Handyman Northcote | Melbourne City Maintenance
Northcote’s streets run from the High Street shops down to the Merri Creek, and the houses along them set the maintenance list: a single-fronted Victorian
Servicing Northcote 3070 and the surrounding inner north. No callout fee.
Northcote is weatherboard country. Behind the newer renovations, most of the housing stock is Victorian and Edwardian timber, Californian bungalows through the flatter streets, and interwar brick further north — and on a timber house the paint is not decoration, it is the only thing standing between the boards and a Melbourne winter. Once water gets behind a failed joint or a split board, painting over it just seals the problem in.
Melbourne City Maintenance has worked across Darebin since 2005, and weatherboard repair is the part of the business people call us back for. We come to you, look at the timber properly, and tell you what has to be replaced before anything gets painted.
Request a free quote · or call 0403 162 374
Coverage. All of Northcote 3070 — Westgarth, Ruckers Hill, the streets either side of High Street, and down towards Merri Creek. Thornbury, Fairfield and Clifton Hill are all part of the same run for us.
Travel. No callout fee. Northcote is inside the area we work in every week, and you are not charged for us coming out to look.
Timing. We do not take same-day work. We agree a start date with you based on what the job actually needs and what is already booked in. Most enquiries get an answer the same day, and you get a real date rather than a window we might miss.
Quoting without a visit. Weatherboard and painting work needs someone to put a hand on the timber — photographs hide soft boards, failed joints and the rot behind a downpipe. Handyman and repair work is different: for most of it we can give you a rough guide over the phone or from a few photos, and confirm it on the day.
The recurring job here is exterior timber. South and west-facing walls take the weather, and the failures show up in the same places every time — the bottom two or three boards where they meet the ground, around window sills, behind downpipes, and at the mitred corners. Inside, the older houses are lath and plaster rather than plasterboard, so cracks along cornice lines and around door openings usually have a cause behind them that filling will not fix. Parts of Northcote sit within a heritage overlay, including around Ruckers Hill and Westgarth, which can affect external colour changes visible from the street — worth a call to Darebin before you commit to a scheme.
Rotten and split boards cut out and replaced, sills and mouldings repaired, joints made good — before a brush goes anywhere near them. This is the work we are known for. More on weatherboard repairs.
Full exteriors on timber and rendered homes, including the preparation and repair that decides whether the finish lasts three years or ten. More on exterior painting.
Whole houses, single rooms, ceilings and decorative plaster. Cornices and ceiling roses are cut in by hand — they lose their detail under thick paint and it does not come back. More on interior painting.
The list of small jobs that never quite gets finished, done in one visit instead of one trade at a time. Handyman work in Northcote.
Painting and weatherboard work is quoted per job, after we have seen the property. On a timber house the amount of repair hiding under the old paint drives the number more than the paint does, so a quote given without looking is a guess.
Handyman and repair work is booked by time. A half day is four hours on site at $90 an hour — $360. A full day is $640, which works out at $80 an hour, and applies once a full day is completed. Materials are charged separately. Prices are for business hours, Monday to Friday.
Quotes are free, and we will tell you if something can wait a season rather than being done now.
Northcote sits in the middle of the area we work in most weeks. We also cover:
The full list, and how far we travel, is on our areas we serve page.
No. There is no callout fee and quotes are free. Weatherboard and painting work is quoted after we have seen the property, because the amount of repair hiding under the old paint is what drives the price. Handyman and repair work is different — for most of it we can give you a rough guide over the phone or from a few photos and confirm it on the day.
We do not take same-day work. What we do is agree a start date with you based on what the job actually needs and what is already booked in. Most enquiries get an answer the same day, so you will know quickly rather than waiting on a callback.
Because that is where the water ends up. Rain splashes back off paths and garden beds onto the lowest two or three boards, soil and mulch sit against them, and they stay damp for longer than anything else on the house. Paint on damp timber fails from behind, so it lifts rather than fades. If the bottom boards on your place are soft or the paint is peeling in sheets, the timber underneath usually needs replacing rather than filling — and painting over it just buys a season.
That is the normal order of work, and it is the part most quotes leave out. Boards get cut out and replaced, sills and joints made good, then the exterior is prepared and painted as one job. Doing it the other way around means paying twice.
On a timber house the useful first step is having someone walk the exterior and press on the boards. It takes about half an hour, it is free, and it is the difference between a quote and a guess.
Request a free quote · or call Melbourne City Maintenance on 0403 162 374.
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.
I’d recommend Bill and his team for any painting job. My landlord was very happy with the quality of the job. Bill is attentive, reliable and provides good value for money. 
We sought Bill and his teams services to complete maintenance work for our house in readiness for sale. From the outset Bill was responsive, professional and understood our needs. In trying times with a snap 5 day lockdown across 
I’d recommend Bill was responsive, timely and did a great job at our place repairing a ceiling and repainting. We were super happy with the job and he’d be first on our list to call back for any future work. Thanks, Bill! 
Northcote’s streets run from the High Street shops down to the Merri Creek, and the houses along them set the maintenance list: a single-fronted Victorian
Servicing Northcote 3070 and the inner north — Westgarth, Thornbury, Fairfield, Alphington and Clifton Hill. Free quotes, no callout fee, and one team doing the
Northcote Weatherboard Repairs – Okay, so here we are at this weatherboard house in Northcote. And we’re here to remove some rotten weatherboards and do
We will only send you awesome stuff!