Mt Waverley Project | Women at Work Painters

Suburb: Mt Waverley, Melbourne | Services: Exterior House Painting

This is a typical post-war brick bungalow in Mt Waverley.

Our client had commenced painting with another painting company and there were issues involving lead paint. The painters had quoted to paint the interior of her home and the front exterior windows. They had worked for a day laying plastic intending to spray out the house and had commenced sanding. They then announced that that there was lead paint present and she needed to get someone in to sort it out, both inside and outside. This is despite quoting to use their state of the art dustless sanding machine and to undercoat the woodwork first, something they were clearly not going to do. They had also cut a hole in the lounge solid plaster wall at eye height and announced they thought that was asbestos (no-one cuts asbestos!) and made her send it off for testing. It was plaster so was never going to be asbestos. It really was an unbelievable situation and we felt very sorry for our client.

When we inspected, we immediately realised the front exterior windows needed to be stripped and oil undercoated. Sanding and painting would not be sufficient. Where the painters had started preparing they had over-sanded interior woodwork back to bare timber in places and old lead paint, which then required damp sanding and oil undercoating. It was at this point they advised our client of the lead paint and pulled out.

To assist our client we called Master Painters Assn to see if the existing painters were members as we were hoping they could assist with organising a refund of the $4,000 deposit payment. Unfortunately (and unsurprisingly) they weren’t members so there was little MPA could do to assist.

We quoted to paint the interior including kitchen cabinets and other things not previously included and all exterior windows and doors. Later on we also prepared and painted fascias and eaves.

Due to the poor condition outside we had to strip fascias and windows and then fill, sand and oil undercoat prior to painting. We stripped paint using a combination of heat gun on low heat and paint stripper and then sanded using our Festool sanders connected to our Festool dust extractor (specified for lead paint).

Our client was so happy with the process and finished product and was so happy to have her home back in good condition.

We were awarded Winner for Domestic Repaint over $30,000 in 2026 by Master Painters Association – see the award logo below.