How Long a Strata Repaint Takes, and Keeping Residents Onside

The two questions residents ask about a repaint are how long and how much will it affect me. Committees that answer both clearly at the start have a comparatively quiet job. Committees that do not spend the whole program fielding complaints.

Realistic timelines

These are indicative and move considerably with weather, access and how much remedial work turns up.

A small townhouse complex exterior is typically two to four weeks. A mid-rise walk-up block runs four to eight weeks. A multi-storey apartment tower is a several-month program, and on a large building it may run across a season.

Internally, a single residential level of corridor including doors and frames is roughly two to four days, so a ten-level building is commonly a four to eight week interior program. Basement car parks are usually a week or two and are the least disruptive part of the job.

Melbourne weather is the main variable on external work. Coatings have minimum application temperatures and cannot go on wet substrates, so a wet fortnight in winter genuinely stops work. Any program written without weather contingency is optimistic.

What residents actually experience

On a well-staged external job, most residents lose balcony access for a few days and have scaffold or a swing stage outside their windows for one to three weeks. There is noise during preparation — grinding and washing are the loud parts — and much less during coating.

The two things residents consistently mind most are losing balcony access without warning, and having someone working outside a bedroom window with no notice. Both are entirely avoidable.

The communication that works

Before the job starts: a single notice with the overall program, the staging sequence, what residents need to do, and one named contact with a phone number. One contact, not a list.

Before each stage: notice to the affected apartments a week ahead, then again the day before. Notices issued a fortnight out and never repeated do not work, particularly in buildings with high tenant turnover.

For balcony access: notify the specific apartment, ask for the balcony to be cleared, and confirm the day before. Where a resident cannot be reached, return in a documented second pass rather than skipping silently.

During: a short weekly update to the committee and building management on what was completed and what is next. It costs nothing and it stops the committee being the last to know.

At completion: a defects walkthrough with the committee and a written close-out list.

Reaching people who are not owners

In buildings with many tenants or short-stay occupants, the owners register is the wrong channel — the person whose balcony is affected is often not the person receiving notices. Use lift and lobby signage, notify at the apartment, and work through building management.

Setting expectations honestly

If a program is likely to run twelve weeks, say twelve weeks. A committee that promises six and delivers twelve has a much harder time than one that promised twelve. The same applies to weather delays: telling residents in advance that winter rain will extend the program converts a later delay from a failure into something that was anticipated.