Builders & head contractors
Painting for builders and head contractors
Painting delivered into a construction programme rather than a single site visit — staged to the build, sequenced around other trades, and carried through to handover.
Painting on a construction programme
Painting sold to a builder or head contractor runs to the construction programme rather than to a single site visit. The trigger is a staged handover from whatever trade is ahead of it, and the painting has to be ready to follow without holding up the trade behind it.
Substrate preparation is where this work is won or lost. New plasterboard, fresh render and surfaces already touched by other trades all need to be brought to a paintable finish — filled, sanded, sealed and primed — before a coat goes on, and drying time on wet trades ahead of painting is a scheduling constraint the programme has to allow for, not a step that can be compressed.
On commercial sites this matters more than it sounds. A finish held up waiting on the trade ahead of it is a zone the head contractor cannot hand over, and on a staged programme one delay moves everything behind it.
What the package can include
- New-build painting
- Painting packages for new construction, staged to follow the build rather than run as a single visit.
- Defect rectification and touch-up
- Touch-up and defect painting ahead of handover, matched to the original coating system.
- Practical completion and defects liability
- Painting carried through practical completion and into the defects-liability period as items are raised.
- Sequencing around other trades
- Painting programmed around the trades ahead of it and the trades that follow, rather than assumed to fit in the gaps.
- Substrate preparation
- New plasterboard, fresh render and previously worked surfaces filled, sanded, sealed and primed ahead of coating.
How painting sits in the sequence
The order is not negotiable, and most delays come from getting it wrong. Structural and services work first, because everything after it gets damaged if it runs late. Wet trades ahead of painting — render, plaster and set — need drying time that cannot be compressed. Painting follows once the substrate is dry and prepared, and other trades that could mark a finished surface are scheduled to follow it rather than precede it.
Drying time is the constraint people underestimate. Fresh render and new plasterboard set hold moisture, and coating over either before it has dried through traps that moisture behind the film. What follows is blistering, patchy sheen or adhesion failure a few months later — a defect that looks like bad paint and is actually a scheduling decision. In a Melbourne winter those drying windows are meaningfully longer than in summer, and the programme has to say so.
Substrate preparation is a bigger line than most scopes allow for. New plasterboard needs its joints set and sanded flush before it will take a finish evenly, and surfaces already handled by other trades carry fixings, marks and patching that need bringing to a consistent, paintable surface. Getting that stage right is frequently more work than the coating that follows it, and it is the item most often under-scoped in a competing quote.
What cannot be seen cannot be priced firm. Water damage, unstable render and previous poor repairs are usually hidden under a coating and only surface once preparation starts. The honest way to handle that is a labelled provisional sum against the areas that cannot be assessed until they are opened, with anything found reported and priced before it is carried out.
Builder and head contractor questions
Why run these trades through the painter rather than separately?
Because the handover between trades is where programmes lose time. When a plasterer, a renderer and a painter are engaged separately, each one is only accountable for their own window, and a day lost at the front pushes everything behind it. Under one programme the sequence is a single responsibility, and the client has one number to call when it moves.
What has to happen before a wall can be painted?
More than most scopes assume. Cracks need cutting out and filling rather than skimming, previous fixings and signage need removing and making good, damaged plaster needs patching and set, and anything previously bare or newly patched needs sealing so the topcoat does not flash. On a tenancy that has been through several fit-outs, that making good is frequently the largest item in the job.
Can you quote the repairs separately from the painting?
Yes, and for most commercial scopes it is better that way. Repairs and coating are priced as separate lines so a budget holder can see what is remediation and what is finish, and can approve or defer them independently. Unknowns behind a wall are carried as a labelled provisional sum rather than absorbed into a rate.
Do you find problems once the surface is opened up?
Sometimes, and it is better to expect it than to be surprised by it. Water damage, previous poor repairs, unstable render and rusted fixings are frequently hidden under a coating and only visible once preparation starts. That is why a scope carries provisional sums for the areas that cannot be assessed until they are opened, and why anything found is reported with a price before it is done rather than after.
What is not included?
Licensed trades outside this scope — electrical, plumbing, structural and waterproofing to wet-area standard — are not carried out under this programme. Where a scope needs them they are identified at the site assessment so they can be engaged in the right order rather than discovered as a stoppage.
Painting on your build?
Tell us where painting sits in the programme and we will tell you how we fit around it.