Eumundi Repaint: Unexpected Challenges, Exceptional Finish
This lovely farm-style home in Eumundi isn’t the biggest or grandest home we’ve painted. At around 160 square metres, with the repaint sitting towards the lower end of the $25,000–$50,000 awards category, it will likely be up against some impressive properties.
But by the time we handed back the keys, we knew it deserved its place.
The reason comes down to what we encountered along the way—and the quality of the work when it was finished.
A Recommendation and a Set of Keys
We painted Karyn’s friend Christine’s home in early 2025. When it was time for Karyn’s own repaint, she gave us a call.
The initial inspection revealed nothing unusual. We provided our fixed-price quote and arranged to complete the work while Karyn was away on holiday. She handed us the keys, and we got started inside.
There were more than twenty doors in a relatively small home, so the carport became our spraying area. Removing those doors was a job in itself. The previous painter had tightened the hinges into fresh enamel, effectively gluing them in place. Getting them off carefully took a chisel and a full day’s labour.
With the polished timber floors protected, every wall and frame received a machine sand. We spray-finished the doors and frames, leaving the interior fresh and neat, with a beautiful finish on the trim.
It was a good, carefully executed repaint. We were happy with it.
“At that stage, entering the home in the awards hadn’t crossed our minds.”
The Weatherboards Raised a Red Flag
As we moved outside and began pressure washing, Aaron from
Fine Fast Finishes called Kev over.
“Kev, take a look at the way the water is behaving on these weatherboards.”
It was beading off like water from a duck’s back. That wasn’t what we expected from an ordinary painted exterior, and it was enough of a red flag to investigate.
We immediately carried out adhesion testing. The existing coating rejected the new acrylic paint.
In fourteen years of exterior repainting, Kev had never encountered what appeared to be a normal exterior acrylic coating behaving this way.
We set up several test patches to find a reliable way forward. An acrylic primer failed. Sanding followed by an acrylic primer also failed. A light sand with an oil-based primer only partially held.
The only test that held was a thorough machine sand followed by an oil-based primer.
There appeared to be significant surface contamination. We wondered whether the home had previously been washed with a wax-containing product, but we couldn’t confirm the cause.
“We didn’t know what had caused it. We did know how to proceed.”
Keav from
KSP Painting whipped out his Mirka and got stuck into machine sanding the weatherboards. The planned two-coat acrylic repaint became a three-coat system, with a full oil-based primer coat beneath the acrylic finish coats.
It was a substantial change in the work involved, but the testing had given us a process we could stand behind. With the sanding completed, we masked up and sprayed the primer.
More Than an Expansion Crack
During masking, our craftsman Dane called Kev over to look at the rear soffit.
What we’d initially thought was a normal expansion crack turned out to be evidence of a water leak. Much of the patio ceiling was soaked.
We went looking for the source.
Craftsman Dane using a magnetic moisture meter - The beginning of our search.
Six hours later, we had found and fixed two separate leaks. One was a loose roof screw. The other took considerably more head-scratching: a thin piece of insulation was trapped between two roof sheets, wicking water inside.
With both leaks resolved, Dane re-taped and re-set the entire soffit.
What had looked like a small surface repair had become a much bigger job. Following it through meant we could finish the area properly.
A Finish Worth Entering
From there, things settled down. There were a few smaller bumps along the way, but we completed the repaint just in time for Karyn’s return.
Keav spray-finished the weatherboards, and the result after all that preparation looked phenomenal. Inside, the neatly finished walls and smooth, sprayed trim brought the whole home together.
We stood back to take it in, then moved closer to look over the details.
“This is a damn good paint job.”
That was the moment we started thinking about the awards.
This home had asked more of us than anyone could have seen at the initial inspection. It took testing, patience, thorough preparation and a team willing to follow each problem through.
And when the work was done, the finish spoke for itself.
We’ve entered this Eumundi home in the Master Painters awards’ $25,000–$50,000 interior and exterior repaint category. It’s a humble home with a story we’re proud of, and workmanship we’re happy to have judged up close.
Let’s see how it goes.
