When paint failure is a warranty claim and when it is wear

A workmanship guarantee covers paint that failed because of the way it was applied: peeling, flaking, cracking or blistering caused by poor preparation, the wrong product, or coating a surface that was dirty, damp or too cold. It does not cover fade, chalking, general weathering, damage from a leak or from the building moving, or a failure in the substrate underneath.

The quickest test is timing and pattern. Workmanship failures usually appear within the first season or two and follow the way the work was done, for example one wall, one product, or every window done on the same day. Wear appears years later, gradually, and appears everywhere at once.

What does a workmanship guarantee actually cover?

Ours is the Master Painters five-year workmanship guarantee. Our published terms cover defects in workmanship such as peeling, flaking, cracking or blistering caused by improper application, on owner-occupied residential repaints, automatically up to $15,000 including GST as the terms stand in 2026. Higher value commercial projects have to be applied for before the job starts, and roof coatings and specialised products such as stains sit outside the guarantee.

In practice the guarantee follows the applicator's decisions: whether the surface was washed and sanded properly, whether a primer went on where one was needed, whether the timber was dry enough, whether the conditions on the day were inside the product limits, and whether the specified number of coats went on at the right spread rate.

What is wear rather than a claim?

Paint is a consumable. It has a service life and then it ends. All of the following are normal, and a painter who tells you otherwise is over-promising.

• Colour fade and gradual dulling, worst on the north and west walls.
• Chalking on an old exterior film, where the surface goes powdery to the touch.
• Sheen loss.
• Hairline cracking at joints and junctions where the house has moved, which every timber house does.
• Scuffs, knocks and traffic marks on interior walls, hallways and door edges.
• Damage from washing with the wrong product, or with too much pressure.

Who owns which failure?

What you are seeing	Most likely cause	Who owns it
Paint peeling in sheets to bare timber within a year	Preparation or application	Workmanship guarantee
Paint lifting around one window only, with staining	Water entering at a flashing or joinery	Building fault. Fix the leak first
Even fade across the whole exterior after years	Ultraviolet	Wear
Chalky residue on your hand from an old film	Binder breakdown with age	Wear, unless the coating is young
Blistering across a wall soon after painting	Moisture in the substrate, or coating in the wrong conditions	Workmanship, if the conditions were ignored
Colour clearly different from the specified formula	Tinting or manufacture	Paint manufacturer
Roof coating breaking down	Product, application or age	Outside the workmanship guarantee
Cracked filler along a joint that has opened	Building movement	Movement and wear, not application
Paint failing over rotten timber	The timber went first	Substrate failure. Repair before repainting

Roof coatings are worth singling out, because homeowners often assume one guarantee covers everything on the property. It does not. If you are having roof work done, ask specifically what backs it and for how long, and get the answer in writing rather than in conversation.

What conditions can void the cover?

Our published terms ask for reasonable upkeep: washing the exterior at least annually, keeping vegetation clear of painted surfaces, dealing with leaks and drainage problems promptly, and not damaging the paint. Unauthorised modifications and third-party damage can also void it.

This is not fine print designed to catch you out. On a Wellington house, particularly near the harbour or the south coast, salt and grime sit on the film and shorten its life, so an annual wash is genuinely how an exterior paint job reaches five years still looking well. Note the date when you wash it and take a couple of photos. If a claim is ever needed, evidence of upkeep is often the thing that settles it.

None of this displaces your rights under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993, which sit alongside the guarantee and continue after the five years are up.

How do you make a claim without wasting everyone's time?

1. Photograph it early, in daylight, from a distance and close up. A photo taken six months after you first noticed the problem is far less useful.
2. Note when it appeared, which wall it is on, and what the weather or the use had been.
3. Find the completion certificate and the product and colour schedule from the job.
4. Contact the painter who did the work first. Most genuine defects get sorted out directly and quickly, because a repaint of one wall is cheaper for a contractor than an argument.
5. If that contractor has ceased trading, Master Painters New Zealand assess the claim and arrange remedial work through another registered member. That is the main practical reason to use a registered painter in the first place.

One thing not to do: do not repaint or touch up the failure before somebody has seen it. It removes the evidence, and it usually removes the claim along with it.

When should you just fix it yourself?

A chip on a door edge, a scuff in the hallway, one blistered patch on a windowsill: touch it up. Keep the leftover tin, keep a note of the colour and product, and spend ten minutes rather than a fortnight of correspondence. A guarantee is for a failure across an area, not for the small damage every occupied house accumulates.

The line to watch for is whether the failure is spreading. One blister is damage. A dozen blisters along the same run of boards is a pattern, and patterns are what claims are made of.

If a wall has failed and you cannot tell whether it is application, moisture or age, that is a reasonable thing to ask a painter to assess even if they did not do the original work. Ask us to take a look and we will tell you what you are actually dealing with before anyone quotes to repaint it.