The Bellevue Apartments in Newcastle West had long suffered from water ingress issues originating from construction.

The challenge

Upon first inspection, we noted significant water damage throughout. Water had collected in walls and carpets, providing a key challenge for our operations team. On top of this, the control joints on the Fibre Cement sheeting panels were failing and the panels had been coated in an incorrect paint specification during construction.

While the building's functionality was the primary focus, the customer also desired a rejuvenation of the building to ‘start fresh’. The building’s previous colour palette was drab, and the body corporate committee had expressed an interest in changing colours. Our Newcastle team proposed significant building repairs, followed by a repaint with future maintenance, which the customer happily accepted.

Solution

Before tackling this challenging repaint, our Branch Manager liaised with the body corporate committee and had them make a note of some colour schemes around Newcastle that they liked. Our Branch Manager made trips to the site addresses and provided some colour match prototypes for the customer to select from. After receiving confirmation on the colours, the significant pre-painting preparation could take place.

To ensure our solution would be a long-term one, we worked on all noted building faults that had been affecting the paintwork throughout the building. We started by cleaning all building gaps and replacing/resealing. Pressure washing complemented by scraping dealt with all excess MIO. After this, we utilised a skim coat to reduce the hard edge and increase adhesion for future coats. Our operations team prime bared all areas within the project’s scope before applying two coats of Dulux paint, including AcraTex AcraShield, Metalshield and Weathershield.

As seen in the video above, we utilised swing stages in 10 different locations to safely access all external substrates. All paint flakes were collected and disposed of away from site to protect the creek from all foreign pollutants. We held weekly meetings on-site with the customer to discuss the works schedule and rectify any issues.

Results

After approximately five months on-site, our team of two operatives had completed over 900 operational hours and the major repainting component of the project. At the conclusion of the works the body corporate committee commended our works.

"From the moment we engaged Higgins Coatings the experience was positive and professional. The branch manger worked very closely with our Strata Committee to achieve our complex 'Scope of Work's requests’ for our building painting and restoration at Bellevue Apartments Newcastle West. Once on site, the Higgins team worked very respectfully with the residents while painting works were undertaken in both common and private apartment areas.

The backing of the Higgins Coatings Company was also comforting throughout the process of painting a high rise in the CBD of Newcastle. The results are beyond our expectations. We therefore highly recommend Higgins Coatings Newcastle."

Secretary of strata committee, Bellevue Apartments