How do I make the paintwork last longer on my school?

Aiming to lengthen the time between paints at your school can free up funds for other projects you have in your 10YPP and 5YA. Here are some tips we have picked up over the years to improve the longevity of your school coating.

1) Use reputable brands of paint.

Contrary to some opinions, the quality of the paint does matter when you come to repaint your school, especially the exterior areas. As a general rule, you’ll pay more for paint from establish paint brands, but its worth it. Key point being these brands have had 20+ years assessing their products in our harsh UV conditions, wheras other brands have come in from overseas withour seriously testing their products here.

Cheaper, less known brands are often not as colourfast (fade quicker), which increases maintenance costs and lessens the time till next recoat is required. This is espcailly important with ‘brights’ and darker colours.

2) Minimise Darker colours.

Darker colours look great, but there are a few factors that will cause darker colours to prematurely age:

Absorption – darker colours will absorb much more light, and therefore heat up faster, putting stress on the coating and the surface underneath.
Fading – darker colours will also fade faster because of UV stress.

Tip - Choose carefully where to put darker colours. Some effective options are painting only the front surface of a windowsill in the darker colour and paint fascia and gutters in a darker colour to provide the desired contrast without exposing those colours to constant direct sunlight.

3) Hire a ‘School Painter’.

All painters were born equal. Not true!

There is good reason that only a small number of painting contractors specialise in schools throughout NZ. From the high level of consultation required, to helping with funding, to putting the right emphasis on high wear areas, a company that is used to dealing with schools will make the job much simplier from you.

Key points of difference between a standard painting company and company specialising in schools includes points such as their quality control process and 5x5 report and final sign off process.

4) Have a regular washing/touch-up program.

The year your school is repainted, it’ll look great. But over the following 7-10 years, the condition will obviously slowly deteriorate. Its been long proven that spending a small amount each year to wash the buildings down and do small touch ups pays off in the long term.

Mould and lichen can start to appear 2-3 years after a repaint, although in reality, it probably started to appear 12 months before you noticed it….

5) Prevent or minimise graffiti/defacing.

Graffiti encourages more graffiti, so leaving the surfaces defaced will tend to compound the problem. Along with the above point of a regular wash and touch-up, there is a product out there to minimise your graffiti problem, anti-graffiti paint.

TIP –If you don’t want to have to end up with the extra cost of anti-graffiti paint (approximately $25NZD/m2), some other methods to prevent this type of behaviour is choosing certain colours or have an artist and your kids create murals in the problematic areas.