Renovation Questions

Hi All,

Another long time reader, first time poster.

I own a 1910 weatherboard house in Adelaide, which has been guttered since I bought it due to one thing leading to another. Since there is not much left to demolish, I am now looking at starting the rebuiling phase.

Question 1 : I am looking at recladding the external walls and getting a new colourbond roof. Which should be done first? Bottom up, or top down?

Question 2 : What do you guys/girls recommend for the recladding? I looked at blue board/render initially, then went to Hardies Linea Weatherboards and am now looking at Weathertex. Can anyone help me narrow that down or even throw some new ideas around?

Question 3 : Being almost 100 years old, the stud work for the external walls isn't exactly straight and the width of the studs isn't exactly even (varies between 65mm and 95mm). What the best way to fix this (knowing that it's never going to be perfect)?

Question 4 : There are no noggins in any of the framing. Should noggins be added? Are the external weatherboards the only thing holding the house square?

I have lots more questions, but I think this will do for starters. Look forward to the responses.

Cheers,

Rodney

1. If you were building from scratch, you'd normally put the roof on first.

2. I'd go with Linea. It's a better product than Weathertex in my opinion. Weathertex is basically a type of masonite and so it's not flame proof. I think Linea would look good on that house. If you want something cheaper with a similar look, you could go for Primeline, but it is much thinner and your wobbly studs will show up lot more.

3. Use a plane to cut back the lumps and fix packers to fill the hollows. Use a string line and/or straightedge to check the walls in both directions.

4. The third photo shows a diagonal brace. This is what's holding the frame square. The noggings are only there to hold the studs apart, you probably don't need them. You're not likely to get a lot of movement in that frame now...

Rodney, I'm not a qualified builder, not even a builder but heres my two bobs worth.
1. Do the roof first.
2. keep as close as you can to the original cladding, if you cant afford timber save up.
3. Dont worry about the stud spacings as you said they have done ok for 100 years. If you are gyprocking the internals pack the sheets out so they are true.
4. check to see if there is braceing on the walls if not cut some speed bracing in, this is more important than noggins (is it hardwood studs). If you want to, put some noggins in whilst you have it exposed. Do all your plumbing and electrical rough ins before you put up the new linnings.

I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong.;)

Cheers guys for the quick responses.

Yeah they're hard wood studs, Some have a bit of dry rott, but most are in pretty good condition. they seem to have used all the 90mm studs for the internal walls and whatever was left over for the external walls.

Bleedin Thumb, yeah I was thinking that about the cladding too (keeping it as close to original as possible), which is why I was keen on the Hardie's Linea Weatherboards (16mm fibre cement t&g weatherboards).

Yeah, I will be gyrocking the internals walls so more studs need to be added in the corners of every room to support the gyprock joins.

It looks like the little cottages they had in Rosewater, Norwood etc that previous owners foolishly put those bloody awful metal tiles on and guttering that didnt match the era.

Good luck, you sure have taken on a huge task.

Very Close, the house is in Semaphore Park, just down the road from Rosewater.

Yeah it had the typical early 80's reno with the metal roof tiles, fake brick cladding, shag pile carpet and shocking wall paper! I will be attempting to get it back to something that ressembles orignal (inside and out).

It has turned into a massive task. :(

Im actuall looking into cladding myself at the moment.. So far leading the bunch is Hardiplank:

http://www.jameshardie.com.au/Produc...PlankCladding/


Cheers
Joel

Joel,

You should look at Primeline. It's a step up from Hardiplank, trust me. I've used both.

hi mate - very cute little cottage! Personally, I'd do all I can to retain the blockfront as it will come up a treat once repaired and painted nicely. Are those vinyl weatherboards or timber I see down the side? If timber, why not repair/restore them? If vinyl/aluminium, lose the buggers! Have you thought of stone cladding the front? I know a lot of homes in SA have done this and when done nicely, looks brilliant - you have the advantage of owning an original, so the proportions are perfect for it......... I can just imagine that porthole in the gable end with nice keystone facings around it. A lot of money I know, but it may not be much more than the alternatives (except restoring the existing blockfront)

looking forward to seeing more on this one!

have fun

on more thing - depending on your budget, you 'could' leave that roof on for now as it seems to be sound..... perhaps it could be the final thing you do....? just a suggestion.

looks like you hve got no bottom plate only a bed plate that the joists sit on. So you would need to put a row of noggins along floor. I would put a row at half hieght as well. Ties the studs together so that any side loading is spread over 3 studs. Also best to get the noggins in before the wiring as always easyer too drill thru. I would also look hard at repairing and patching the existing bullnose weatherboards. Linea need a very straight wall because they have a sharp corner and any wobble, especially at eye hieght shows up badly.

I have used Linea on my house, they look great and dont rot last
and I found they are easy enough to cut and my house was as old as yours.
Plan well because they are so thick you need to allow for the thickness aroun windows to flash off with architraves. All the corners you can get corner aluminium and paint.

what is you original cladding wood or plastic?

Have a look at Austec Pallasade, it's a 6mm thick vinyl siding, 25yr guarantee, never needs painting etc. Using it on some villas in the bush, good product and very straight forward to fit. The kids footballs and cricket balls just bounce off it!

Thanks for all your replies.

The existing (orignal) cladding is all timber. We are looking into keeping the existing block cladding on the front (as we know of a friend of a friend who is demolishing a house with the same cladding which we might be able to score cheaply). We need a few additional lengths to be able to replace rotted sections.

The timber weatherboards are basically ok, except for about 6 iches from every corner where they are rotted from lack of maintenance. It would be a pain staking job to repair them. I am looking at removing them and re-using them around the back of the house.

At the moment, our plan is to leave the roof as is. It is pretty sound and doesn't leak, so it will most likely get replaced later on when we do the extension, and patch into the extisting roof line.

The scariest part of the recladding looks to be the straightening of the 100 year old stud walls and replacement of the rotted base plates/bed plates. We are still looking at using Linea Weatherboards as they are as close to the oringinal as possible (keeping the character), without the maintenance needs of using timber.

hi again - if your mate's demo'ing a weatherboard house, maybe get his WB's as well as I am told you will go a long way to find better boards, even if theyre crook in parts. I guess they'd need a decent sanding but it may be worth it as they could have 50+ years of good finish on them that would work as undercoat..... others may disagree but when I did up my Calif. Bungalow I recall the painter saying this to me and after 9 years when I sold the place, the paint remained pretty fresh..... also, make sure you measure the block front material as they came in an array of sizes..... and let me know how much you have as I need some too! :D:D:D:D:D - mine is 243 mm high by 740mm long - my neighbour's is 230 high by 720 mm long ......... finally, it may pay you to ask around about how hard it is to repair the boards that are already there - it may work out easier than removing them and refitting others ..... many of the lower boards along the north side of our place are buggered as we had Agapanthus (?) plants all along and they have destroyed the boards. I wanted to remove/replace but this wouldve taken days and cost us around $170 - the bog was $44 and done in a day and a half, including sanding and painting..... just a thought

dont use Builders Bog ,KaFill ,Plaastibond or other polyester based fillers outside. The look good till the boards get damp and then as the boards swell the bog lets go. Then the bog keeps the timber damp and accelerates rot.
Use epoxy bog or splice in new timber.
Mark my words

got any brand names?