Interior vs Exterior Painting Explained for Green Point Properties

By Painters Green Point | Atlantic Seaboard Painting Specialists

Interior and exterior painting share a name and very little else. They use different products, face different failure modes, and in Green Point they are often not even the same person's decision to make.

Key Differences

• What the coating is for - exterior paint is a protective system defending the substrate from water, salt and UV. Interior paint is mostly a finish, judged on appearance and washability.
• Products - exteriors need flexible, UV-stable, often high-build films. Interiors use lower-sheen, low-VOC formulations chosen for odour and cleanability.
• What kills the coating - outside it is weather, salt and movement. Inside it is condensation, abrasion and cleaning.
• Weather dependence - exterior work stops for rain, wind and dew point. Interior work continues year round.
• Access and cost profile - exteriors on a Green Point block are dominated by rope access or platforms; interiors are dominated by labour and protection.
• Who decides - in sectional title the exterior is common property and a body corporate matter. The interior of your section is yours.
• Service life - a well-specified exterior gets 4 to 8 years here depending on which way the wall faces. A well-kept interior often runs 7 to 10.

Interior Painting in Green Point

Most interior work in this suburb happens inside an apartment, which shapes the job more than the painting itself does. Access is through shared entrances and a lift that usually needs booking and protecting. Bodies corporate typically restrict working hours, and many require notice to the managing agent before contractors start.

Ventilation is the real technical constraint. Green Point flats are frequently single-aspect, so when the south-easter is running you cannot simply open the windows to air a unit out. Combined with the number of tenanted and short-let units that need to be back in service within days, this makes low-odour, fast-recoat systems close to essential.

The recurring interior problem is condensation mould on cold external walls and in bathrooms. It is a ventilation issue and painting over it only delays its return. Full detail on our interior painting page.

Exterior Painting in Green Point

Exteriors here are a coastal engineering problem more than a decorating one. Airborne chloride settles on the wall and holds moisture against the film, so adhesion degrades from underneath while the surface still looks acceptable. Winter north-westerly fronts then drive rain horizontally into any crack that has opened up.

The consequence is that elevations weather at very different rates on the same building, and should be specified separately - heavier systems and more thorough preparation on the weather side, standard systems where the building is sheltered. Fresh-water washing to remove salt before coating matters more than the choice of brand.

Metalwork is part of the exterior scope and is usually where failure appears first: balustrades, steel window frames, gates and the hidden lintels above windows, which crack the plaster as they corrode and expand. See exterior painting in Green Point for how we scope it.