Multi-Year Painting Maintenance Programs in Melbourne

Why staging is often the better answer

A building's elevations do not weather at the same rate. North and west take the sun, south holds moisture, and the sheltered elevation may have years left in it. Repainting all four at once because they were last done at once is a scheduling habit rather than a technical requirement.

Staging lets a committee spend where the condition demands it, funds the work from annual contributions rather than a special levy, and keeps the building from ever facing a single very large approval. It does cost more in total, because mobilisation and access are paid more than once — we set that premium out explicitly so the committee is choosing with the number in front of them.

Mapping to the maintenance plan

Victorian owners corporations in the larger tiers are required to have a maintenance plan, and prescribed schemes must maintain a maintenance fund against it. A painting program that is not reflected in that plan tends to become a special levy later.

We write our programs to sit inside the plan: a condition assessment by element, an expected remaining life for each, the year we recommend the work, and an indicative cost per year in current dollars. Your strata manager can drop that straight into the maintenance plan review.

Reviewing as you go

A ten-year program written once and never revisited is a document, not a plan. We reassess condition at each stage and tell the committee where the schedule should move — including where an element has held up better than expected and the spend can be deferred.

What this looks like in practice

A typical mid-size Melbourne block might do the west and north elevations plus balconies in year one, common area interiors in year three, and the remaining elevations in year five, with the car park picked up alongside whichever stage is most convenient.