Painters Goodwood

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Rising damp on pre-1960s Goodwood homes measured and priced by the metre, not guessed at
Breathable systems for original lime plaster, so the paint does not blow off the wall
Corrugated iron and IBR roofs rust-treated before any coating goes on

Painting a House in Goodwood

Goodwood, Vasco and Townsend Estate contain some of the oldest housing stock we work on, with a lot of homes dating from the 1930s through to the 1950s. These are solid-wall constructions, frequently without a functioning damp-proof course, and many still carry their original lime-based plaster. Everything about how you paint them differs from a modern cavity-walled house.

Rising damp is the defining problem. Ground moisture wicks up through solid brickwork and evaporates out of the wall face, leaving a tide mark and often a white salt bloom. The critical point is that this moisture has to be able to escape. Lime plaster is breathable by design, and when someone seals it with a modern low-permeability acrylic, the moisture backs up and pushes the plaster off the brick in sheets. A great many failed paint jobs in Goodwood are not bad paint, they are the wrong kind of paint.

Roofs are the other differentiator. A good proportion of the older stock has corrugated iron or IBR sheeting rather than concrete tile. Sheet steel roofs are entirely paintable and often outlast tile if maintained, but they need rust treatment and the right primer, and fixings need checking. Coating over active rust on a roof is a guaranteed repeat job.

What It Costs to Paint a House in Goodwood

These are the ranges we actually quote in Goodwood. They assume proper preparation and two full coats. Anything unusual in scope is quoted separately after we have seen the property. Use them to sanity-check any quote you receive.

Typical painting prices in Goodwood
Work	Typical range
Interior, full two to three bedroom home	R9,000 - R18,000
Exterior, single storey	R12,000 - R24,000
Rising damp treatment, per running metre of wall	R700 - R1,500
Hacking off and re-plastering, per m²	R180 - R350
Corrugated iron or IBR roof, rust treat plus two coats	R10,000 - R24,000
Roof sheet replacement, per sheet	R450 - R1,100
Boundary wall, both sides, per m²	R45 - R85
Single room repaint	R1,500 - R3,200

On older homes the damp and plaster repair line is frequently larger than the painting line. That is normal here and a quote that omits it entirely is not a cheaper job, just a shorter-lived one.

The Best Time of Year to Paint in Goodwood

For Goodwood the sequence matters more than the season, because of damp. The right pattern on an older home is to do the damp treatment and plaster repairs in early spring, let the wall dry through the summer, and paint in late summer or early autumn. Walls need weeks, sometimes a couple of months, to release the moisture they have been holding, and painting a wall that is still drying out simply repeats the failure.

If there is no damp work involved, the standard October to April window applies and Goodwood is sheltered enough to extend into May in a good year.

Winter is the wrong time for exterior work here for a specific reason beyond rain: the water table rises, rising damp is at its worst, and a wall that looks acceptable in August will be actively wet behind the plaster. Assessments done in winter are actually useful, because you see the problem at its worst. Painting done in winter is not.

Painting work underway on a home in Goodwood, Cape Town

Which Paint to Use in Goodwood

Product choice should follow the surface and the exposure, not the brand on the tin. This is what we specify on Goodwood homes and why.

Surface	What we specify and why
Original lime plaster	A breathable mineral, silicate or high-permeability system. This is the single most important specification decision on an older Goodwood home. Standard acrylic seals the wall and causes the plaster to blow.
Rising damp	Chemical DPC injection or an approved damp system, followed by a salt-retardant render. Dulux Damp Seal or Plascon Dampcure form part of a system, they are not a substitute for treating the cause.
Modern plastered sections and extensions	Standard exterior acrylic is fine on cement-plastered later work. Just do not assume the whole house is the same substrate, because extensions rarely match the original.
Corrugated iron and IBR roofs	Wire brush or mechanically clean the rust, apply a galvanised-iron primer or rust converter as appropriate, then two coats of a roof coating such as Duram Roofguard. Check and replace corroded fixings.
Interior on solid walls	A breathable interior emulsion on affected walls. Sealing the inside face of a damp solid wall pushes the problem sideways rather than solving it.
Steel windows and gates	Common on this stock. Back to clean metal, zinc-phosphate primer, then enamel.

What Goes Wrong on Goodwood Homes

Modern acrylic applied over lime plaster, sealing the wall and blowing the plaster off in sheets within two seasons
Rising damp painted over with a damp-sealer product marketed as a one-tin fix, which treats the symptom and not the source
Salt bloom crystallising through fresh paint because no salt-retardant render was used after damp treatment
Corrugated iron roofs coated over active rust, so corrosion continues underneath and the coating lifts in sheets
Rusted roof fixings left in place, allowing water in under a newly painted roof
Walls painted before they had finished drying out after damp treatment, repeating the original failure

Services We Cover in Goodwood

Goodwood Painting Questions

Can a damp-sealer paint fix my rising damp?

No. Products sold as damp sealers have a place inside a properly designed system, but nothing applied to the wall face stops moisture travelling up from the ground. The cause has to be treated with a chemical damp-proof course or equivalent, and the contaminated plaster usually has to come off. Anyone selling you a tin as the whole answer is selling you the same job again in two years.

Why did my last paint job peel off in sheets?

Almost certainly because a modern acrylic was applied over original lime plaster. Lime plaster needs to breathe, and a low-permeability coating traps moisture behind it until the pressure pushes the plaster off the brick. The repair is to remove the failed material and recoat with a breathable system.

What does damp work add to the cost?

R700 to R1,500 per running metre of affected wall, plus R180 to R350 per square metre for re-plastering. On a small Goodwood cottage with one badly affected wall that might be R8,000 to R15,000. It is often the largest single line on the quote, and it is the line that determines whether the paintwork lasts.

Is my corrugated iron roof worth painting or should I replace it?

Usually worth painting. Sheet steel roofs in reasonable condition take coating well and can outlast concrete tile if maintained. Sheets that are perforated or badly corroded at the laps get replaced at R450 to R1,100 each, and fixings should be checked at the same time. A full roof runs R10,000 to R24,000 including rust treatment.

When should I get the assessment done?

Winter is actually the best time to look at a damp problem, because the water table is high and you see the wall at its worst. Do the assessment in winter, the damp treatment in early spring, and the painting in late summer once the wall has dried out.

Painting a home in Goodwood? Contact Painters Sandown for a free, no-obligation quote and an itemised breakdown you can actually compare.

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