# Forum Home Renovation Cladding  weatherboard replacement on 1950s Melbourne house

## hurunui

Hi all,
My husband and I have a 1950s weatherboard home in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. The previous owners let it get quite run down, so there are plenty of renovation projects ahead.
Our immediate plans are to deal with the external walls. The weatherboards are rotting and very run down in places, so we need to replace about half the house with new boards. We may be able to re-use the other half. A couple of windows (double hung sash) are pretty rotten and should also be replaced. Having the boards off also provides an opportunity to add insulation into the external walls. 
Quite the challenge ahead! On the plus side, looking at other posts on the forum, it seems like it is doable!  :Biggrin:  
Being newbies to this type of activity, we have oodles of questions. But, to start, I wonder whether we could draw on the collective experience of the forum to find out about**: *
Primed/unprimed new weatherboards*. We are getting mixed feedback on the best option. Various sources have told us that the primer tends to be of low quality, and will actually cause paint to peel away from the surface of the boards over time and getting unprimed boards and doing the priming ourselves would improve the quality and longevity of the surface. But, with external paints being pretty good (and many with 10+ yr guarantees), is this an issue?  *Effort to prepare boards* we can recycle from the existing house. I'm pretty confident to say that sanding and other preparation work is time consuming! What I'm not sure about is the relative time/effort/investment in attempting to salvage some of the current boards compared to just replacing new boards over the entire house. Is it ridiculous to consider cherry picking the decent boards from the current house and attempting to reuse them? Baring in mind our plans to put insulation into the walls, all boards will need to come off the house anyway. 
We have done some preliminary research to compare boards from different timber outlets, but any recommendations of good suppliers would be most welcome - I'd like to make sure we do it properly so we dont have to repeat the process anytime soon. 
We plan to take some time off during March to get stuck into this in earnest - so any info that we should consider in planning this, or tips for getting into the action, will be greatly appreciated! 
Thanks in advance.

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## shauck

If it were me, I would be reluctant to re-use old boards with new. It would take a lot of prep to get the old boards to match the new. Of course it depends on the condition of them but if you're going to the effort that you describe, the cost of boards are pretty cheap. I just did my house front, side and rear (In the section titled Go to Whoa, thread titled - 1890s Miners Cottage). Including weatherboards (pre-primed), weatherboard stops, occasional timber to replace studs that needed it, some bracing ply where needed, new hardwood architraves, new hardwood flyscreens (made them), new eaves and fascia, all paint and roller covers, etc. Just over $2,000 in materials. I paid $2.55 lineal M for the boards but could have gotten them cheaper if I lived closer to Melbourne.  
Don't be thinking pre-primed means you can just paint right over them with two top coats. You would first cut them and use a primer/sealer/undercoat on all cut surfaces. Then install them. Then punch and putty all nail holes and knots and imperfections. Then light sand that back. Then remove all dust and light damp cloth to be sure. Seal the ends with choice of product. Then primer/sealer/undercoat the whole lot. Then at least two top coats.  
I would still buy pre-primed as they are given some protection before all these steps can and likely will get rained on.  
You may also need scaffolding. Much better to work at heights than on ladders. 
It's very satisfying, hope you enjoy the process.

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## grantbudd

do u live in the house??? If not what about removing the internal walls?? You can still insulate and it could cost you less to do so? That way you can inspect the boards without removing them. 
We have no walls right now and I too have weatherboards but they are a chamfer hardwood board so not too easy to find but there are people out there who have them and in Melb you have more options than I do with a 300KM round trip to Bris from Noosa. 
You can sometimes get them secondhand so look at that option too. Try salavge yards etc. Yes it could be easier to replace the lot but id be doubtful to the longevity of pine boards?? QLD weather very harsh so hardwood only for me. 
Primed? I just replaced 2 rotten areas of roofing with treated pine $100 that was primed and its a very very thin layer of paint although its treated I still used an oil based (6hr dry time) undercoat (2 layers) to be sure on all surfaces exposed to the elements. I will top coat with 2-3 layers of weathershield. 
read the post about 80yr old weatherboards  :Redface: ) 
Oh if you do  pull off the walls be sure you have no asbestos first  :Redface: ) Thats why I have no walls or ceilings or eves right now! At least I have a new roof over my head ;-)

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## hurunui

Thanks for the replies guys! 
Shauck, thanks for the info and direction to your Go to Woah thread. There is heaps of insight in there, from you and others. Inspirational! I plan to keep up with the threads in there as we have grand plans for our place- they are just on the long term list at the moment.
grantbudd-yep, living in it. Inside walls were done not long ago. Unfortunately at the time we thought that things were in better nick than appears to be the case, and we repaired rather than replaced plaster work. In hindsight... Despite that, many weatherboards are past their prime and need replacing, so most of the exterior wall will be exposed. Have recruited our fathers/father in law to get involved so hope that we can knock it off before the weather turns sour.

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## DavidAinge

> Thanks for the replies guys! 
> Shauck, thanks for the info and direction to your Go to Woah thread. There is heaps of insight in there, from you and others. Inspirational! I plan to keep up with the threads in there as we have grand plans for our place- they are just on the long term list at the moment.
> grantbudd-yep, living in it. Inside walls were done not long ago. Unfortunately at the time we thought that things were in better nick than appears to be the case, and we repaired rather than replaced plaster work. In hindsight... Despite that, many weatherboards are past their prime and need replacing, so most of the exterior wall will be exposed. Have recruited our fathers/father in law to get involved so hope that we can knock it off before the weather turns sour.

