The surfaces that get the worst of it.
Timber palings, Colorbond, gates, sheds, carports and roofs — the parts of a Melbourne property that weather fastest and get left the longest.
Fences & roofs · MelbourneFence and Roof Painting Melbourne – Weathered Surfaces, Done Properly
Fences and roofs take more sun, rain and movement than anything else on a property, and they are almost always the last thing anyone gets around to.
They are also the two jobs where the honest answer is sometimes “don’t paint that yet” — so we will tell you when preparation or repair has to come first, and when coating something is simply the wrong call.
Timber fences
Palings, pickets, lapped and capped, screening, gates and posts. A timber fence in Melbourne usually needs work before it needs paint.
- Clean down and remove mould, lichen and surface grey
- Replace or repair split, rotted or loose palings
- Re-fix and re-tension where the fence has moved
- Sand back weathered timber to something a coating can bond to
- Prime bare timber before the finish coats
- Stain, oil or paint depending on what you want it to look like in five years
A fence that is structurally gone does not get better under paint. If yours is at that point we will say so rather than take the job.
Colorbond and metal fencing
Colorbond can be painted, and it is a good way to change a colour you have stopped liking or to tidy a fence that has faded unevenly. It has to be done properly or it peels in sheets.
The work is in the preparation: a proper clean to remove chalking and grime, a scuff so the coating has something to key into, and the right primer for the substrate. Where there is rust — usually at the base, the fixings, or where a mower has taken the coating off — it gets cut back and treated before anything goes over it.
Metal surfaces near the bay corrode faster than inland ones, and that changes the system rather than just the colour.
Gates, sheds, carports and outbuildings
The things that never make it into the main quote and then look wrong next to a freshly painted house.
- Timber and metal gates, including the hardware
- Garden sheds and workshops
- Carports, pergolas and verandah posts
- Retaining walls and screening
- Bin enclosures and letterbox surrounds
Cheap to add while we are already on site. Expensive to come back for.
Roof painting — and what it is not
Roof coating can genuinely extend the life of a tiled or metal roof and change how a house looks from the street. It is not a repair.
If tiles are cracked, ridge capping is loose, or there is a leak, those are roof repairs and they come first. A coating over a failing roof hides the problem for a season.
What a roof job normally involves
- Inspection and an honest report on condition
- Pressure clean to remove moss, lichen and oxidised coating
- Repairs and ridge re-bedding or re-pointing where needed, before coating
- Primer or sealer suited to the roof material
- Two finish coats of a roof-specific product
Products often require protection from rain for a set period after application — Dulux Acratex Cool Roof specifies 48 hours from rain and frost. In a Melbourne September that window is not guaranteed, which is a scheduling problem, not a detail.
A fence that is structurally gone does not get better under paint. Part of the job is telling you that before you pay for a coat of it.
How fences and roofs are priced
Fencing is normally priced by the lineal metre rather than by area, because the height is fairly consistent and the variable is length, condition and number of coats. Roofs are priced by area and by access.
The two things that move a fence price most: how many coats, and whether the fence needs cleaning and repair first. The two that move a roof price most: the state of the roof, and whether it needs scaffold.
We quote both after looking at them. Anyone giving you a rate over the phone has not seen the condition, which is where the whole cost sits.
Timing
Fences and roofs are exterior work, so the same Melbourne constraints apply — a temperature floor most winter nights do not clear, a humidity ceiling that June mornings sit close to, and the wettest run of the year through August to October.
Late spring through early autumn is the reliable window. Outside it, we schedule around the forecast and we will not put a coat down before a cold, wet night just to keep a calendar.
What you get in writing
Before anything starts:
- Lineal metres or roof area, and the number of coats
- What cleaning and repair is included, and what would be a variation
- The products and the system
- Whether gates, posts and hardware are in or out
- The price, and whether GST is in or out
Our painting work carries a five-year workmanship warranty. Eligibility, inclusions and exclusions are confirmed in the written project quotation.
Tidy up the surfaces everyone actually sees.
Tell us roughly how many metres of fence, or what your roof is made of, and we will come and look.
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