Dulux Paint

They have started painting the house, starting with the fascia (Deep Ocean of course). If you see the photo above the dark blue fascia is the painted part whereas the light blue is unpainted.

They need to paint this before they put on the guttering and the roof.

They are using Dulux Paint throughout.  Incidentally I have had to use timber fascia throughout because of the curves in the roof.  Now you can cheat by using colorbond fascia but that means you use multiple straights to make it look like a curve.  To get a real curve you need to use timber.  So the curves have to be timber.  The straights can then be colorbond but it would then look odd and inconsistent. So we decided to use timber for all fascia.  The downside is that at some point you will need to repaint it.

That's why the next point is so important.

The first floor will have Stria cladding.  On the Hardietex Scyon Stria cladding website it states that if you use Wattyl paint on the Stria, then Wattyl gives you a 15 year warranty on the paint. Now this is important to me as painting the first floor of this place is going to be a major hassle.  This is the wording on the website:

Not only does James Hardie provide a 25-year product warranty on Stria cladding, but Wattyl® Australia Pty Ltd feels so confident it has given a 15-year paint warranty on Wattyl Solagard® when used on Stria cladding.

The bad news (or so I thought) is that my builder is using Dulux.  So I had a look at the Dulux website on what their warranty is on their exterior paint.  They do have The Dulux Weathershield Promise which is as follows:

We're so confident our product will not peel, flake or blister in any weather condition that if it doesn't deliver - we'll replace the product free of charge*. That's our promise to you.

For any claim or query, call Dulux Customer Service on 13 25 25. Proof of purchase is required.

There is caveat:

*This guarantee does not cover paint failure caused by any breakdown of coatings applied previously, where Dulux Weathershield is applied over coatings not specified by Dulux, or in the event of substrate failure or faulty application. To claim, you must be living in the house you have painted with Dulux Weathershield.

But this won't apply to me as its new paint on unpainted material.

Now this doesn't indicate exactly how long the warranty lasts so I rang the number above and was put through to the technical department where the gentleman there advised me that its for lifetime, meaning whilst I'm living there I'm covered. Well that means if it peels, flakes or blisters Dulux will give me the paint free of charge. I'll still have to arrange for it to be repainted though :-(.  

So I rang the builder and asked him to provide me with the receipt. I don't think anyone has ever asked him this before so he referred me to the painter, Adam, who said he would.