How Long Does a House Paint Job Really Take? A Wollongong Painter’s Guide

It’s one of the first things people ask us on a quote: “So how long will you be here?” Fair question. You’ve got work, kids, maybe a dog that hates strangers, and you want to know how long the house is going to be upside down. The honest answer is that it depends on the house, the prep and the weather — but after 35+ years of painting homes around Wollongong and the Illawarra, we can give you some pretty reliable ranges.

Here’s how long a house paint job really takes, from our experience, and what stretches it out.

The short answer

For a two-person crew on a typical Illawarra home, these are the ranges we work to:

• One bedroom or living room (walls, ceiling, trims): about a day, sometimes a day and a half if there’s a lot of patching.
• Full interior of a three-bedroom house: roughly five to eight working days.
• Exterior of a single-storey brick veneer: around a week to a week and a half — there’s less to paint, mostly eaves, fascias, gutters, windows and doors.
• Exterior of a single-storey weatherboard or fibro: one and a half to two and a half weeks.
• Two-storey weatherboard or rendered home: two to four weeks, depending on access and condition.
• Roof restoration: usually three to five working days of actual work, spread over however many dry days it takes.

Those are working days on site, not calendar days. And they assume the job is quoted and prepped properly — which is where most of the time goes.

Why prep takes longer than painting

People are often surprised that we can spend the first half of a job without opening a tin of colour. That’s normal. On an exterior we wash down, scrape back anything loose, sand, fill cracks and gaps, treat any rust or mould, then spot-prime bare timber and repairs. Inside it’s filling, sanding, sugar-soaping, masking and covering everything. We’ve written about it before — prep really is about 80 percent of a good paint job.

If a painter tells you they’ll do a full exterior in three days, ask what they’re skipping. From our experience it’s always the prep, and it shows up as flaking within a couple of years. Once paint starts lifting off the cladding it’ll never go back to a hundred percent without stripping it back again.

What stretches a job out

1. Weather — the big one in Wollongong

You can’t paint an exterior in the rain, on wet timber, or when a southerly buster is blowing grit into everything. Dulux also gives minimum temperatures and recoat times for a reason. In spring and autumn we might lose a day or two a week to weather on the coast, and in a wet patch it can be more. We’d rather wait a day than put paint on a damp surface and have it fail. It’s also why the time of year you paint matters more than most people think.

2. The condition of the surface

A house painted properly ten years ago is quick to redo. A house that’s had three quick coats slapped over chalky old paint, or a weatherboard with rotten boards and bare timber, is a different job. Fibro and weatherboard homes in places like Corrimal, Bellambi and the northern suburbs usually need more scraping and priming — we cover that in our guide to painting weatherboard and fibro exteriors.

3. Colour changes

Going from a dark colour to a light one, or covering a strong feature wall, can mean an extra coat. That’s another half day to a day per area once you allow for drying.

4. Access

Two-storey homes on a slope — and there are plenty around Mount Keira, Mount Ousley and the escarpment suburbs — often need scaffolding or extra ladder work. Setting that up safely takes time, and working at height is slower than working at eye level.

5. How much is in the rooms

For interiors, a lived-in house with full rooms takes longer than an empty rental between tenants. We work room by room, move and cover furniture, and leave each room usable at the end of the day. Clearing small items and wall hangings yourself saves us time — here’s how to prepare your home before the painters arrive.

Drying and curing — the bit you don’t see

Modern Dulux water-based paints are touch dry quickly, but that’s not the same as ready for the next coat, and it’s definitely not the same as fully cured. We follow the recoat times on the tin. Doors and trims in enamel need longer before they’re hung back or closed hard. For the first couple of weeks after we finish, go easy on scrubbing the walls — even a wash-and-wear finish needs time to harden up properly.

How we keep a job on schedule

• We quote in person. You can’t give an honest timeframe off a phone call. We look at the surfaces, the access and the colours before we give you a fixed written quote.
• The person who quotes runs the job. No handing you off to someone who’s never seen the house.
• We tell you the order of works upfront — which rooms or elevations we’ll do first, when you’ll lose access to what, and what happens on a wet day.
• We don’t split crews across five jobs. Once we start, we stay until it’s finished, weather permitting.

If you want to see what a full job involves from start to finish, have a read of what’s involved in a professional paint job.

Don’t forget the wait before we start

The job itself is only half the timeline. Good painters book out, especially in spring. Around Wollongong we usually tell people interiors book two to three weeks ahead and exteriors three to six weeks in the busy season — more on that in how much notice to give a painter. If you’ve got a deadline — a sale, a new baby, Christmas visitors — tell us at the quote and we’ll be straight with you about whether it’s doable.

Getting a real timeframe for your house

Every house is different, so the only way to get a timeframe you can actually plan around is to have someone look at it. We’ll come out, walk through the job with you and give you a fixed written quote with an honest estimate of how many days we’ll be on site. Whether it’s an interior repaint, an exterior or a whole-house job, and if you’re still working out budget, our Wollongong painting cost guide is a good place to start.

Call us on 0421 755 294 or request a quote online.