The eight-building complex in Blackall Street will be painted twice - covering 15,000 square metres two times - by the end of May.

Sydney firm CPR Painting won the tender for the work, believed to be the first time the unusual method has been used in Canberra.

The painters use an electrical motor and boson's chair to raise the painters who can also abseil up and down the building.

Landmark chairman Jane Godtschalk said a major advantage was that the complex's extensive gardens would not be damaged as they otherwise might have been with scaffolding.

"As this system has never before been used in Canberra, Landmark's executive carefully evaluated every aspect of CPR's operation and they ticked all the boxes," she said.

It also meant when the painters were not working there would be few signs of the undertaking and less noise for the residents of the 282 apartments. Landmark spokesman Jack Evans said the job was costing just under $900,000, with other companies tendering for the work putting scaffolding costs at $750,000 alone.

Raine and Horne facilities manager Richard Rapson, who helped negotiate the tender with the executive, said the residents had reacted well to the new maintenance work and the way it was being done.

"Usually when we do major work, people speak up, but we haven't had any major complaints," he said.

Landmark's garden committee heard Virginia Berger said more than 60 per cent of the grounds was devoted to the gardens and it was "essential that the repainting did as little damage as possible".

"Our trepidation about the inevitable damage that scaffolding would do to our beautiful environment was something no resident wanted to contemplate. CPR is working closely with our gardener to leave as tiny a lasting footprint as they possibly can, something which we all appreciate," she said.

The executive's secretary Andy Gregory said the buildings, the oldest of which was 14 years old, had not been pressure cleaned or painted since they were constructed.

"What these guys are able to do is amazing," he said.

"This is a really efficient way to address a big job."

The Canberra Times photographer Jay Cronan captured the work by going up a wall himself.

He hung on the wall taking photographs of Stefano Dubbiosi,who also trains the painters and is a keen yachtie, usually hanging off a mast.

CPR boss Mark Smith said a team of 18 tradesmen were working on the building, an additional eight coming in from Sydney where it was too wet to work.