Aura, Sunshine Coast
Premium finishes on Aura's bigger builds.
A new estate isn't heritage country. The high end work here is the custom builds, and owners who want more than the estate standard.
- Since 1985
- /Family-run, locally owned
- /Fully insured
- /Dulux + Taubmans accredited
- /Lead & asbestos qualified
Local context
What this work looks like in Aura.
Aura is the Coast's biggest new-build estate, so there's no restoration work here and we won't pretend otherwise. What there is: the larger custom builds going up on the better lots, and owners of standard homes who want a finish the builder's allowance was never going to cover. Both are genuinely premium jobs. They're just about adding quality to something new rather than recovering it from something old, and that changes almost everything about how we approach the work.
What we watch for
Conditions that change the job here.
Everything here is fresh substrate, which sounds easy and isn't. New plasterboard and render keep releasing moisture for weeks, and painting too early traps it and causes problems later. We check moisture before we start rather than working to the builder's handover date. Builder-spec acrylic is thin, so a colour change over it needs two full coats minimum. Defect-list patching has to be finished and cured before we go over it, or the patches flash through the topcoat under afternoon light.
How it runs
What to expect.
Tell us what stage the build is at when you call. If the defect list is still open we will ask you to wait, because patches done after we paint always show and patches done just before need time to cure. Before the first coat we check moisture in the plasterboard and render rather than trusting the handover date. That check occasionally means waiting another fortnight. It is the least popular thing we say and the reason your walls will not blister in eighteen months.
Usually included
- Moisture testing on new plasterboard and render before the first coat
- Two-coat minimum on any colour change over builder-spec white
- Waiting out the builder's defect list rather than painting around it
- Upgraded trim and cornice finishing on custom builds
Nothing here is old
Adding quality rather than recovering it.
Fresh substrate is not easy
New plasterboard and render keep releasing moisture for weeks. Painting to the handover date rather than to a moisture reading is how walls blister eighteen months later.
Builder acrylic is thin
It is a base rather than a finish, so any colour change over it needs two full coats minimum. One goes patchy wherever the afternoon light rakes across a wall.
The defect list comes first
Patches done after we paint always show, and patches done just before need time to cure. Book us once the list is closed and the repairs have dried.
Past the estate standard
The least popular thing we say is wait a fortnight.
01
Tell us the build stage.
If the defect list is still open we will ask you to hold. That is the cheapest delay in the whole process and the one people most want to skip.
02
Check the moisture.
Plasterboard and render get read before the first coat rather than trusted to a handover date. Occasionally that means waiting another two weeks.
03
Do the trim properly.
Filled, sanded and cut by hand rather than run at builder pace. On a new house this is most of what separates a premium room from the estate standard.
04
Two coats, minimum.
Full coverage over the builder white, cut in at the cornice and the skirting. We will not quote a single coat over a base that thin.
05
Sample in the actual rooms.
New-build light varies a lot room to room, so pots go up on site rather than colours coming off a chip. If a designer has set the scheme, we simply execute it.
Common questions
What people ask before booking.
Can a brand-new house really need a premium painter?
If you want more than the estate standard, yes. Builder allowances cover two coats of white and a fast trim line. A premium job fills and sands the trim properly, cuts every line by hand, and puts a proper colour system on the walls. Same house, noticeably different room.
How soon after handover can you paint?
Later than most people want to hear. New plasterboard and render hold moisture for weeks, and painting over it traps the moisture and causes blistering or poor adhesion down the track. We test rather than guess, and we’d rather wait a fortnight than come back in a year.
Should I wait for the builder's defect list to be finished?
Yes. Patches done after we paint will always show, and patches done just before we paint need to cure first. Book us once the list is closed and the repairs have had time to dry. It costs nothing to wait and it saves redoing walls.
Do you handle the colour selection or should we?
Either way works. Some people arrive with a scheme from a designer and we simply execute it. Others want help, in which case we’ll put sample pots up and look at them with you in the actual rooms. What we won’t do is pick colours off a chip and hope, because new-build light varies a lot room to room.