Unit and Apartment Painting Cost NSW - 2026 Price Guide

Unit and Apartment Painting Costs in NSW

A complete interior repaint of a unit anywhere in New South Wales sits between $1,200 and $6,000 depending on the size of the apartment, which works out at roughly $25 to $45 a square metre. Those figures assume standard ceiling heights of 2.4 to 2.7 metres and cover walls, ceilings, doors and trim throughout. Whole house figures are set out at house painting costs. Anything above a standard ceiling height moves the figure upward.

Apartments are frequently cheaper per square metre than houses and considerably more expensive per hour of a painter's time. The surfaces are usually newer, flatter and easier to cut in, while the building around them adds time that a freestanding house never does. That trade off explains most quotes. A painter who works strata regularly prices it accurately. A studio bathroom still needs the same moisture resistant product. Every door face, edge and architrave gets coated individually.

The single biggest variable is not the apartment at all. Booking a lift, protecting a corridor and lift car, carrying materials up from a loading dock and working within permitted hours can add half a day to a job that would take two days in a freestanding house. Access to the building is the strata premium in a nutshell. It shows up as hours rather than as a line item. A house painter can park in the driveway and carry material through a back door.

Cost by Apartment Size

A studio between 30 and 45 square metres runs $1,200 to $2,000 and is the quickest job in the category. Open plan layouts mean fewer corners to cut in, fewer doors to coat and considerably less trim overall, which is exactly why the per square metre rate sits at the lower end of the range. A studio apartment is usually a single day of work for one painter. A bathroom adds a further $200 to $400 on top of the base figure. Bathrooms are slow work regardless of how small the room happens to be. Room count is what a painter walks through and totals on arrival.

One bedroom apartments spanning 45 to 65 square metres cost $1,800 to $3,000 for a complete repaint. That covers the separate bedroom, the living area, the kitchen walls, the bathroom and all of the trim between them, and it typically runs to a day and a half of work. Room count rather than total floor area drives the labour hours. Doorways and reveals take considerably longer than open wall does. Hallways in one bedroom units are narrow and full of doorways, which is precisely the geometry that slows a painter down the most. A painter who has never done strata discovers the lift booking on the morning.

Two bedroom units at 65 to 90 square metres are the most common apartment type across New South Wales and cost $2,500 to $4,500. The second bedroom, a second bathroom in many buildings and sometimes a separate laundry all add surfaces to coat, and competition among painters familiar with this layout keeps the pricing sharp. Two bedroom quotes are the easiest of all to compare directly against each other. Most painters have done dozens of them.

Three bedroom units above 90 square metres run $3,500 to $6,000 and start to behave like houses. More rooms, more doors, frequently higher ceilings in newer developments and often a considerably larger living area all push the job out to three days or more. Ceiling height starts to matter a good deal more at this size. Anything above 2.7 metres brings access equipment into the room. Cutting in around a doorway takes several times longer than rolling a wall. Older units frequently have doors that no longer sit square in the frame.

A single room on its own costs $400 to $700 and carries a minimum charge. Setting up drop sheets, masking everything off, opening product and cleaning down afterwards takes the same time whether one room is painted or four, which is why doing the whole apartment is far better value per room. Combine several rooms into a single booking where you can. The marginal cost of the second room is small. Cornice junctions crack first in any building that moves seasonally.

Ceilings alone across a whole apartment sit at $500 to $900 and are worth pricing separately. Many repaints skip the ceilings because they show less wear than walls do, though a ceiling that has not been touched in fifteen years will make freshly painted walls look worse rather than better. Ceiling work is quoted at ceiling painting costs. Decide about the ceilings before any of the walls are started. Painting the walls and leaving a yellowed fifteen year old ceiling produces a worse looking room than having done neither of them. The contrast between the two is genuinely unforgiving in daylight.

What a Quote Covers

A standard interior repaint covers walls, ceilings, doors, architraves and skirting, with two coats over a prepared surface. Minor crack filling, sanding, spot priming and furniture protection all sit inside a properly written quote, along with cleanup and rubbish removal at the end of the job. General interior work is priced at interior painting costs. Anything beyond minor filling and sanding gets quoted separately. Ensuites, robes and laundries each add a room to the count. Roller sleeves and cutting brushes are replaced across a full repaint.

