You know what’s funny about paint recommendations? Everyone seems to have an opinion but not many people have actually tested different brands side by side for years on end, in the same areas. Well, we have.
We’ve been painting houses in Perth, specifically Floreat for over a decade now. We’ve worked with Perth’s fast changing weather for a long time and have first-hand experience with how different brands stand up against each other.
We’ve got some pretty strong views about which paints actually hold up and which ones are all talk. Living this close to the coast changes everything when it comes to paint performance.
Floreat’s got this perfect storm of conditions that can make even expensive paint jobs look shabby within a few years if you pick the wrong product. Salty air and brutal UV.
When clients ask us what paint to use, we don’t give them the sales pitch from the paint shop. We tell them what we’ve seen work and what we’ve seen fail.
What Floreat throws at your paint job
Let’s start with the obvious stuff. We’re talking about a suburb that’s close enough to the coast that you can smell the salt in the air on most days. That salt doesn’t just disappear when it hits your walls, it actually loves to eat away at it! Great right?
The sun is also not your house paints best friend either as the UV here can get super high. Perth’s already got some of the harshest sun in the world and in Floreat you’ve got homes with big north-facing walls and not a lot of natural shade to speak of.
That UV radiation breaks down the chemical bonds in paint causing it to chalk up and fade faster than you’d think.
Then there’s the temperature. We’ve seen exterior walls go from maybe 12°C at sunrise to over 55°C by mid arvo in summer. That’s a massive amount of expansion and contraction happening every single day.
Paint that can’t handle this movement starts cracking and peeling.
Winter can be tricky too. When those storms roll in they don’t mess around. We’re talking about rain that can dump incredible amounts of water in short periods and if your paint can’t handle moisture properly, you’ll be looking at peeling paint by the following summer.
The contenders we’ve been watching
Over the years we’ve had the chance to test pretty much every major paint brand on homes around Floreat. Not in some controlled lab environment but on real houses where real families live and where the paint has to actually perform.
The main players we’ve been tracking are Dulux, Taubmans, British Paints, Haymes and Solver. Each brand talks a big game about durability and performance, but talk is cheap. What matters is how they actually hold up after 5, 7, even 10 years of Floreat’s climate throwing everything it’s got at them.
Dulux WeatherShield: still the king of the hill
We’re just going to say it straight up, after testing all these brands across dozens of Floreat homes, Dulux WeatherShield consistently outperforms everything else. And we’re not saying that because they are paying us to do so. But because we’ve been using it on homes for years and it has significantly outperformed the rest of the pack throughout the years.
About 9 years ago, we painted this gorgeous house on Rowan Avenue with WeatherShield. Big place, heaps of detailed timber work, facing pretty much due west so it cops the full brunt of the afternoon sun. We were back there for an interior job and noticed the exterior paint while there to see how it was holding up.
Nine years later and it still looked good. Really good. No significant chalking, colours were still vibrant, paint film was intact and doing its job. Compared to another repaint job that we were called back to do, it was close by but was done with a cheaper brand.
Taubmans All Weather: good, but not the best
Taubmans positions their All Weather range as premium exterior paint, and to be fair it’s definitely a solid performer.
We painted this lovely home near the beach with Taubmans All Weather about 5 years back. The paint job still looks reasonable, but it’s definitely showing its age in ways that WeatherShield jobs from the same time aren’t. There’s some chalking happening on the exposed faces and the colours have lost that fresh vibrancy they had originally.
The problem we’ve noticed with Taubmans in coastal conditions is that while it starts strong, it doesn’t maintain that performance curve as well as Dulux does.
If you’re working with a tighter budget, Taubmans All Weather isn’t a bad choice. Just don’t expect it to look as good for as long as the premium options.
British Paints: you get what you pay for
British Paints has been around since dinosaurs roamed the earth and their exterior range is noticeably cheaper than the premium brands. But you really do get what you pay for.
We’ve used British Paints on projects where budget was the overriding concern and while it does cover the walls and look fine initially, the longevity just isn’t there in Floreat’s conditions. Painted a weatherboard place about 4 years ago with British Paints and it’s already looking pretty tired on the weather-exposed sides.
The main issue seems to be UV resistance. British Paints just can’t handle sun as well as the pricier options.
Solver: fine for some things, not for others
Solver markets itself as a trade brand, and in certain applications it does the job adequately. But in Floreat’s coastal environment, we’ve found it struggles with the long game.
The paint applies nicely and looks good when it’s fresh, but after a couple of years you start seeing premature aging. Especially on homes that are really close to the coast, Solver seems to struggle more with salt exposure than the higher-end brands do.
What we tell our clients
After seeing how different brands perform in Floreat’s specific conditions over 15 years we recommend Dulux WeatherShield for exterior work about 90% of the time.
The quality and how long it last justifies the cost in our opinion as you won’t need a repaint anywhere near as soon.
If you can stretch your budget to WeatherShield, you’ll be thanking yourself in 7-8 years when your neighbours are getting quotes for repainting and you’re not.
For character homes or places with lots of architectural detail, we’re even more insistent about using proven performers. These houses are often expensive and time-consuming to prep and paint, so using paint that’s going to last makes even more sense.
My honest assessment
After over ten years of painting homes around floreat and testing out brands ourselves, here are our final thoughts: Dulux WeatherShield are worth the extra cost.
Your home’s exterior is constantly under attack from Floreat’s climate. Give it the best protection you can afford. Go cheap and you’ll be back on the phone to painters sooner than you’d like.
The choice is yours, but we know which one we’d make for our own place.
