House painters Sydney homeowners trust, inside and out

There is no honest flat rate, because the price is driven by how much preparation the surfaces need rather than by floor area alone. A recently painted interior in sound condition is a very different job to weatherboard that has not been touched in 15 years and needs stripping, filling and priming first. The other cost drivers are access (2 storeys and steep sites need scaffold or elevated work platforms), the number of coats, and the product grade. That is why the quote is itemised: you can see what the preparation costs separately from the paint, and compare like for like against anyone else quoting the job.

A single interior room is usually 1 to 2 days. A full interior repaint of an average home commonly runs 5 to 10 working days, and a full exterior is similar but far more weather dependent. The variable that moves the timeline most is preparation, not painting. You get a timeframe in writing with the quote rather than a guess on the day, and if the scope changes once surfaces are opened up we tell you before the extra work starts.

For most interior jobs, no. Work is usually staged room by room so you keep the use of the rest of the house, and furniture is moved to the centre and covered rather than removed. You will need to keep pets and small children out of the active area, and rooms with fresh enamel on doors and trim need to stay clear until it has hardened. For a full-house interior repaint on a tight deadline it is often faster and cleaner if the house is empty, so it is worth discussing at quoting stage.

The standard for a quality finish is an appropriate primer or sealer where the surface needs it, then 2 topcoats. Some situations need more: a strong colour change, a deep or vivid colour with poor hide, bare or patched substrate, or covering a stain or water mark. Some need fewer, such as a light refresh in the same colour on a sound surface. The point is that the number of coats is written into your quote before work starts, so nobody is guessing later about what was agreed.

Yes, but the weather sets the rules rather than the calendar. Most exterior paints need the surface above roughly 10 degrees and dropping humidity to cure properly, so winter work means shorter usable days and watching overnight dew, which can ruin a fresh coat. In Sydney there are plenty of workable winter days. What it does mean is that an exterior job booked in winter can be interrupted, so the schedule needs some slack built in.

Preparation is the part that decides whether the job lasts 3 years or 10, and it is the part that disappears under the topcoat, which is exactly why it gets cut on cheap quotes. Depending on the surface it involves washing or pressure cleaning off dirt, mould and chalking, scraping and sanding back any flaking or glossy areas, filling and caulking cracks and gaps, spot priming bare patches or sealing the whole surface, and masking and covering everything that is not being painted. Ask any painter to itemise this on their quote. If they will not, that tells you something.