Exterior painting in Bloemfontein: paint the wall, or fix the wall?
Bubbling paint at the skirting, hairline cracks at every window corner — repainting over them guarantees you repaint again soon.
An exterior repaint is the most visible improvement you can make to a home — and the easiest one to waste money on. In Bloemfontein's climate, paint applied over unrepaired cracks and undiagnosed damp fails early and predictably. The houses that still look freshly painted after many summers are the ones where the wall was fixed before it was painted.
The two enemies: cracks and damp
Highveld thermal movement opens hairline cracks at plaster joints, window corners and parapet lines, and driven summer rain finds every one of them. Painting over a live crack telegraphs it through the new coat within months. Cracks need to be routed and repaired with fillers matched to how much each one moves — rigid filler in a moving crack simply cracks again.
Damp is the other repaint killer. Bubbling paint at skirting height usually means rising damp past an expired damp-proof course — common in homes from the seventies and eighties. The same bubbling higher up a wall points at a cracked parapet or leaking slab edge above. Either way, repainting a wet wall feeds the cycle: the moisture that lifted the old paint lifts the new paint too. Diagnosis first, coating second.
What proper preparation includes
- Wall-by-wall condition survey — crack mapping and moisture readings, so the quote reflects your walls, not a guess.
- High-pressure washing — chalked paint, dust and growth off.
- Crack repair — matched to each crack's movement class.
- Damp remediation where diagnosed — fixed at the source before any decoration.
- Priming matched to the surface — chalky, friable walls consolidated with a penetrating primer so the coating bonds to wall, not dust.
- The specified SealPro wall system — applied to coverage, with crisp cut lines and proper detail at plinths, reveals and parapets.
Estates: colours and paperwork handled
For estate and complex homes we work from the approved palette, apply samples on the actual walls for sign-off, and give trustees the documentation they need before and after the project — phased scheduling included where neighbours and access rules require it.
Want an exterior that still looks new in five summers? Start with the inspection, not the colour chart. Call BloemGuard on 072 933 0162 for a free quote.