Mayfield has some of Newcastle's grandest old houses on its hill and plenty of hard-working cottages and unit blocks below it. Corella Painting repaints both, washed and prepped before the first coat, from our base in Adamstown, about eight minutes away.
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Mayfield has the big houses of the 1880s on its hill and plain working streets below it, and the two need very different repaints.
In the late 1800s Mayfield was known as the Toorak of Newcastle, and the large houses on its western hill sat high enough for views and a breeze. Scholey House, finished in 1884, stands on the highest point. From 1915 until 1999 BHP ran its steelworks on the Mayfield side of the Hunter River, and through the rest of the suburb you'll find cottages, brick houses and, later, unit blocks. Maitland Road runs through the middle of it all, with the shops along it. A Mayfield repaint can be a tall timber house with a century of detail, or a tidy block of units that needs doing in a fortnight.
Mayfield's western hill is where the large houses went up in the 1880s and 1890s, and many of them still stand. Houses of that size and age usually mean height, deep eaves and verandahs, and a lot of timber detail to cut in. Bella Vista, built in 1914 for the manager of the BHP steelworks, still sits in its large grounds in Mayfield. A house like that has been painted many times over, and each coat has had to stick to the one before.
Repainting one is mostly about access and patience. It usually means scaffold, because a ladder can't reach the upper eaves safely, and it means cutting in every bracket and window frame by hand. Before any of that, loose paint is scraped back to a sound edge, the edges are sanded smooth so they don't show through, and bare timber is primed. The west side, which takes the afternoon sun with nothing to shade it, always gets the most work.
The steelworks BHP ran beside the Hunter River from 1915 until 1999 shaped the other side of Mayfield. Away from the hill, the streets are mostly cottages and brick houses with painted trims, and later unit blocks. These are practical houses, and the repaint is usually practical too: the trims, fascias and eaves, windows and doors, and the boards where they've chalked.
Nearer Maitland Road and Industrial Drive, the walls carry road grime, so we always start with a wash. Paint won't bond to a dirty surface, and grime under a new coat is what makes it fail early. For unit blocks, we quote to the strata manager, put notices up before each stage, and keep the stairs and entries usable while we work.
On one of the older Mayfield houses, the colour scheme is half the job. A house with brackets, window frames, verandah posts and boards all in one colour loses its detail from the street, so we usually suggest a body colour with the trims picked out in one or two others. On a house that sits up on the hill, the scheme also has to read from the street below, not just from the front path.
We paint sample patches on the wall itself, on the sunny side and the shaded side, because the same colour looks warmer on a west wall at four in the afternoon than on a south wall in the morning. You live with them for a few days and then decide. If your house is a listed heritage item, we'll tell you to check with council before any paint is ordered, so the scheme you've chosen is one you can keep.
The big old houses on the western hill, often repainted from scaffold where the eaves are high. Every loose edge scraped back, bare timber primed, and any brackets, fretwork and window frames picked out in the scheme you choose.
Exterior house painting in MayfieldWalk-up blocks off Maitland Road repainted outside and through the stairwells, quoted to the strata manager, with written notices to residents before each stage and cars moved by agreement.
Commercial and strata painting in MayfieldWeatherboard cottages and brick houses with painted trims, washed of road grime first, then fascias, eaves, windows and doors done, with the boards repainted where they've chalked or flaked.
Exterior house painting in MayfieldUsually, yes. If yours is two storeys or has high eaves, scaffold is likely rather than ladders, and any fretwork, brackets and window frames are cut in by hand. For our jobs, a single-storey exterior usually lands at $9,000 to $18,000 + GST, and a big house on the hill sits toward the top of that or above it. The scaffold is its own line on the quote.
No. Mayfield isn't one of the nine heritage conservation areas in the City of Newcastle's DCP. Some individual houses can still be listed heritage items, and that's more likely among the older houses on the hill, so we check your address on the council's heritage map before we quote a change of colour.
Not well, if it goes straight over the top. Road grime stops new paint from bonding, so we wash the house down first and let it dry before any prep. Clean, sound paint takes the new coats properly, and the colour you chose comes out the colour on the chart rather than a shade darker.
It affects how it goes on. A steady breeze dries paint faster than it should, which can leave lap marks where a fresh edge meets one that has already set. On a windy hilltop we work smaller sections, keep a wet edge, follow the shade around the house and brush and roll rather than spray. It's slower, and it's part of the quote.
Yes. We'll talk through schemes that suit the age and style of your house, usually a body colour with the trims and detail picked out, and paint sample patches on the wall so you can see them in your own light. If the house is a listed heritage item, we'll tell you to check with council before anything is ordered.
It takes the full afternoon sun, and on the hill there's nothing to shade it. Heat and UV break down paint fastest on that side, and timber there moves more as it heats and cools. We prep that wall hardest, scrape it back to a sound edge and prime every bare patch, so the new coats have something solid to hold.
A few lines and a photo or two is enough. We'll ring to book a look, then leave you a written quote with every surface and every coat on it. No obligation, and no follow-up calls chasing you if you decide to wait a while longer.