C&C Painting Group’s Luke Chamberlain says while it takes skills to get the results of a professional paint job, it’s the work beforehand that’s often underestimated. Photos: Michelle Kroll.
There’s a yawning gap between the reality of DIY paint jobs and the fantasy of heavily edited home reno shows and TikTok videos – and Luke Chamberlain has seen plenty of people fall in.
“Almost everyone who calls me in after they’ve attempted a DIY job says the same thing: ‘I’m never doing that again!’,” the co-director of C&C Painting Group says.
“There’s a misguided perception that painting is pretty easy, that surely anyone can pick up a brush and save themselves thousands.
“It does take knowledge, skills and experience to get the results a professional painter gets in the actual painting, but it’s the work that comes beforehand that most people underestimate.”
Almost without exception, the quality of your painting results can only be as good as the preparation.
Luke reckons the proper preparation of surfaces accounts for at least 50 per cent of a good paint job – even more for more complex jobs.
“It’s a case-by-case deal – some houses you walk into, they’re in pretty good condition and the job may be quicker because less preparation is needed,” he says.
“On the other end of the spectrum, if you walk into a home that hasn’t been touched or properly maintained for 15 or more years, more extensive preparation or even repair work may be required to adequately prepare the surfaces prior to painting.”
Good preparation turns your painting surface into a blank canvas and protects everything else.
For C&C Painting Group, the first step is to put down drop sheets to ensure paint doesn’t end up anywhere other than where it’s meant to be.
Each surface is prepared with thorough sanding, moving from the top down. Vacuum machine sanders are used on ceilings before moving down the walls and woodwork, including doors and frames, for a smoother, dustless finish.
Along the way, imperfections must be addressed.
“As we go we’ll identify cracks, holes and dents and repair those with the appropriate fillers,” Luke says. “We allow adequate dry times before sanding to ensure everything is flush and even prior to painting.”
Only once all of this is complete can painting begin. The right tool must be used for each surface to ensure an even texture, without streaks.
Layers start with primer, followed by two and sometimes even three top coats.
“You can spot a wall without enough coats a mile off and you don’t want to have done all that work only to drop the very last step and get imperfections showing through see-through paint,” Luke says.
“A quality painter will cover every square inch of your surface two or three times and that’s not including the prep beforehand. It’s very labour intensive.”
Between patching imperfections, taping edges, choosing the right paint and avoiding streaks or drips, a “simple” refresh can turn into a multi-day marathon of aching arms, patchy coverage and haphazard splatters.
Then there’s the cleanup. You can wash your gear in the yard, and Luke says the majority of painters still do, but if you take a more environmentally friendly view, the clean-up is a task in itself.
C&C takes all its equipment offsite to be cleaned at its purpose-built environmentally friendly wash bay. The rig separates chemicals from clean water, ensuring no harmful chemicals end up in the stormwater system, while paint slurry is sent to the Mitchell waste management site.
All plastic paint drums are recycled through a scheme with C&C’s primary supplier, Dulux.
“Gone are the days of chucking run-off into gardens and back lawns and damaging the environment,” Luke says.
“My co-director Daniel Carrick and I both have been painting in Canberra for over 20 years and in the past seven years or so have invested significant energy in coming up with these points of difference that reflect the things we consider to be important.”
For more information, contact C&C Painting Group.
