The question behind most weatherboard quotes is whether you have a paint problem or a timber problem. They look similar from the footpath and they cost very different amounts to fix. This sets out how to tell them apart, what each one involves, and why painting over the second one is money you will spend twice.
The short version
- Press a screwdriver into the board. If it goes in with light pressure, that is rot and no amount of paint will stop it. Sound timber resists.
- Rot starts at cut ends, sills, and the bottom board — the places water sits. The middle of a board almost never fails first.
- Repairing means cutting out the failed section and splicing in new timber. Replacing means taking a whole elevation back to the frame. Most jobs are the first.
- Repairs happen before any painting. A crew that paints first and repairs later is charging you for the same preparation twice.
- Preparation is the majority of the labour on an old weatherboard house. The paint itself is a small part of the invoice.
Most people notice the paint before they notice the timber. Flaking, chalking or a patch that keeps failing while the rest of the wall looks fine — that last one is usually the tell. Paint fails evenly across an elevation when it is simply old, and it fails in one spot when something underneath it is wet.
The unwelcome part is that a proper answer needs someone to touch the wall. Photographs will tell you the paint is failing. They will not tell you whether the board behind it is sound, and that is the difference between a repaint and a repair-and-repaint.
Telling rot from tired paint
Tired paint is uniform. It chalks under your hand, it flakes across a whole face, and the failure follows sun exposure — the north and west elevations go first. Underneath it the timber is still hard.
Rot is local. It concentrates at the bottom board, under windows, at butt joints and at any cut end that was never sealed. The paint above it often looks fine, which is why people miss it. The test is mechanical, not visual: press something pointed into the suspect area and see whether it gives.
The five places boards fail
Cut ends and butt joints. End grain absorbs water many times faster than the face of a board. If the ends were not sealed at installation, this is where the house will fail first.
The bottom board. Splashback from paving, garden beds banked against the wall, or mulch holding moisture against the timber. The bottom course does the worst work on the house.
Under window sills. Water runs off the sill and onto the board below it. If the sill flashing has failed or was never there, that board stays wet.
Behind downpipes and gutters. A leaking joint puts a constant trickle on one spot. The damage is narrow, vertical and easy to trace back to its cause.
Where the wall meets the ground. Any point where soil, decking or paving touches timber. Weatherboards need a gap to dry out and they do not get one here.
Repair or replace
Spot repair — cut out and splice.
Scope: individual boards or sections.
Access: usually ladders.
Suits: a sound wall with two or three failed areas. This is what most Melbourne houses actually need, and it is done as part of the preparation rather than as a separate project.
Elevation replacement — one full wall.
Scope: all boards on a single face, frame inspected behind.
Access: usually scaffold.
Suits: a wall where failure is widespread rather than local, commonly the south or the most exposed face. The frame is checked once the boards are off, which is why the final figure is not known at quote stage.
Full recladding — the whole house.
Scope: every elevation, frame repairs, new flashing.
Access: full scaffold.
Suits: houses where the cladding has reached the end of its life or the material is being changed. This is a building job with painting at the end of it, not a painting job.
What actually drives the price
Three things move a weatherboard quote more than the size of the house. Condition is the first and largest — how many boards have to come out, and whether the framing behind them is sound. That is why an honest quote separates the known work from the work that can only be priced once the wall is open.
Access is the second. A single-storey cottage that can be done off ladders and a two-storey rear elevation on a falling block are different jobs at the same square metreage, because one of them needs scaffold. The third is preparation: a wall that has been maintained needs sanding, and a wall that has been left needs stripping.
How the combined job runs
- Inspect and mark. The whole wall is checked and every failed section marked before anything is cut.
- Cut out and splice. Failed timber comes out, new sections go in, cut ends sealed as they are fitted.
- Prepare. Scrape, sand, fill and make good. On an old house this is the longest stage by a distance.
- Prime. Bare and repaired timber is primed before anything else goes on it.
- Two finish coats. With drying time between them, and with attention to the weather rather than the calendar.
Things people do not see coming
Opening one wall reveals another problem. Rot that reached the frame is not visible until the boards are off, and framing repair is a different trade rate to painting.
Old paint may contain lead. On homes painted before the 1970s, sanding releases lead dust. It changes how preparation is done and how the waste is handled.
Matching old profiles is not always possible. Boards milled decades ago are not always stocked now, and a matching length sometimes has to be machined.
Melbourne weather sets the schedule. Paint needs the surface above dew point and dry for long enough to cure. Winter exterior work moves slowly for real reasons.
When to call someone
Replacing a single board at ground level on a sound wall is a fair weekend job if you are handy. Cutting it to fit, sealing the ends and matching the existing paint is the difficult part, not the fixing.
Call someone when the failure is at height, when more than a few boards are involved, or when pressing on the timber tells you the problem is bigger than the paint. Anything that has reached the framing has stopped being maintenance.
Get the wall looked at properly
We do the timber repairs and the painting with the same crew, so the preparation is done once and nobody is waiting on another trade before the undercoat goes on. Call 0403 162 374 or request a quote, and we will tell you which of the three jobs above your house actually needs.
This is general information about weatherboard repair and painting, not advice for a specific property. The extent of repair, access requirements and cost vary with condition and cannot be established without inspecting the wall. Lead paint on pre-1970 homes and any structural framing repair are regulated work in Victoria — WorkSafe Victoria sets those requirements. Confirm what applies to your own property.
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.
