House painting

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elpenguino

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#3426631 20-Oct-2025 10:55

Gurezaemon:

Scaffolding - I painted my house 3 summers ago during a quiet patch at work. I looked into renting scaffolding, but was horrified by the price.

I ended up getting one of these, which despite the cost, worked out dramatically cheaper than renting. It also meant I didn't have to rush to get the scaffolding back, and could spread the whole job over a couple of months.

I would use that type of thing if I could but my place has steep sloping ground, and for the front, it slopes in two directions. It's also pushing 3 stories high and has raised gardens and other obstacles.

An acquaintance bought a whole lot of timber and built a scaffold, anchoring it to the house with big screws. Also, I've got to get up to the peak which is pretty high above ground so I'm going to pay the professionals so I don't have to worry about that.

I got a scaffolding quote for $2k + $100/week.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

duckDecoy

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#3426720 20-Oct-2025 14:50

I used one of these airless sprayers to do 2 sides of my 2 story house and the entirety of our separate garage.

https://www.bunnings.co.nz/ozito-700w-airless-paint-sprayer_p0225575

The paint FLEW on. I managed to get 2 coats on everything in 1 day, then a 3rd coat over 3-4 afternoons after work where I only had an hour or so of painting time available. Easy to use, i watched a bunch of youtube first to get the basic idea but you figure it out on our own quickly.

Because of over-spray concerns I only did it on the places where that wasn't going to be a problem or where I was confident I could cover anything that might get spray drift. I didn't risk it on the front side of my house because it is close to the neighbours and there are too many other structures and a patio area and I didn't want to be cleaning any of them up. In retrospect it probably would have been fine, but I stupidly painted those areas first before getting the sprayer.

I would have done a tidier job drip wise had I painted by hand BUT that would have been weeks of extra work. Happy with the compromise.

Our place is rough plywood (shadowclad) rather than weatherboard so was probably a bit more forgiving of paint building up and dripping. But if there's a couple of you one could spray and the other could tidy up any drips, which is what we did for the first few coats (I was on my own for the last, and it was the last where the drips turned up).

duckDecoy

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#3426721 20-Oct-2025 14:52

elpenguino:

I would use that type of thing if I could but my place has steep sloping ground, and for the front, it slopes in two directions. It's also pushing 3 stories high and has raised gardens and other obstacles.

An acquaintance bought a whole lot of timber and built a scaffold, anchoring it to the house with big screws. Also, I've got to get up to the peak which is pretty high above ground so I'm going to pay the professionals so I don't have to worry about that.

I got a scaffolding quote for $2k + $100/week.

Wow, that's considerably cheaper than what we paid for a house that is similar height and also on a steep section. 3.2k to erect and 270/week. We got 3 quotes and all roughly similar.

elpenguino

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#3426746 20-Oct-2025 15:27

Maybe the construction doldrums are a good thing?

Also, that's not for my whole house , only about a third of it.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

elpenguino

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#3452571 13-Jan-2026 13:54

Alrighty. Things are progressing nicely.

There's been some repairs to some rotten bits and much primer has been applied.

I'm at the stage where I need to do something about some rusty nails in the soffit.

One I was able to dig out with minor damage to the asbestos board - the nail was slightly proud. Others are too flush - serious digging would be required.

What do you recommend ? Try get these out or treat in situ?

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

wellygary

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#3452616 13-Jan-2026 14:23

elpenguino:

One I was able to dig out with minor damage to the asbestos board - the nail was slightly proud. Others are too flush - serious digging would be required.

What do you recommend ? Try get these out or treat in situ?

If it is actual asbestos board, then don't muck around trying to extract nails, you'll just damage the panels, and likely create a hazard if you break them....

Either commit to removing all the panels and replacing all the nails at the same time, or treat them in situ with rust treatment and then paint over and leave them alone....

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elpenguino

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#3452683 13-Jan-2026 16:03

I'm pretty sure it is asbestosy. A test was done on sheeting around our back porch and it came back positive. The soffit looks like the same stuff.

I will give the heads a little sand and a squirt of zinc paint and hope I don't see them pop out in 12 months time.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

AklBen

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#3452795 14-Jan-2026 09:58

Bit late to this...here's my 2c.

Our place around 6 years ago (we've since moved on) I did half of the house myself, and was extremely fastidious with stripping paint, filling, sanding, using a heat gun, scraping, etc. etc. The other half we got painters in. They were far less fastideous with prep, did no stripping, did a bit of sanding, and then just painted over the top of everything, some spots, not even using undercoat!

Five years on you couldn't tell the difference between the bits I did and the ones the painters did - they both looked great and both were holding up just as well.

It made me think - paint is designed to be quick and easy for tradies to work with, it is designed to work with dust, poor prepping and dirty surfaces. It's designed to look good in as many situations as possible.

Lesson for me was to NOT over prep.

timmmay

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#3452811 14-Jan-2026 11:39

I suspect that depends slightly on the wood being used. My house has weatherboards made of a very oily wood. It caused problems for years with bubbling until we stripped it, sealed with an oil based primer / sealer, then painted it. That stopped most of the bubbling and it's lasting quite well, with paint bubbles in only a few minor places after 5 or so years.

AklBen

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#3452865 14-Jan-2026 12:17

timmmay:

I suspect that depends slightly on the wood being used. My house has weatherboards made of a very oily wood. It caused problems for years with bubbling until we stripped it, sealed with an oil based primer / sealer, then painted it. That stopped most of the bubbling and it's lasting quite well, with paint bubbles in only a few minor places after 5 or so years.

Yep, totally. Unless the whole house is going to peel and bubble, a few spots requiring re-strip, prime/seal and repaint over the years is easier than spending all your time stripping EVERYTHING.

Horses for courses.

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