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An exterior repaint is one of the larger line items a strata council will approve, and one of the most visible. Owners see the result every day for the next decade. The good news: the process is manageable if you break it into four decisions, made in the right order. This guide walks through them the way we walk councils through them on real quotes.
A strata job is a house repaint multiplied in every direction. More wall area, more access challenges, more weather exposure on the windward sides, and residents living in every unit while the work happens. Council also answers to owners afterward, so decisions need a paper trail.
Victoria adds its own factor. Coastal buildings take salt air and horizontal winter rain, so south and west elevations usually weather faster than the rest of the building. A repaint plan that treats every wall the same tends to overspend on some elevations and underprotect others.
Quotes are only comparable if every contractor is pricing the same job. Before inviting anyone, walk the property with your property manager and note what you see: peeling or chalking paint, cracked caulking around windows, stained stucco, rusting rails, rotten trim. Decide what is repair and what is paint. Surface repairs belong in the scope in writing, because “paint over it” and “fix it, then paint” can differ widely in price, and the cheap quote is usually the one that skipped the fixing.
If your building has a depreciation report, check what it assumes about the painting cycle. Councils that repaint on schedule, before coatings fail, generally spend less over twenty years than councils that stretch each cycle to the breaking point and then pay for substrate repairs too.
For a strata, the contractor’s paperwork matters as much as the paint. Ask every bidder for the same four documents:
We covered the homeowner version of this checklist in our guide to hiring a painter in Victoria. Everything there applies to strata work, with higher stakes.
Most complaints during a strata repaint have nothing to do with paint. They come from surprises: a resident who didn’t know their balcony had to be cleared, a car parked where the lift needed to sit, windows that couldn’t open on a hot day. The fix is communication built into the schedule.
Expect your contractor to provide notice ahead of each phase, in writing, with dates per building or elevation. Balcony and patio clearing instructions should go out days in advance, not the morning of. Daily cleanup and a predictable start time keep goodwill intact through a multi-week project. Victoria’s reliable painting window runs roughly May through September, and popular contractors book strata work months ahead, so a council that approves in winter gets first pick of the calendar.
Top Coat Painting has painted Victoria homes and multi-unit properties for over 20 years. We’ve been WorkSafeBC registered since 2005, carry full liability insurance, and back strata work with the same written 3-year warranty as everything else we do. Councils get one point of contact from quote to final walk-through.
If your building is due, request a quote or call (250) 385-0478. Bring your depreciation report if you have one. We’ll walk the property with you and put the whole scope in writing.