  I have just finished building my home near Cairns in Far North Queensland, and I used timber cladding on a steel frame. The timber is Darwin Stringybark which is a long-lasting hardwood. Not the only timber you could use, of course, but it is not worth doing all that work with a timber that won't last. I sealed my boards on the back as well as the front to avoid them curving over time due to moisture getting into the unsealed backs, and also sealed the ends. It is critical to use a string line when attaching them because people walking around the house can look along them and even the smallest curve will look terrible. I worked alone most of the time and I made a simple "third hand" to hold the longer boards while I was screwing them. 
David Ainge
HowIBuiltMyOwnHome.com

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## ChocDog

hurunui, how'd you go? I've got to do the same soon, so am curious what product you ended using and who you used to supply? 
Cheers.

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## hurunui

> hurunui, how'd you go? I've got to do the same soon, so am curious what product you ended using and who you used to supply? 
> Cheers.

  
Chocdog, thanks for reminding me to get back to this thread and post about our work.  
We used primed pine boards (round nose) which we sourced from timber supply place on mahoneys rd campbelfield. Think we would have had about 700 lineal meters delivered over the past few months at just under $3/m. We also bought all our stops, quad, architraves, and bottom plinth boards from this place. We had shopped around to end up at these guys, looking at various places across Richmond, Clifton hill, coburg etc, to consider board quality, primed/not primed, price, and helpfulness of staff. This place came out on top as far as we were concerned and have continued to be helpful every time we revisit and order more timber products. 
in terms of the process, we managed to strip the whole house, install vapour barrier and wall cavity insulation and sisilation, install 1new window, reclad weatherboards and paint ( undercoat plus two top coats) in two weeks. This happened back in march ( during the epic heat which didn't suit the kiwi father in law much) at which time we had four people full time. Since then it's been a much slower process over weekends to install new window trims & paint, prep & paint gutters & eaves, remove and replace bottom plinth boards (which included discoveries that some of our gutters drain to the ground under the house and that some of our stumps were rotten through and simply dangling in the wind). We are now approaching the end -hopefully!  
I notice your other thread on nail guns for weatherboarding. In advance of starting our project we had decided to hand nail as had read somewhere about the guns sometimes damaging boards. However, I can confirm that there were many conversations during our Reno about whether this was a wise decision. Some of the hardwood frame was so hard that nails continually bent and had to be removed. We did buy a decent drill bit to help the process (long one, to minimise the hammering) but it still was a time consuming and frustrating process in parts. In hindsight, I'm not sure what decision I would have made - a tricky compromise between time & effort and 'quality' (which i agree may be perceived not real). That said, I managed to escape much of the hammering, so one of my helpers may have a much stronger opinion!

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## Cecile

Hi, and welcome to the forum.  Thanks for the great post on recladding.   Can you let us know who your supplier was?  Your price from them is  about $2 per metre cheaper than anyone in Geelong.  Also what kind of  vapour barrier did you use? 
We have the same issue as you with regard to the hardwood frame.  Last  time we did any work Ted broke three drill bits trying to drill pilot  holes for the nails, which STILL bent!  Sometimes it's easier to use all  new wood. 
Looking forward to the photos of the inside of your house, too. 
Cecile and Ted (Moondog)

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## shauck

> Hi, and welcome to the forum.  Thanks for the great post on recladding.   Can you let us know who your supplier was?  Your price from them is  about $2 per metre cheaper than anyone in Geelong.  Also what kind of  vapour barrier did you use? 
> We have the same issue as you with regard to the hardwood frame.  Last  time we did any work Ted broke three drill bits trying to drill pilot  holes for the nails, which STILL bent!  Sometimes it's easier to use all  new wood. 
> Looking forward to the photos of the inside of your house, too. 
> Cecile and Ted (Moondog)

  Hi Cecile. 
I've attached a link to another Melb supplier that has great price on WBs.   Primed Weatherboards 175mm S E $2 30MT Baltic Timber Pine Cladding WBS Melb | eBay 
I've bought from them before and they were fine. They have a lot of stuff so tying in with other materials, it can be worth the trip.  
I've even bought from local hardware at $2.90 (that's 25% off with trade discount) which may have been a bit more but when you consider travel/pick up and being able to easily return the odd bad board or unused board, is comparable in the end.

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## ChocDog

Thats great info, hurunui. I know the place having bought joists and other stuff from them. Might wander by soon and check them out for weatherboards. 
And cheers for the info about how you went about it. The timber in our place is damn hard so will probably go with a t-nailer and revert to the 'ol hammer and nail if problems arise. 
cheers.

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## spearfish

don't know if you've replaced anything yet. but I went through the same dilema a few months ago.
We ended up going with a product called James Hardie Scyon - Matrix
Basically pre-primed cement sheets with a 10mm gap between boards.
Wasn't too hard to put on, just need a 1st and 2nd fix nail gun and plenty of silicon/sealer. Awesome thermal properties so far for us (coastal metro Adelaide). We have the cladding, vapour barrier, R2.7 batts in the walls plus timber lined interior walls and it's very comfortable inside. 
I installed most of the panels myself using a portable scaffold, but it's quite easy to do a single story place by yourself. 
I don't work for James Hardie  Scyon - Scyon Matrix Cladding

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