Doors and trim take longer than their surface area suggests. Each door has two faces, four edges, a frame and architraves on both sides, and cutting in around all of that is slow careful brushwork rather than roller work. A unit with eight doors carries real labour in the trim alone. A unit with eight doors carries far more trim labour than its floor area suggests, since every door has two faces, four edges and architraves on both sides.

Bathrooms and kitchens need a moisture resistant product and more preparation. Steam, cooking residue and any existing mould all affect adhesion, so those rooms get cleaned, treated and sometimes primed before anything else is applied. Bathroom work is quoted at bathroom painting costs. Skipping that preparation is precisely why paint starts peeling in wet rooms. Any existing mould has to be killed and treated rather than simply painted over, or it will grow back through the new coat within a few months. Newer three bedroom units frequently run ceilings of 2.7 metres or higher.

Wallpaper removal is a separate job and frequently a surprise. Stripping the paper, washing off the adhesive, repairing the substrate underneath and sealing it before painting can add several days to even a small apartment. Removal is priced at wallpaper removal costs. Painting straight over existing wallpaper is a short term answer at best. Two coats on a colour change is rarely enough to cover evenly.

Feature walls and colour changes cost more than a repaint in the same colour. Going from a dark shade back to white takes three coats rather than two, and a strong accent colour may well need a tinted undercoat to cover evenly. Single room pricing appears at room painting costs. Tell the painter exactly which colour is going over which. Going from a deep feature wall colour back to white is easily the most commonly underestimated job in any repaint. Three coats is entirely normal and four is not unusual.

Kitchen cabinetry is a specialist job rather than part of a repaint. Spraying or brushing cabinet doors requires thorough degreasing, sanding, a bonding primer and a hard wearing topcoat, and the finish quality depends entirely on how well that preparation is done. Cabinet work is usually carried out away from the apartment. Cabinet doors are usually removed, sprayed off site and then rehung, which means a kitchen out of action for several days at a stretch. That period of disruption is factored into the quote. Most people who start with one room end up doing the whole apartment.

Older units carry problems that newer ones do not. Doors that no longer sit square in their frames, architraves that have been painted a dozen times and lost their profile, and window reveals with layers of old enamel all slow the trim work considerably. Original hardware is frequently painted over rather than removed. Ask whether the quote includes stripping any of it. Nobody enjoys discovering that on the day.

Lead paint is a real consideration in buildings finished before 1970. Sanding back old enamel on trim or windows in a pre war block can disturb lead based coatings, which is regulated work requiring containment and proper disposal rather than an orbital sander and an open window. Ask about the building's age at the quoting stage. A painter who raises it first is worth listening to. Testing costs very little against the alternative.

Smoke damage turns a repaint into a specialist job. An apartment where somebody smoked indoors for years holds residue in every surface, and painting over it without washing down and sealing first produces staining that bleeds through the new coat within weeks. A stain blocking primer is the answer rather than an extra topcoat. Expect a surcharge on a heavily affected unit. The smell takes longer to shift than the colour.

Strata Approval

Painting inside your own lot generally needs no approval at all. The interior surfaces of your walls, your ceilings and your internal doors are yours to paint, and most schemes have nothing whatever to say about the colour of a bedroom. Interior work inside your own lot is entirely your own business. The boundary sits exactly where the common property begins.

Common property is the part people get wrong. The exterior face of your front door, balcony ceilings and soffits, window frames and reveals, and anything at all visible from outside the building are frequently common property even though they feel like part of your own home. Strata scheme work is covered at strata painting costs. Check the strata plan before assuming anything either way. A front door is the clearest example, since the inside face is usually yours while the outside face usually belongs to the building. Certificates of currency are checked at the building entrance.

Approval where it is needed comes through the owners corporation rather than the strata manager personally. Depending on the work and on the scheme's registered rules that may be a committee decision or a resolution at a general meeting, and either one runs to a meeting timetable rather than to your painter's diary. Allow several weeks for that process rather than days. Strata matters are administered by NSW Fair Trading. Common property boundaries appear on the registered strata plan.

Registered by laws sit above any informal understanding. A scheme can specify approved colour schemes for anything externally visible, restrict the hours work may be carried out, require particular insurance from contractors and set conditions on the use of lifts and corridors. Ask for the registered by laws. They are the document that actually governs it. Trim is where the labour hours quietly accumulate on any interior repaint job. Committee meetings run monthly in most residential schemes.

Contractor requirements catch more painters than owners expect. Many buildings require a certificate of currency lodged in advance, evidence of workers compensation, a site induction or sign in process, and sometimes registration on an approved contractor list before entry is permitted. The insurance requirements are set by the scheme rather than by law. Have the paperwork lodged a fortnight before the start date. Contractor requirements exist to protect the building and its owners rather than to obstruct you. Mould painted over simply grows back through the new coat.

Doing the work without approval where it was required can be expensive. An owners corporation can require that non compliant work be reversed entirely at the lot owner's cost, and any dispute over that ends up at the tribunal. Disputes are heard by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Get any owners corporation approval confirmed in writing.

Access and Logistics

Lift access is the constraint that shapes almost every apartment job. Most buildings require a lift booking in advance, many restrict it to weekday business hours only, and some charge a bond against damage to the lift car. Book the lift before you confirm a date with the painter. It is the item most likely to delay a start. Skimming a wall after wallpaper removal adds days nobody budgeted for. Certificates of currency lapse annually and need checking again.

Protecting common property is not optional and takes real time. Corridors, lift cars, foyers and stairwells all need covering along the whole route from the loading dock to your door, and any mark left behind becomes a claim against either you or your painter. Allow real time in the schedule for that protection. A careful painter builds that protection time into the quote. Corridor carpet in a residential tower is expensive to replace and the owners corporation will pursue any damage to it.

Loading dock arrangements determine how materials reach the apartment. A dock with a strict time limit, a height restriction or no direct lift access means carrying paint and equipment considerably further, and on a high floor that becomes a genuine cost. Confirm the loading dock arrangements well before the day. A few buildings restrict contractor deliveries entirely. Loading dock height limits catch out vans with roof racks. Colour schemes for external surfaces are frequently prescribed.

Permitted working hours vary by scheme and are usually tighter than a house. Many buildings restrict noisy work to weekday hours with nothing before eight or after five, which rules out the early starts painters prefer in summer. Permitted hours affect the schedule rather than the hourly rate itself. A three day job can easily stretch out across a full week. Four coats is not unusual when covering a deep accent colour. Weekday only access rules out weekend work in many towers.

Parking for the painter is a practical problem in most Sydney buildings. Visitor parking is frequently limited, restricted to short stays or unavailable to contractors entirely, and street parking near a residential tower is rarely straightforward. Ask what contractor parking is available at the building. Some painters add a component where no contractor parking exists.

Balcony work brings its own restrictions. Anything on the outside of the building, at height, or requiring access from a balcony edge involves safety requirements and frequently scheme approval as well. Work at height is administered by SafeWork NSW, and consumer guarantees on services by the ACCC. Balcony ceilings are very commonly part of the common property. Balcony ceilings, soffits and the outside face of windows almost always belong to the scheme rather than to the individual lot. Assume common property until told otherwise.

Preparation in a Lived In Unit

Most apartment repaints happen with the owner still living there. That means working room by room, moving furniture into cleared space rather than out of the apartment, and having somewhere to sleep each night, which is a different job from painting an empty dwelling. An occupied apartment takes longer than an empty one. Vacant apartments are quoted noticeably lower. A kitchen is out of action for several days during cabinet work.

Furniture handling is a scope question worth settling. Moving heavy items to the centre of a room and covering them is usually included, while removing furniture from the apartment entirely is not, and a painter who arrives to a full room will spend paid time shifting it. Clear whatever you reasonably can beforehand. Small items and shelf contents in particular. Small items, books, ornaments and anything sitting on a shelf are the owner's job rather than the painter's. Deep feature colours going back to white take three coats and sometimes four.

Wall repairs are the most common cost people fail to anticipate. Picture hook holes, minor cracking at cornice junctions and dents from furniture all need filling and sanding, and an apartment that has been tenanted for years may carry hundreds of small repairs. Ask how the painter prices wall repairs. Some painters quote wall repairs as an allowance instead. Occupied apartments are worked room by room across several days. Bond amounts against lift damage vary between schemes.

Structural cracking is different from cosmetic cracking and worth identifying. A crack that reappears in the same place after filling indicates movement in the building rather than a paint problem, and repainting over it simply resets the clock. Report any recurring crack to the strata manager. Recurring structural movement may well be a common property issue.

Ventilation is genuinely limited in most apartments. Many units have windows on one side only, no cross flow, and bathrooms and kitchens venting mechanically rather than to open air, which means paint fumes linger far longer than in a house. Plan where you intend to sleep during the work. Two nights spent somewhere else is common on a full repaint. Bedrooms are the rooms people most want to avoid sleeping in on a freshly applied coat. The inside face of a front door is usually yours and the outside usually is not.

