Replacing damaged weatherboards

There are some damaged weatherboards in our porch area that are being replaced.

I assumed that the entire length of the weatherboard would be replaced, but no, the joiner is able to just cut out the damaged part, and insert a new part.

I made that sound easy... it's a bit more complicated than that!

First of all, finding matching weatherboards is challenging. Not just getting the right size (as mentioned previously, there are lots of different sizes of rusticated weatherboards). But getting the same depth/contour of the scalloped bit.

The joiner went to 3 different salvage/reclamation yards before finding anything similar.

And even then he had to shave 2mm off the scalloped bit to make it consistent with what's already on our house.

Above: the new weatherboard pieces from the reclamation yard have been screwed into place.

After screwing the new weatherboard pieces into place, the joiner then applied filler to make them look smooth and consistent.

After: Taking this "after" photo was surprisingly difficult, as I couldn't actually spot the joins! Nice workmanship :)

The weatherboards are now undercoated, so that they're ready to be painted.

But there's a bit more work to be done on our porch, bay front and stairs before the painters come.

Above: this is what the wall looks like, minus weatherboards. There's some kind of sacking material between the wood and what's probably the gib board.

The new front steps

The joiner installed the steps yesterday.

The next job is for him to make the surrounds - and while he's here, he's going to do other jobs to tidy up the front entrance.

The steps have been undercoated to help protect them from the rain that's due this weekend.



Above: our new front steps!

Scribers: Part 2 - The Solution

In my previous post I outlined the challenge with scribers - or rather, the lack of scribers.

Our joiner is making scribers to fill these gaps.

A scriber is a long, vertical piece of wood shaped to fit:

Above: A new scriber has been inserted to fill the gap between the vertical wooden post and the weatherboards on the bay front of our villa.

Of course, there is still a tiny tiny gap between the scriber and the weatherboards - making something that fits within fractions of a millimetre isn't possible!

Apparently this will be filled with a product called "No More Gaps" before it's painted.

A quality finish

The joiner's doing an outstanding job of providing a quality finish. He's added a lip to the scriber, which matches the lip on the window frames.

To show the difference, here's the "before" photo, with plain vertical posts:

And here's the "after" photo with the new scribers, complete with lip:

Making and fitting a scriber of this quality isn't a quick job: it's taken the joiner the best part of the day to make one scriber. And the photo above has two scribers in it, so it's going to take a while for him to finish the job I reckon!

The quicker solution

The quicker (and probably cheaper) solution would be to just insert lots of little plugs into each of the gaps.

The pic below from the Bungalow & Villa catalogue shows the plug that they stock for this.

Above: Rusticated weatherboards plus a rusticated weatherboard plug - from Bungalow & Villa.

Image Credit: Bungalow and Villa.

When I was browsing the Bungalow & Villa catalogue, I learnt that the weatherboards on our house are called "Rusticated Weatherboards". I'd been calling them "scalloped"... oops, wrong!

Other styles of weatherboard include "Bevelback" and "Shiplap".

You learn something new every day huh! Especially when you're renovating an old house :)

Scribers: Part 1 - The Problem

I had noooo idea what scribers were till about a week ago.

Let me show you...

Below: See the gap between the wooden frame and the weatherboards? Well, there shouldn't be a gap.
It should look like the pic below:


Much neater, huh!

That's because the long, vertical piece of wood connecting with the weatherboards is a scriber. It's shaped to fit the weatherboards.

To improvise, instead of using scribers, a previous owner of our house filled some of the gaps (very roughly) with filler... it looks terrible:


Some (or maybe even all) of these gaps are going to be addressed with the work that's going on at the front of our house at present.

Read Part 2 on Scribers here.

Adding new villa fretwork

Our villa was built in quite a plain style - it doesn't have the fancy fretwork that many other houses of this era possess.

So while we're sprucing up the front, we're going to add a few bits and pieces to give it a bit more character, and make it look more "villa-ey". It should give our house a bit more street appeal.

Above: The exterior of our villa is quite plain at present.

I did a good amount of research as to what I wanted; a bit of the research was online, but most of it was done by walking round the area with Mr Kiwi (and our dog) to see what we liked and didn't like.

We decided that we wanted to add a little bit of character, but not go overboard: we don't want the house looking too twee and frilly.

As the builders are now hard at work, I made haste to Bungalow and Villa in Morningside.

Even though they sell everything online now, I wanted to see the items for real before purchasing.

I was expecting a small shop, but it turned out to be huge showroom and workshop! They have just about everything you need for renovating a period home.

I bought:

• Large brackets x 4 (for the bay front)
• Teardrops x 2 (for the bay front)
• Small brackets x 2 (to go above the doorway)
• Finials x 2 (1 for the bay front; 1 for the garage)

These all come in treated paint quality pine, so our next job is to undercoat them and paint them in white enamel.

Above: The fretwork I purchased from Bungalow & Villa now needs to be undercoated and painted.

When I brought these home and showed Mr Kiwi, he exclaimed "wow, our house is actually going to look like a villa!"

Yesss! I can't wait to see what these will look like when installed onto the front of our house!

Project cost: $$ (materials only)

New wooden steps for our villa

When I first started writing this blog I thought I'd be able to write about each project in a complete article. But I've realised that home renovations don't work in such a neat and orderly manner!

Instead, you start one project which gives you an opportunity to do something else. And in the meantime, quite a few projects are under way till the original project is completed.

Therefore this blog is very much a diary rather than a neat set of articles. If I refer to an ongoing project I'll include links to related posts as much as possible.

So back to the subject of steps.

I've previously mentioned that the wooden steps leading to our front door are rather rotten. Well, they haven't improved over time!

Above: our poor front steps have seen better days! It's not just aesthetic: the wooden boards are actually rotten, and supported underneath by concrete blocks.

Above: Even the strategically placed flower pots struggled to disguise the state of our front steps!

Mr Kiwi has arranged for a builder friend to rebuild the steps. And that work started last week.

The stairs have been removed, and a new set is being manufactured off site.

In the meantime, we have a big gaping hole at the front of our house!

Above: The dog is having a great time watching the builders (she loves power tools etc.)

While the front steps are being replaced, we're also taking the opportunity to re-vamp the front of the house slightly.

Some of the weatherboards need replacing; and the joinery on the bay front tidied up. And as our villa doesn't have much fretwork or other details that villas of this era usually do, we'll be adding some.

Plus, we don't like the current colour scheme, so will be painting the front of the house in different colours. (Painting the rest of the house is a future project - it's a big job, and the front of the house is the priority at this stage!)

More on all of that will be posted here at a later date.

A gallery of villas

Choosing a look for your villa

Someone suggested that before committing to any exterior work that we should have a look around suburbs where there are lots of villas to get some ideas and inspiration.

So off we went, with camera in hand to record the ideas for a "look book".

The first thing we noticed was how many different styles of villa there are! Just finding single bay fronted villas which resemble ours was trickier than we first thought.

To supplement this legwork, looking through online real estate listings or magazines (especially the Property Press) can help too.

It's certainly helped to identify some definite likes and dislikes, though I suspect there's a lot more research ahead while we renovate!

Here are some pics I found online: