Servicing Richmond 3121 and the inner east — Cremorne, Burnley, Abbotsford and Collingwood. Free quotes, no callout fee, and one team from the first scrape to the last coat.
Richmond is really three suburbs stacked on top of each other, and each one paints differently. There is the terrace stock: single-fronted Victorian workers’ cottages and double-fronted Edwardians on streets barely wide enough to turn a ute around, most of them sharing a party wall with the neighbour so there is no way down the side. There is Cremorne, where old brick factories and warehouses have been carved up into offices, studios and apartments, with rendered and bagged brick that has been patched by five different people over forty years. And there are the strips — Bridge Road, Swan Street, Victoria Street — where the job is a shopfront, a stairwell or a tenancy that has to be finished around a business that is still trading.
Melbourne City Maintenance has been painting and repairing Melbourne properties since 2005. We come to you, quote the job in person, and do the repairs and the painting with the same crew — so nobody is standing around waiting for a second trade to turn up before the undercoat can go on. Call 0403 162 374 or request a quote and we will come and look at it.
Twenty years on Melbourne properties. Over 70 five-star Google reviews. Free quotes, no callout fee.
We Come to You in Richmond
There is no shopfront to visit and nothing to drop off. We travel to the property, look at the work, and quote from what is actually in front of us.
Where we cover
All of Richmond 3121, including Cremorne and Burnley, plus the neighbouring pockets — Abbotsford, Collingwood and East Melbourne.
Travel and callout
No callout fee anywhere in Richmond. The quote is free whether you go ahead or not.
Parking and access
Most of Richmond is permit parking with no off-street access, and the rear laneways are tight. That is our problem to solve, not yours — we sort our own parking and access out before the first day on site, and we tell you at the quote if a job needs scaffold rather than ladders so there are no surprises later.
Timing
We are on site 7.30am to 3.30pm on weekdays. If the property is tenanted, or it is a shop or office that has to keep trading, tell us at the quote and we will stage the work around it rather than shutting the place down.
Quoting from photos
Photos and a phone call are enough for a rough idea of cost and timing. For anything with repair work in it — rotten sills, cracked render, blown plaster — we need to put a hand on it before the number means anything.
What Richmond Buildings Actually Need
Victorian and Edwardian terraces
The paint on a 120-year-old single-fronted cottage is rarely the problem. The problem is underneath it: timber sills and thresholds that have been wet for years, verandah posts sitting in damp brick, cast-iron lacework carrying six coats of flaking enamel, and window frames that have been painted shut. Preparation is most of the job here. Sanding back and repainting over soft timber buys you two summers; cutting the rot out, replacing the section and then painting buys you fifteen.
Parts of Richmond also sit under heritage overlay, which can affect what you are allowed to do to a street-facing façade. If your place is covered, check with Yarra City Council before committing to a colour change on the front — we will tell you at the quote if we think it applies.
Warehouse conversions and rendered brick
Cremorne and the industrial fringe of Richmond are full of converted brick. Render on these buildings is usually a mix — original lime, later cement patches, and something modern over the top — and it does not all take paint the same way. Bagged and rendered brick needs the loose material taken back to something sound, the cracks cut out rather than skimmed over, and a sealer that suits the substrate. Painting over drummy render is the single most common way to waste money on a Richmond exterior.
Shopfronts, offices and tenancies
Commercial work in Richmond is mostly about staging. Bridge Road and Swan Street shopfronts, Cremorne office floors and Victoria Street hospitality fitouts all have the same constraint: the space is earning money and cannot be closed for a week. That means clean cut-lines, low-odour products where people are still working nearby, and finishing sections so the business can keep using the rest.
What We Do in Richmond
Interior painting
Walls, ceilings, cornices, doors and trim, with the plaster made good first. Terrace interiors in Richmond move a lot — old footings, added rear extensions — so cracks at the wall-ceiling junction are normal and need to be cut and filled properly rather than caulked over. More on interior painting.
Exterior painting
Weatherboards, render, brick, eaves, gutters, fascia and window frames. On terraces this usually means front façade, parapet and verandah, because that is the part with the weather and the sun on it. More on exterior painting.
Commercial and office painting
Shopfronts, offices, common areas, stairwells and warehouse interiors, staged around trading. More on commercial painting.
Timber and weatherboard repairs
Rotten boards, sills, fascia and verandah timbers cut out and replaced, then painted by the same crew. More on weatherboard repairs in Richmond.
Plaster and crack repairs
Cracks, holes, water damage and blown plaster repaired and finished ready for paint. More on plaster repairs.
How a Richmond Job Runs
Every job follows the same order, whether it is a two-bedroom cottage or an office floor.
- Quote on site. We look at the whole property, not just the part you asked about, and tell you what needs doing now and what can wait.
- Access sorted first. Parking, scaffold or ladders, and whether we need the neighbour’s side, all worked out before day one.
- Repairs. Rotten timber out, render cut back, plaster made good. This happens before any paint, not after.
- Preparation. Scrape, sand, fill, prime. On old Richmond stock this is usually the longest part of the job.
- Coats. Undercoat and two finish coats as standard, with drying time respected rather than rushed.
- Walk through. We go around the job with you before we pack up, and fix anything you point out.
How Pricing Works
Painting is quoted by the job, not by the hour, so you know the number before we start. What moves it is access, condition and the amount of repair work hiding underneath — a two-storey terrace that needs scaffold and eight metres of new fascia costs more than a single-fronted cottage in good order, even though both are “a house in Richmond”.
Small jobs, repairs and maintenance are charged at an hourly rate instead, which is listed on our handyman page. Quotes are free and there is no callout fee, so getting a number costs you nothing.
Nearby Areas We Cover
Richmond sits in the middle of our inner-city run. We work the same week across:
The full list is on our areas we serve page.
Worth Reading Before You Book
- An office repaint done around a working business — how staging actually looks in practice.
- Plaster and crack repairs — why cracks come back if they are painted over instead of cut out.
- Weatherboard repairs in Richmond — what rot costs to fix properly.
Common Questions
Can you work around a tenant or a trading business?
Yes, and most Richmond jobs need it. We stage the work section by section so the property stays usable, and we agree the order with you at the quote rather than improvising on site.
My terrace has no side access. Is that a problem?
No. Party walls and zero side access are normal in Richmond and we quote accordingly. It usually means more work is done from the front and the rear, and sometimes it means scaffold instead of ladders. We will tell you which at the quote.
Can you paint over render that is already cracked?
You can, and it will look fine for a season. Cracks in render move, so paint alone will not hold them — the cracks have to be cut out and filled first. If a quote does not mention the cracks, it is not pricing the same job.
Do you do commercial as well as houses?
Yes. Shopfronts, offices, common property and warehouse interiors are a regular part of the work in Richmond and Cremorne.
Do you charge to come out and quote?
No. Quotes are free and there is no callout fee, anywhere in Richmond.
Get a Quote for Your Richmond Property
Old paint does not fail politely — it lets water into the timber underneath, and the repair bill grows every winter you leave it. Call 0403 162 374 or request a quote, and we will come out to Richmond, look at the job properly and give you a fixed number.
A friend found reviews of this company on a neighbourhood website so I included MCM in my list when I sought quotes for repairing and painting weatherboards on my house.