Timing around other work is worth thinking through. Painting after new flooring risks marking it, while painting before means protecting a finished floor, and most trades sequence painting before the floor goes down. General handyman work sits at handyman costs. Sequence the trades properly before booking either one of them. A pot of paint drying in a sealed room takes considerably longer to lose its smell than the same pot would in a house with cross ventilation.

Paint Selection

Low odour and low VOC paints matter more in an apartment than anywhere else. With limited ventilation and nowhere to escape the smell, a water based low odour product is worth the modest premium and lets you stay in the apartment during the work. Water based low odour ranges are widely available from every major brand now. Most quality paint brands now offer a low odour range. A neighbour's verbal assurance is no substitute for the by laws. Building movement shows as cracks returning in the same line.

Washable finishes suit high traffic areas in a small dwelling. A low sheen or matt product with a washable formulation handles the marks that accumulate in a hallway or near a kitchen without the plastic look of a full gloss. Sheen level is a decision worth making deliberately. A higher sheen level reveals every imperfection in the wall surface. Low VOC products have improved enormously in recent years and now cover as well as the older solvent based ranges did. Registered by laws are available from the strata manager on request.

Ceiling paint is a different product and should be treated as one. A dedicated flat ceiling white minimises glare and hides the minor unevenness that reflects badly off a satin finish, and using wall paint on a ceiling is a false economy. Flat white is correct on ceilings. Flat white also touches up far more easily further down the track.

Bathroom and kitchen products need mould resistance. A paint formulated for wet areas resists the moisture and condensation that a small unfailingly humid bathroom generates, and standard wall paint in that setting fails within a couple of years. Specify a dedicated wet area product for those rooms. A dedicated wet area product costs marginally more per litre. Buildings maintain contractor registers to protect their own assets. Sample pots cost a few dollars and prevent expensive mistakes.

Colour choice in a small space is worth thinking about practically. Lighter colours make a compact apartment feel larger and reflect what limited natural light there is, while a dark accent wall in a small room absorbs light that most units cannot spare. Test a sample pot on the actual wall before committing. Apartment light differs enormously by orientation. Mould resistant formulations contain additives that standard wall paint simply does not, and they are the difference between a bathroom lasting two years and lasting ten.

Rental properties suit neutral colours for a practical reason. A neutral scheme appeals to more tenants, does not need repainting between tenancies as often, and avoids arguments about whether a bold colour constitutes damage. Neutral is the default choice for most landlords. A neutral scheme is also far easier to touch up afterwards. A north facing apartment and a south facing one in the very same building read colours completely differently. Test on the wall that matters rather than a swatch in a shop.

Tenants and Landlords

A tenant generally cannot paint without the landlord's written permission. Painting a rented apartment without consent is an alteration to the property, and even an improvement can result in a claim for the cost of restoring the original colour. Get the landlord's permission in writing first. A verbal agreement is worth very little to either side afterwards. Written approval costs nothing and prevents an expensive argument. Vacancy between tenancies is the natural window for a repaint.

Where a landlord agrees, the terms should be settled at the same time. Who pays, what colours are acceptable, whether the tenant must restore the original at the end of the tenancy, and whether a rent reduction or contribution applies are all worth documenting before anybody buys paint. Put the whole arrangement in writing at the outset. A tenant who paints without asking may well be liable for the cost of putting it back, regardless of how good the result happens to look.

Fair wear and tear is the standard against which a landlord assesses paintwork at the end of a tenancy. Normal marking from ordinary living is wear, while crayon on walls, unapproved colour changes or damage from removed fixtures generally is not. The original condition report is the reference point for all of it. Dated images taken at handover settle most later arguments outright. Deliveries to residential towers are often restricted to set hours.

Landlords repainting between tenancies work to a different calculation. A neutral repaint of a two bedroom unit at $2,500 to $4,500 can lift the achievable rent and shorten the vacancy, which frequently pays for itself within a lease term. Vacate cleaning is quoted at end of lease cleaning costs. Paint after the vacate clean has been done rather than before it. Scuffs, minor marking and fading from sunlight are wear rather than damage in most assessments. Deliberate marking and unapproved colour changes are not.

