Expert Painters

Painters in Elwood: Art Deco Blocks, Salt Damp and Steel Windows

24 Oct

Most painting enquiries from Elwood are not from a single homeowner. They come from an owners corporation committee, a building manager, or one frustrated owner who has been told the block needs painting and has no idea what that should cost.

That is because of what Elwood is built from. The suburb holds one of Melbourneā€™s densest concentrations of interwar walk-up apartment blocks, most of them built between the mid-1920s and the late 1930s, and they come with a specific set of painting problems that a weatherboard in Northcote simply does not have.

Rendered Deco facades fail in a particular order

The classic Elwood block is rendered masonry, two or three storeys, with a stepped or curved parapet, a decorative entry surround, and steel-framed windows. When these buildings need painting, the deterioration almost always follows the same sequence:

  • Hairline cracking through the render, following the mortar joints beneath it
  • Paint lifting in the first half-metre above ground level, where moisture is moving up through the masonry
  • Rust staining and blistering around the steel window frames
  • Failed sealant and lifting paint at the parapet and under window sills
  • Chalking and colour loss on the elevations facing the bay

Painting over any of that without addressing it buys two or three years. Addressing it properly buys ten to twelve. The difference in price between those two jobs is real, and it is the single most common point of confusion when a committee compares three quotes side by side.

Salt damp and ground-level moisture

Elwood sits low. Much of it was swamp and the Elwood Canal still runs through it, and the water table is close to the surface in parts of the suburb. On ground-floor walls that shows up as salt attack: white crystalline deposits, soft crumbling render, and paint that will not stay on no matter how many coats go over it.

The mistake is to specify a high-build or waterproof coating to seal it in. That makes it worse. Sealing a damp wall traps moisture behind the film and the render itself begins to break down. These walls need a breathable, vapour-permeable system and, where the render has already gone, replacement before any paint is applied. Our guide to efflorescence and salt deposits explains what the deposits actually are and why they return.

Original steel windows are the real cost

The steel-framed casement windows on an original Elwood block are the item most quotes underprice or quietly exclude.

They rust from the rebate outwards, under the glazing putty, where it is not visible until the putty cracks and falls out. Done properly, the work means removing failed putty, wire-brushing and treating the rust back to sound steel, priming with a direct-to-metal primer, re-puttying where needed, then finishing. On a block of twelve apartments with original windows throughout, that can be a week of work on the windows alone.

Replacing them is usually off the table: on many blocks the windows are an original feature, and in a heritage overlay they may not be replaceable with aluminium at all. So they get repaired and painted, and the quote needs to say how. Our notes on preparing and painting metal apply directly.

Balconies and balustrades

Deco blocks tend to have small projecting balconies with solid rendered balustrades or steel railings. Both are among the most exposed elements on the building and both are frequently left out of a cheap quote.

Rendered balustrades crack along the top where water sits. Steel railings rust at the base where they are set into concrete, and that rust expands and breaks the concrete around it, which is a repair job before it is a painting job. We cover the sequence in our guide to balcony painting in Melbourne.

What committees need that homeowners do not

Painting a block is a different transaction from painting a house, and a painter who only works on houses tends to get this wrong.

  • A quote in a form a committee can actually read and compare, with scope, products, coats and exclusions stated separately rather than one lump sum
  • A specification detailed enough that three quotes can be compared on the same basis
  • Staging that keeps access, entries and car parking usable throughout
  • Written notice to residents before work starts on their elevation
  • Current public liability cover and the paperwork to prove it
  • A schedule that fits the budget cycle, because the work often has to wait for a levy or an AGM resolution

We do a reasonable amount of owners corporation and strata painting and can quote in that format.

Things that should not be painted

Original Elwood blocks often retain terrazzo entry floors, tiled dados in the foyer, face brick detail bands, and polished timber handrails. Painting any of them is quick, cheap, and takes value off the building permanently. It is also close to impossible to reverse.

If a quote proposes painting original terrazzo, tiling or face brick, that is worth questioning before it is accepted. Parts of Elwood fall under City of Port Phillip heritage overlays, and for street-facing masonry that has never been painted, a permit may be required. Confirm it with the council rather than assuming.

Bay exposure along the esplanade

Buildings along Ormond Esplanade, Marine Parade and the streets immediately behind them take salt-laden wind straight off Port Phillip, and they weather faster than identical buildings half a kilometre inland.

In practice the exposed elevation of a beachfront block needs recoating several years ahead of the rest of it. There is a reasonable argument for doing just that elevation on a shorter cycle instead of repainting the whole building early, and for a committee watching a budget it is usually the cheaper path over twenty years. We are happy to put both options in writing.

What we do in Elwood

  • Full exterior repaints of interwar and Art Deco apartment blocks
  • Render repair, crack repair and salt damp remediation before painting
  • Original steel window repair and finishing
  • Balcony, balustrade and railing preparation and painting
  • Common property interiors: foyers, stairwells, corridors and ceilings
  • Houses and renovated terraces, interior and exterior

We are based in Richmond, roughly twenty minutes from Elwood, and we work across the bayside suburbs from Port Melbourne through to Brighton, Sandringham and Beaumaris.

Call 0404 330 332 or request a quote. For a block, we will walk the building and put a specification in writing before quoting a figure.

šŸ“ Our Service Areas Across Melbourne, the Mornington Peninsula, Surf Coast & Phillip Island

Melbourne & Bayside

Phillip Island & Bass Coast

Surf Coast & Bellarine Peninsula

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