How to Prepare Your Home for Painters

To prepare your home for painters, you do not need to empty the house. Superb Painting’s site lists surface preparation and patching, furniture protection, daily cleanup, and interior colour consultation as crew work. Owners still arrange access, valuables, pets, parking and any strata or building rules before the start date.

That split is the useful painting prep checklist for Melbourne homes: the crew runs the worksite; you keep the house liveable.

How to prepare your home for painters: crew work vs owner tasks

Use this table to prepare your home for painters room by room. It only repeats what is already stated on Superb Painting’s FAQ, interior and exterior painting and apartment painting pages. Anything not listed there is treated as an owner task, not a company policy.

Area	What the current site says the crew handles	What you should arrange
Walls and ceilings	Full surface preparation and patching; patch, sand and prime	Point out problem areas at the quote visit so they can be scoped
Furniture and floors	Move and cover furniture; drop sheets; protect furniture and floors	Remove small valuables and take down wall art (FAQ recommendation)
Colour	Colour consultation at no extra cost on interior work; colours discussed before the written quote	Decide who will attend the consult and which rooms need a choice before coats start
Cleanup	Complete furniture protection and daily cleanup; rubbish removal on apartment jobs; common areas cleaned before handover	Leave bins or loading access clear if the building has rules about waste
Access	Apartment jobs: strata and building access coordination, lift bookings	Keys, occupier consent, parking for the van, and any building forms you must sign
Strata	Advice and documentation if required; lift and common-area protection	Confirm your building’s by-laws, quiet hours, and whether approval is actually needed

If a detail is not in that table — pets, neighbour notices, alarm codes, where the crew can park on a tight inner-east street — assume it is yours to organise. Do not wait for the first morning of the job to discover it.

Standard repairs versus work quoted separately

Superb Painting’s FAQ states that standard prep is included: filling nail holes, minor cracks and light sanding. Major plaster restoration or structural repairs are quoted separately if needed. The written quote is fixed provided the scope does not change; if hidden damage turns up, or you add rooms mid-job, the FAQ says the crew discusses it before extra work or cost.

Use the free on-site visit to prepare your home for painters and put repairs into the written scope. Walk the rooms and flag water staining, bubbling paint, soft plaster or old patches so they sit in the scope. House work is scoped on interior and exterior painting (visit, written quote, then patch, sand, prime and protect). For a unit, use apartment painting and mention lift, loading-dock and quiet-hours constraints at the same visit.

Furniture, wall art and rooms you still live in

You do not have to strip the house. The FAQ answer to “Do I need to move furniture?” is no: the crew moves and covers furniture with drop sheets, and large items stay in the room where possible. The interior page says furniture is carefully moved and covered; About copy treats drop sheets, furniture protection and daily cleanup as standard.

When you prepare your home for painters the evening before:

• Clear small valuables from shelves and benches.
• Take down wall art (the FAQ’s own recommendation). Picture holes are the kind of minor filling listed as standard prep.
• Empty sills and mantelpieces in rooms being painted.
• Leave large furniture in place unless you need the room empty for another reason. The published process is to work around large pieces.
• Keep one liveable room if you are staying. Apartment copy says the crew can work room by room so you can remain on site.

If a piece is fragile or unusually heavy, say so at the quote so the written scope matches the room.

Colour decisions before the first coat

The interior service page lists colour consultation at no extra cost. Homepage process copy says colours, prep and scheduling are discussed before the written quote. Ranges named on the site include Dulux and Taubmans on interior work, with Resene and Porter’s also named on the FAQ and About pages; low-VOC options are described as available for nurseries, apartments and sensitive spaces. Exact products belong in your quote.

To prepare your home for painters without delaying day one, shortlist samples before the visit if you have them. Use the consult to lock sheen and product for walls, ceilings and trim in the first day’s rooms. If you cannot decide, say which rooms can start. Changing colour after the first coat is a scope change; the FAQ’s rule is that extras are discussed before extra cost.

Access, parking, pets and other living-site details

These items are homeowner logistics when you prepare your home for painters. For apartment work, Consumer Affairs Victoria explains that owners corporation rules commonly cover parking, pets and noise.