Investment properties benefit from painting while vacant. An empty apartment is quicker, cheaper and produces a better finish than one being worked around, and the saving frequently exceeds a week of lost rent. Vacant work is priced lower across the board. Book the work into the gap between one tenancy and the next. Damage to shared floor coverings is pursued by the owners corporation.

Disputes about paintwork end at the tribunal where they cannot be resolved directly. Evidence rather than argument decides them, which means dated photographs, the condition report and any written permission all matter more than recollection. Bond related cleaning sits at bond cleaning costs. Keep all of that documentation in one place. An empty apartment also means no furniture to work around and no occupant to accommodate, which makes it faster on every possible measure. Wall repairs are commonly quoted as an allowance rather than a figure.

Sydney Metro Costs

Sydney has by far the deepest apartment market in the state and the most painters who understand strata work. Rates sit at the top of the national range, driven by wages, parking, travel and the administrative overhead of working in managed buildings rather than by any difference in the painting itself. What varies most across the metropolitan area is the building rather than the apartment, since a walk up block from the 1970s and a new tower present completely different logistics for the same floor area. Photographs taken at the start of a tenancy are worth more than any argument made at the end of one. Store those photographs somewhere you can retrieve them. Vehicle moves mid job cost time that nobody put in the quote.

Older walk up blocks across the inner suburbs carry their own premium. No lift means carrying everything up stairs, original plaster is rarely flat, and decades of previous coats mean more preparation before anything new goes on. A walk up block costs more than its floor area would suggest. Third floor and above in a walk up especially. Occupants sleep elsewhere on the nights bedrooms are coated.

New towers are logistically demanding in a different way. Loading dock bookings, lift protection, building inductions and restricted hours all apply, though the surfaces themselves are usually flat, square and quick to coat once the painter is inside. Modern plasterboard surfaces paint very quickly. Getting the materials up to them is what takes the time.

High floors add a real cost that surprises people. Every trip to the vehicle for more product, a different roller or forgotten equipment costs ten minutes rather than two, and on a twentieth floor apartment that accumulates across a day. Expect a loading on any apartment above the tenth floor. Experienced painters plan their carries carefully. New towers frequently offer the easiest surfaces inside the hardest buildings, which is a trade off most painters accept. Loading docks with a two hour limit force a mid job vehicle move.

Regional NSW Costs

Regional rates run roughly ten to twenty per cent below Sydney for the same apartment. Fewer painters specialise in strata work outside the major centres, though the buildings themselves are generally lower rise with easier access, which offsets part of the difference. Ask the painter about their strata experience. It matters more than the rate. A painter working a twentieth floor apartment will carry everything they need up in a single trip if they possibly can.

Coastal apartments across the state face a moisture problem that inland ones do not. Salt air, humidity and units closed up between visits all encourage mould on ceilings and in bathrooms, which means treatment before painting rather than simply coating over it. Coastal apartments need mould treatment before anything else happens. Painting over it fails within months. Furniture sits in the middle of every room on an occupied job. Sheen level determines how much wall imperfection shows.

Holiday letting drives demand in predictable bursts along the coast. Apartments used as short term rentals get repainted between seasons, and painters in those areas book out ahead of summer and the school holidays. Book outside the summer peak wherever possible. Autumn is the quietest booking window across most coastal towns. Coastal humidity makes mould treatment a routine step rather than an occasional one. Shelf contents cleared the night before save real paid time.

Smaller regional buildings are usually simpler to work in. Two and three storey walk ups without lift bookings, loading docks or contractor registers remove most of the strata overhead, which is part of why regional quotes come in lower. Fewer building restrictions mean fewer billable hours. The painting work itself is completely identical. Sample pots tested on the wall beat swatches under shop lighting.

Painter availability rather than price is often the regional constraint. A town with three painters who all work houses may have nobody who regularly does strata, and fitting into an existing schedule matters more than negotiating. General painting services sit at painting services. Book further ahead than you would in the city.

Timing the Job

Autumn and spring are the best windows for an apartment repaint and the busiest for that reason. Mild temperatures mean paint cures at the rate the manufacturer intended, windows can be left open without heating or cooling the place unnecessarily, and drying times stay predictable across the day. Painters book out through both seasons. Give yourself several weeks of lead time rather than days. Summer humidity slows drying noticeably in coastal units.

Summer creates a specific problem in a sealed apartment. High humidity extends drying times, air conditioning running against open windows works against the ventilation the job needs, and the temperature inside a west facing unit in February makes for genuinely unpleasant working conditions. Painters slow down in heat like anyone else. Expect a summer job to run a day longer than the same work in April.

