people ask before they book a painter.
Dulux Accredited · Fully insured · ★ 5.0 on Google from 30 reviews
Why Millwater is different
Millwater went up in stages, so whole streets share the same era of build and the same kind of cladding, and their paint has had about the same number of summers on it. That's why so many houses here are reaching their first repaint at around the same time. Next door, Milldale is still being built. We do both kinds of work: first repaints on the established side, and new build painting where houses are still going up.
What we found on a Pioneer Rise repaint
This was a full exterior repaint: weatherboards, soffits, garage surround and front door. The weatherboard paint was flaking and blistering back to bare substrate.
We scaffolded the house and lightly sanded the whole lot, then sanded all the flaked areas hard until every bit of loose paint was gone, leaving a smooth surface of sound paint and bare weatherboard.
This house was interesting. When it was built, the factory primer on the weatherboards had failed. So when we sanded back, we didn't reach factory primer. We reached bare wood.
We oil-based undercoated the bare areas first, then water-based undercoated all the affected areas, then filled and gapped. Two topcoats went over the whole house: semi-gloss on the soffits and low sheen on the weatherboards.
Why oil-based first?
Two reasons. That bare timber had been exposed to the weather, and putting water-based paint straight over it can lead to bubbling later, because there's still moisture in the wood. An oil-based undercoat is solvent-based, so it dries the wood out rather than re-saturating it. It's more of a precaution, but one we think is 100% necessary.
One house is one house. We're not saying every Millwater home has this problem, only that it's worth knowing what's under your paint before you choose how it gets repainted.
Signs your paint is due
- Chalky residue when you run a hand over the cladding
- Fading on the sunniest walls
- Hairline cracking in the paint
- Flaking or blistering, especially if you can see bare timber underneath
The first three mean the coating is getting tired. The last one means it has already let go, and the prep gets bigger the longer it's left.
Why accreditation matters for a first repaint
If you've never hired a painter before, accreditation is a fair place to start. We're a Dulux Accredited Painter: Dulux requires its accredited painters to hold current company registration and at least $2 million of public liability cover, and those are monitored independently. It doesn't replace asking what prep is in the quote, but it means the basics have been checked. What Dulux Accredited means, in detail.
Getting a quote
We'll come and look at the house, tell you what it needs and why, and give you a fixed quote. Free house wash with every full exterior repaint — through our partner So Clean.
Millwater painting FAQ
Questions Millwater homeowners ask.
How often should you repaint the outside of a house?
Watch the paint, not the calendar. Chalking (a powdery residue when you run a hand over the cladding), fading on the sunniest walls, hairline cracking, and any flaking or blistering are the signs the coating is giving up. A lot of Millwater homes are now coming up to their first full exterior repaint. Catch it while the paint is just tired and it's a repaint; leave it until it's flaking back to bare timber and there's a lot more prep in the job.
Can you just paint over peeling paint?
No. New paint is only as good as what it's stuck to, and peeling paint isn't stuck to anything. Every loose and flaking area has to come off first. On our Pioneer Rise repaint in Millwater we lightly sanded the whole house, then sanded the flaked areas hard until there was nothing left but sound, adhered paint and bare weatherboard. Only then did undercoat go on.
Why is my weatherboard paint peeling or blistering?
The usual causes are moisture getting in behind the paint, or prep and priming that wasn't right in the first place. On the Pioneer Rise house it was the second: the factory primer on the weatherboards had failed when the house was built, so when we sanded back we hit bare wood rather than primer. That's why it was flaking and blistering back to the substrate. If yours is blistering down to bare timber, it needs proper sanding back and priming, not another coat over the top.
Why do quotes for similar-looking houses come back so different?
Because two houses that look the same from the street can need very different amounts of prep. A house that's just chalky and faded needs a wash, a light sand and two coats. A house where the paint has let go back to bare timber needs hours of sanding, spot priming, undercoats, filling and gapping before the topcoats. Ask every painter what prep is included before you compare prices.
Do you paint new builds in Milldale as well?
Yes. We do new build interiors and exteriors as well as repaints, so we cover both: first repaints in Millwater and new builds going up next door in Milldale.
More answers on our painting FAQ, including cost and the best time of year to paint.