Heritage house painting in Melbourne

How we approach a period home

Victorian, Edwardian and Californian bungalow homes are some of Melbourne’s best-loved houses, and some of the slowest to paint well. Each piece of fretwork, lace and moulding has to be prepared and painted by hand, and the old timber under the paint is often better quality than modern timber but has decades of weather in it. New paint has to bond to many layers of old oil-based and lead-based coatings without trapping moisture or cracking.

Our guide to painting Victorian, Edwardian and Californian bungalow homes goes into each era in detail.

Heritage Overlays and council permits

Many of Melbourne’s inner and middle-ring suburbs have heritage precincts. If your home is in a Heritage Overlay, a planning permit is needed to paint a surface that has never been painted, such as face brick or unpainted render, and repainting can need one too if the overlay schedule applies external paint controls to your property. Like-for-like maintenance generally does not.

You can check your property’s overlays on VicPlan or with your council’s planning team. Rules differ between councils, so we recommend confirming before work starts, especially if you plan a big change of colour.

Lead paint comes first

Most Australian homes built before 1970 were painted with lead-based paint, so we treat the old paint on any period home as lead-based until a test says otherwise. That means no dry sanding, dry scraping, heat guns or high-pressure blasting, wet preparation methods, and careful clean-up of the work area. Our guide to lead paint in older homes explains testing and safe removal.

Preparing period timber, windows and iron lace

• Weatherboards and barge boards are scraped back to sound paint, splits filled, and rotten sections flagged for repair to match the original profile.
• Sash windows are freed if stuck, failed putty is replaced, and paint is kept off the sash cords and running surfaces.
• Cast-iron lace and metal fences have rust treated and are primed with a metal primer before painting.
• Stucco mouldings and render have cracks repaired before they are coated.
• Verandah posts are checked for rot at the base, where water collects.

See our weatherboard and render painting pages for how we prepare those surfaces.

Colours that suit the era

Victorian homes often carry rich, deep body colours with several contrasting trim colours to pick out mouldings and lace. Edwardian homes are usually red brick, meant to be seen, with cream, green or red timber trims. Californian bungalows tend towards earthy, muted tones with darker woodwork. Unless your council requires a heritage palette, the choice is yours, but a scheme that respects the era usually looks best in a period streetscape.

A colour consultation helps you build a scheme from Dulux, Taubmans or Wattyl ranges and test it on the house, in your own light.

What affects the price of a heritage repaint

Heritage jobs are quoted after a free site inspection. The main factors are:

• The amount of decorative detail: fretwork, lace and mouldings take far longer than flat walls.
• The number of colours in the scheme.
• Lead-safe preparation and the condition of the old paint.
• Timber, window and render repairs, and the height and access around the house.

Our guide to exterior house painting costs in Melbourne gives current price ranges.