Winter is the quiet season and frequently the best value. Painters have availability, quotes come in sharper, and modern water based products cure perfectly well at temperatures most Sydney winters never drop below. Ventilation is the only real difficulty. Opening windows in July is less pleasant than opening them in October.

Strata timetables matter more than the weather in most buildings. Committee meetings run roughly monthly, approval for anything touching common property has to wait for one, and lift bookings in larger buildings fill days ahead, so a job you want done in March needs starting on the paperwork in January. Work backwards from the meeting calendar. The painting itself is the shortest part of the timeline.

Tenancy changeovers set the timing for investment properties. The window between one tenant leaving and the next arriving is when an apartment is empty, accessible and quick to paint, and losing a few days of that window costs far less than working around a sitting tenant. Book the painter before the lease ends. Vacate cleaning comes first and painting second.

What to Look Out For

Check the by laws before you book anybody. Approval where it is needed comes through the owners corporation and may require a committee decision or a general meeting, which runs to a meeting timetable rather than your painter's diary. Doing the work without approval can result in an order to reverse it at your own cost. Painters who never do strata will quote a regional apartment as though it were a house. That works until the building has rules. Filling and sanding a hundred holes is invisible in the result.

Sort the building requirements a fortnight ahead. Many schemes require a certificate of currency lodged in advance, evidence of workers compensation, a site induction or contractor registration before entry, and a lift booking that may be restricted to weekday business hours. A painter turned away in the foyer has still lost the morning and you will still be charged for it. Confirm the loading dock arrangements and the parking situation at the same time, since neither is straightforward in most Sydney buildings. Balcony ceilings and soffits almost always belong to the scheme.

Budget for ventilation rather than assuming you can stay. Ask specifically for a low odour water based product, which is worth the modest premium and lets you remain in the apartment. A painter who quotes without seeing the building is guessing at the access overhead. Product choice matters a great deal more in a sealed apartment than in a house. Sequencing bedrooms first gives the longest drying window. Neutral schemes appeal to a wider pool of prospective tenants.

Establish how wall repairs are priced before work starts. Some painters quote repairs as an allowance rather than a fixed figure, which is fair on an unknown but worth understanding. A crack that reappears in the same place after filling indicates building movement rather than a paint problem, and that may be a common property issue for strata. Strata paperwork is the part that delays a start rather than the painting itself. Sealed rooms hold paint smell for days rather than hours. Restoration costs fall on whoever painted without permission.

Tenants need written permission before painting anything. Where a landlord agrees, settle who pays, what colours are acceptable and whether restoration is required at the end of the tenancy, all in writing before anybody buys paint. Photograph the walls at both ends of the tenancy, since evidence rather than argument decides a dispute. An occupied apartment is never fully cleared for the painter.

What to Look for in a Quote in NSW

An apartment painting quote should list every room and surface included, state the number of coats, name the product and sheen level for walls, ceilings and trim separately, and say plainly whether ceilings are in or out. It should set out how wall repairs are priced, whether furniture moving is included, what the painter needs from the building in terms of lift bookings and induction, and how many days the work will take given permitted hours. A licence number and a current certificate of currency belong on the document, since most schemes will ask for both. The ceiling question and the repair allowance are the two items most likely to change a final figure. Empty apartments produce a better finish in less time.

Give every painter the same information. The apartment size, the room count, the ceiling height, the current colours and what is going over them, the floor level, and whether the building requires contractor registration all shape what should be proposed. Send each of them the identical brief. An apartment always sounds simpler described than it works out. Ceiling white is cheaper per litre than a wall product. Walk up blocks mean carrying every tin up the stairs.

Ask how many strata jobs they did last year. A painter who works apartments regularly understands lift bookings, corridor protection and building inductions without needing to be told, while one who mostly paints houses will discover those requirements on the morning. Put that question early in the first conversation. The answer predicts how the week will go. Wet area additives are the difference between two years and ten.

Settle the approvals, the access, the scope and the product before anybody starts. Confirm what needs owners corporation consent, book the lift and lodge the insurance, agree exactly which rooms and surfaces are included, and name the paint. Related work is priced at painter pricing and at exterior painting costs, with commercial jobs at commercial painting costs. With all four sorted, the painter works through the apartment without a single conversation with the building manager. Cracking that follows the same line is a building issue.