Gold Coast high rise is a different job to Brisbane and salt is most of the reason. The beachfront towers from Main Beach down to Coolangatta sit in permanent salt spray, and everything on them ages faster: anchor hardware, balustrade fixings, window seals and coatings. Buildings here are also taller and more exposed than anything in Brisbane, and a lot of them are holiday letting rather than owner occupied, which changes both when you can work and how much notice residents need.

The work splits between cleaning and protecting. Glass and balcony balustrades need cleaning more often than in Brisbane because the salt film comes back within weeks, and the render and balcony ledges need recoating years sooner than on an inland building. Anchors are the other thing to stay on top of. A corroded eye on a beachfront tower is not unusual at five years old, and it is the single most common thing we tag out down here.

Gold Coast at a glance

Building types

Beachfront high rise from Main Beach to Coolangatta, much of it holiday letting

Typical access

Roof anchors and davit systems, carrying more corrosion than Brisbane

Usual frequency

Three to four times a year for glass, annual for anchors

What we watch for

Salt. It shortens the life of every anchor and every coating on the building

Photos

On site on the Gold Coast

Abseil Pro rope access technician rigged off the Q1 spire high above Surfers Paradise
Rigged off the Q1 spire, with the canals of Surfers Paradise a long way below.
Two Abseil Pro rope access technicians working on the spire steelwork at Q1, Surfers Paradise
Two technicians working the spire steel above Surfers Paradise.
Abseil Pro rope access technician suspended inside the spire lattice above Surfers Paradise
Inside the spire lattice, with the Pacific a long way down.
Abseil Pro technician sitting on a steel strut high above the Gold Coast Broadwater
Sitting on the steel above the Broadwater, rigging the next drop.
Abseil Pro rope access technician going over a rooftop parapet at Burleigh Heads with the beach behind
Over the parapet at Burleigh Heads, with the beach below.
Abseil Pro rope access technician drying a window frame with a cloth at Burleigh Heads
Detailing the frame after the squeegee pass, so the glass dries clean.
Three Abseil Pro rope access painters working along the balcony ledges of a Gold Coast high rise
Three on the ledges at once, so a whole elevation moves in a day.
Abseil Pro rope access painter rolling paint onto a high rise balcony ledge on the Gold Coast with the ocean behind
Cutting in a balcony ledge from the rope. Every ledge on the elevation, one level at a time.
Abseil Pro rope access painter descending a freshly painted white high rise facade above a Gold Coast marina
Looking down a finished elevation. No scaffold, and nothing tied into the render.

Local work

On the ropes on the Gold Coast

Most of our Gold Coast work is painting and facade maintenance rather than cleaning alone. Beachfront render and balcony ledges need recoating on a shorter cycle than anything in Brisbane, and doing it from ropes means no scaffold on a building that has guests in it.

We run Gold Coast jobs as blocks rather than day trips, so a building gets a crew for a week at a time. If yours is near another we are already booked on, the dates and the setup cost both get easier.