Melbourne movement: why the cracks appear
Much of Melbourne sits on reactive clay. It takes up water through winter and dries out through summer, and the ground under a house rises and falls with it. Older homes on shallow footings feel this most, and the plaster shows it first at the weakest points: door and window heads, cornice junctions, and where old lath and plaster meets newer plasterboard.
Seasonal movement is normal. What matters for a repaint is whether the crack is cosmetic surface cracking or a sign of something structural that needs assessment first.
If a crack reappears after every repair, our guide Why Do Cracks Keep Coming Back After Painting? explains the movement and material causes — and why filling and painting alone cannot solve ongoing or structural movement. When the surfaces are stable and ready, our interior house painting service includes the preparation and repair work described here.
Hairline versus structural
Usually cosmetic
Fine hairline cracks in paint or surface plaster, cornice line cracking, small settlement cracks above openings that have not changed in years.
Worth watching
Cracks that open and close with the seasons, or reappear in the same place after each repaint — these get flexible treatment rather than rigid filler.
Get it assessed
Wide, stepped or diagonal cracks, cracks visible on both faces of a wall, cracks that are actively growing, or movement paired with sticking doors and uneven floors.
Not a painting fix
Anything caused by an active leak, rising damp or structural movement. We flag it and recommend the right trade before we paint.
How we prepare walls and ceilings
- Rooms protected: floors covered, furniture moved or wrapped, fittings masked.
- Walls and ceilings washed down to remove dust, grease and cooking film, especially in kitchens.
- Cracks opened out where needed, then filled and reinforced appropriately for the type of crack.
- Patches sanded flush and feathered so they disappear under raking light.
- Repairs and bare plaster spot-primed or sealed so the topcoat sheen stays even.
- New plasterboard and set work sealed in full before topcoats.
- Flexible sealant at cornice, skirting and architrave junctions where movement is expected.
Ceilings, moisture and bathroom mould
Ceiling work is unforgiving because light rakes across it. We take patching seriously, sand carefully and roll ceilings in a flat finish that hides minor surface variation rather than highlighting it.
Where there has been a leak, the plaster must be dry and the source fixed before we start, and the stain sealed so it cannot bleed through. In bathrooms and laundries, mould is treated and removed rather than coated over, and we talk about ventilation — an exhaust fan that actually vents outside does more for a bathroom's paintwork than any product.
Interior systems we use
- Haymes Ultra Premium interior systems for walls, with matched sealers and undercoats.
- Dulux Wash&Wear for areas that get touched, scrubbed and lived in — hallways, kitchens, kids' rooms.
- Dedicated ceiling finishes for an even, flat result.
- Hard-wearing enamels on doors, skirting boards, architraves and trims.
- Wet-area appropriate systems for bathrooms and laundries.