01
Peeling
Paint lifting away from the surface it was applied to, where the cause is preparation or application rather than something that happened to the substrate afterwards.
Seven years,
in writing.
Most painters offer twelve months, or say nothing and hope you do not ask. Here is exactly what ours covers, what it does not, and what happens if you need to use it.
Why seven
Long enough
to matter.
A workmanship failure does not show up in the first year. It shows up in the third or fourth, which is precisely when a twelve-month warranty has expired.
Preparation shortcuts are invisible on handover day. Paint over a surface that was not properly keyed, or skip a primer on bare timber, and the job looks perfect for two summers. Then the coating starts letting go, and by then most warranties are long finished and most painters are unreachable.
Seven years covers the window where preparation actually gets tested. It is also, frankly, a constraint we put on ourselves — we cannot afford to cut the corners that cause those failures, because we would be back fixing them for free. That is the point of it.
Covered
What we
stand behind.
02
Blistering
Bubbles forming under the film. Where these come from moisture trapped by inadequate preparation, they are ours.
03
Flaking
The coating breaking away in pieces, which is nearly always an adhesion failure and nearly always traceable to what was or was not done underneath.
04
Adhesion failure between coats
Where one coat has not bonded to the one below it — a primer skipped, a surface not keyed, a recoat window missed.
This is workmanship cover. It sits alongside whatever warranty the manufacturer puts on the product itself — those are separate, and we name the exact product in your scope so you can hold them to theirs as well.
Not covered
What it
does not cover.
A warranty that appears to cover everything covers nothing, because the exclusions only turn up when you try to use it. Here are ours, up front.
01
Fair wear and tear
Scuffs, marks, knocks and the gradual dulling every painted surface goes through. A warranty covers failure, not use.
02
Colour fade from UV
All pigment fades in sun. West-facing elevations fade faster than sheltered ones. That is the product and the sun, not the application.
03
Substrate movement
Cracks that open because the building moved — settlement, a new extension pulling away, timber shrinking in a dry summer. Paint cannot hold a moving joint closed.
04
Water getting in
Failed flashing, a blocked gutter, a leaking shower, rising damp. Paint applied over a sound wall cannot survive water arriving behind it, and fixing the paint without fixing the water is money wasted.
05
Damage by others
Another trade, a tenant, a storm, a removalist. If something hits it, that is not a workmanship failure.
06
Anything coated over our work
If another coating goes on top of ours, we can no longer stand behind what is underneath it.
If you sell
It transfers
with the house.
The warranty runs with the work, not with you. Sell in year three and whoever buys the house has four years still on it.
That is worth saying out loud at sale time. A documented seven-year warranty on a recent repaint is a real point of difference in a campaign, and most buyers have never been offered one — the usual position is that the painting was done by someone nobody can name, with no paperwork and no recourse.
All the new owner needs is the warranty document and the original scope. We hold a copy either way, so if they go missing we can reissue them.
If something fails
How to
make a claim.
01
Call or email
Tell us what you are seeing and roughly when it started. A photograph helps more than a description.
02
We come and look
At our cost. Most paint failures are diagnosable on sight, and a good number turn out to be a water problem rather than a paint problem — which we will tell you plainly even though it means the work is not ours to redo.
03
We put it right
Where it is a workmanship failure, we rectify it at no cost to you — labour and materials. We keep the original scope on file, so what was specified is not a matter of memory.
At handover
What you
are given.
01
The warranty in writing
Issued on the day, naming the work it covers and the date it runs from. Not a verbal assurance, and not a line in an email.
02
Labelled leftover product
Every room and elevation, labelled, so a touch-up in year four is the same batch rather than a guess at a colour match.
03
Your original scope
The product, the number of coats and the sheen level for each surface. We keep a copy, so what was specified is never a matter of memory.
04
Insurance certificates
$5 million public liability cover, current registration, provided with the quote and again at handover.
Next step
Ask us to put it in writing.
Every quote we send names the specification, the product and the warranty that comes with it, before you commit to anything.