New builds
From sealed plasterboard through to the handover list. The finish has to match what the owner thought they were buying, not only what went on to meet a program. More on new build painting.
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Molonglo and Denman Prospect
House painters for Denman Prospect and the Molonglo Valley.
Tony and Tyson are based in Denman Prospect. The Molonglo Valley is the newest part of Canberra, and the houses here are a different job from a 1970s repaint across the road in Weston Creek. A lot of the work is a new build, or the first real repaint after the builder’s standard finish.
The houses
New estates, small eaves, and a builder’s white.
The valley sits west of Weston Creek, along the Molonglo River and below Stromlo Forest Park. Much of that land was pine plantation until the 2003 fires. Wright and Coombs were the first suburbs. Denman Prospect followed. Whitlam is the newest.
The houses are mostly contemporary. Two storeys are common, often on a block that falls toward the river. Rendered walls and lightweight cladding show up more often than the brick veneer next door in Weston Creek. Windows are usually aluminium, and the eaves are small, so the walls take the weather. Inside, a new house often arrives in one flat white, or close to it, with a basic enamel on the doors and whatever the builder specified on the ceiling.
We paint houses. Shops and apartment buildings in the valley are not work we take on.
The first repaint
A few years in, people want a colour, a feature wall, or wet areas that will actually wipe clean. Sound builder’s acrylic can stay as a base. It is not always the finish someone wants to keep living with.
Render and cladding
Exterior coatings have to suit the substrate. A render joint that is telegraphing, or a wall that was never quite finished, is preparation before it is a colour. See exterior painting.
Access on a slope
A two-storey wall over a fall is not the same quote as a single-storey house on the flat. Access is part of the inspection, written down before anyone starts.
Where the houses are
Denman Prospect, Wright, Coombs and Whitlam.
Denman Prospect is home base. Wright and Coombs are the earlier estates, with houses that have now had a few Canberra summers on the render. Whitlam is still the new end of the valley. As later Molonglo suburbs are built, they sit in the same working area.
Kitchens and bathrooms in these houses are often still the builder’s specification. If that is the part you actually want changed, it is its own job: kitchens and bathrooms, not a whole-house repaint by default.
Other notes: Weston Creek, Woden, Belconnen, Inner North, and the Canberra painters overview.
Send the suburb, the stage the house is at, and a few photos.
For a new build, say when the plaster will be ready and who else is still on site. For a repaint, say which rooms and whether the outside is in the same visit.