Access. Someone needs to let the crew in, or leave keys, fobs and alarm instructions as agreed. Locked gates and garage remotes stay with you.

Parking. Leave a clear bay for a work van where you can, and tell the estimator if the street is permit-only, or the basement has a height limit. Apartment copy says the crew coordinates lift bookings and building access; it does not say they can override council or body-corporate parking rules.

Pets. Keep animals out of wet-paint rooms and off drop sheets. Use a closed room, a sitter or a walk schedule. That is ordinary site safety, not a published company pet policy.

Occupied rooms. The interior page states two coats minimum and a walk-through before the crew leaves. Until that inspection, treat painted rooms as a worksite. In a block, tell adjoining neighbours when work is booked, even when the crew is using the low-odour products and quiet practices described on the apartment page.

Apartments and strata: what you confirm, what the crew coordinates

The apartment service page says Superb Painting coordinates with strata, books lifts, protects lifts and common areas, uses low-odour / low-VOC paints, works quietly, and completes most apartments in 1–2 days, with cleanup, rubbish removal and common areas cleaned at handover. It also says the team can advise and provide documentation if strata approval is required, and that you can stay because they work room by room.

That does not replace reading your own by-laws (hours, lifts, covers, waste, balcony work), lodging any application the building requires, or booking visitor parking if the resident must do it. Confirm rules with the owners corporation or building manager, then put quiet hours and interior-versus-balcony scope into the quote visit. The crew can coordinate access against a plan; they cannot grant permission the building has not given.

Timeline expectations, day by day

Published times on the site are ranges, not a contract for your address:

• A single room is often finished in one day, including preparation and two coats.
• A typical 3-bedroom interior usually takes 3–5 days, depending on prep, ceiling work and trim.
• Most apartments are described as 1–2 days.
• Kitchen cabinet TwoPak work is directed to the dedicated TwoPak site, not this house-prep sequence.

Prepare your home for painters around an occupied-home plan using those ranges. Exact hours follow your quote.

Before the start date. Prepare your home for painters by finishing these owner tasks: valuables, wall art, parking, pets, keys and any strata paperwork. Confirm colours for the first rooms.

Day 1. Protection first — drop sheets, furniture moved or covered, floors protected — then standard prep (minor holes and cracks, light sanding, priming where scoped). A one-room job may receive both coats the same day.

Middle days (whole-home interiors). Walls, ceilings and trim as scoped, with two coats minimum on surfaces listed on the interior page. Daily cleanup is described as standard on About and interior copy, so rooms that are not wet should stay liveable. If extra plaster repair appears, pause and agree a variation, as the FAQ describes.

Last day. Remaining coats, a tidy, and the interior walk-through of every room before the crew leaves. Apartment jobs add common-area cleanup at handover. Raise misses while everyone is still on site.

Drying time, extra repairs and colour changes can stretch a 3–5 day interior. The site does not publish a rain clause; if the job includes exterior elements, ask at the quote how wet weather is handled for your scope.

Owner checklist (print this)

A week out

• Book or confirm the on-site quote and written scope (contact).
• List rooms, ceilings, trim and any known damage.
• For apartments: ask the building what they require and start that paperwork.
• Shortlist colours or book who will attend the colour consult.

Two days out

• Take down wall art and pack small valuables.
• Clear sills and shelves in rooms being painted.
• Confirm parking, lift booking and access fobs.
• Arrange pet care and a sleep/work room that will stay out of scope.

Each working day

• Leave the van bay and entry clear.
• Keep children and pets out of wet rooms.
• Walk the finished rooms on the last day before the crew leaves.

Book the quote with the prep already scoped

Knowing how to prepare your home for painters gives the crew a clean, properly scoped start. Use the FAQ for furniture, included prep and timelines, the interior service page for house work and colour consultation, and the apartment service page if strata and lifts are part of the job. Then request a free on-site quote and put access, pets, parking and any building rules in the notes so they sit in the written price rather than in a first-morning doorway conversation.