From Dull to Dazzling

Ugly brick veneer and borer-riddled, mismatched timber weatherboards plagued the lives of these young homeowners. But then Linea™ Weatherboard came to the rescue.

"When we bought the house, it was clad in false brick sheeting over timber weatherboards," says Andrew. "The brick veneer looked very unappealing. The finish was dull and dirty and it didn't suit the style of the house. Brick sheeting was quite popular at one stage, but I was never comfortable having it over an original weatherboard home, so we couldn't wait to pull it off and reveal the weatherboards underneath."
As a graduate architect, Andrew could visualize the modern look and sharp clean lines the weatherboards would give to their 1950s, three-bedroom home on Auckland's North Shore.

However, what they found wasn't exactly what they they'd hoped. The original timber weatherboards beneath were in a very rough condition. Andrew and Phillippa knew it would require a great deal of time, effort and money to bring them up to standard."Some of the boards had borer and were rotten," says Andrew. "Also, a previous owner had done some extensions to the house and the newer boards didn't line up with the original ones and were of different sizes."

Recladding their home would have been the ideal solution, but financially this option was out of the young couple's reach, so they had no choice but to continue the painstaking process of restoring the home's exterior.

Through his design work at an Auckland architectural practice, Andrew was well aware of the benefits of a product such as Linea™ Weatherboard.
"From a practical point of view, Linea™ was a great material to use. It gave us the weatherboard look we'd wanted, which was more in line with the original style of the home, but without the maintenance and durability hassles of timber weatherboards. We plan to be here for another five years or so and it's really great to know we don't need to worry about ongoing maintenance to the exterior cladding."

Andrew and Phillippa chose to paint the Linea™ Weatherboard in Dulux X10 White Island, with Dulux White gloss on the window frames.
"It looks fantastic and is definitely what we had visualized. We are extremely pleased with the final look and the boxed corners look excellent - they really finish it off."

With the reclad now complete and the couple delighted with the result, they're turning their attention to finishing off the bedrooms and bathroom, and landscaping the garden.

PRODUCTS USED

Linea Weatherboard by James Hardie