Painting in a subtropical coastal city

Durban is one of the harder places in South Africa to keep a building looking good. High humidity year-round, intense summer UV, heavy convective rainfall and salt-laden air off the Indian Ocean combine to attack coatings from several directions at once. Paint that would last a decade on the Highveld will chalk, blister or grow mould here in a fraction of that time.

That is the single biggest reason we specify to the building rather than to a brand. A north-facing Berea elevation taking full afternoon sun needs a different system from a shaded Glenwood south wall that never properly dries out.

The city’s building stock

Durban’s range is unusually wide, and each type brings its own problem:

• Berea and Glenwood period homes — plaster, timber joinery, lead-era substrates
• 1960s–80s walk-up blocks — spalling concrete, rusted balustrades
• Morningside and Musgrave sectional title — body corporate programmes
• CBD and Umbilo commercial — occupied-hours access
• South basin industrial — chemical and heat exposure
• Bluff and beachfront — direct salt attack

Concrete spalling is the Durban problem

On any Durban block more than about thirty years old, the real issue is usually not the paint. Salt and moisture reach the reinforcing steel, the steel rusts and expands, and the concrete cracks and falls away. Painting over that hides it for one season and then costs far more to fix.

We carry out concrete spalling repair to Stoncor specification, expansion joint replacement, and steel and balustrade refurbishment alongside the coating work, so the repair and the finish are covered by one contractor and one warranty.

Working in Durban

We have painted schools, retail, industrial premises and homes across the city, including Durban Girls’ College in Glenwood and Bluff Meat Supply on the Bluff. We understand school-holiday programmes, retail trading hours and factory shutdown windows, and we plan around them rather than asking you to work around us.

What we do here

• Residential Painting
• Commercial Painting
• Industrial Painting
• Waterproofing & Leak Detection
• High Pressure Cleaning
• High-Rise & High-Access

Who you are dealing with

Performance Painting Contractors CC has traded since 1994 and has completed over 3,000 projects. We are a full member of the Master Builders Association KwaZulu-Natal (16031) and a Plascon Preferred Applicator. We carry R5m public liability cover, hold a valid Letter of Good Standing, and are OSH and BEE compliant. Everything is documented on our credentials page.

We work for property managers including Broll, Trafalgar, Maxprop, JT Ross, Eris Property, Attlee Agency and Wakefields, and we apply Plascon, Dulux, Prominent, Prodec, Stoncor and Midas systems.