I've been looking at a few older houses to renovate recently and found a lot of them have these wooden boards instead of gyprock. Lets say I hated that look and wanted to replace them with actual gyprock, is it as easy as just ripping them off the wall and replacing it with seomthing else?
Another thing thats bugging me is the wooden strip on wall of these old houses. What function do they serve? Is it just to hold the two piece gyprock together or something far more important? If I wanted to, could I just rip off these wooden strips and plaster over it to give it a smooth surface?
One last thing – the old style fancy cornice (is that what it's called??) Are they easily removed and replaced with the more modern clean looking ones?
Thanks
James
If the wooden boards you refer to are vertical joint boards, then they are a character feature that people pay money for.
If it is wooden cover strips over large flat rectangles than it is probably asbestos.
What area are the houses in, that will make a difference with value
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Hi James,
For your first question, Don't rip the boards off you will open a can of worms. I'm guessing they are vertical ship-lap boards or panels. Best to make sure they are firmly nailed on then clad over the top with gyprock .
Not sure what you mean by wooden strips, if they are running horizontal about 1 metre above the floor then that is a "Dado Rail", common in older homes used to separate the different material , panels below / plaster above. They can be removed
I would not remove the cornice and replace it for a smaller modern one, sometimes what you find is the ceiling fixers left the plaster sheets short and you will have to patch up the ceiling so the new cornice can cover it..
you need to think about what you are trying to achieve .
You can't turn an old home into a modern one. If you are doing this to on sell, then you are heading in the wrong direction.
If it going to be your PPOR then fine if that's what you want.Good Luck
Hi James,
You could possibly be spending money to lose it! People pay for character homes (depending on the suburb). If the cornices etc are in good condition, don't pull them out!!! With the timber you may also be talking about a picture rail? About 3/4 of the way up the wall and this is a character feature as well! What suburb are you in and do you know the age of the house?
Kate
I am in agreement; those older homes with cheap looking wooden panels for walls… YUCK!
What's 'Blue Board' – is this a type of gyprock? I remember dad talking about it being only a few mm thick and just going straight over existing walls. In my PPOR I have old walls (late 1800s) which were a pain in the arse to gyprock, then sand bank then they still had flaws, (I call them character bumps). – but yea, do the world a favour and get rid of some of those ugly walls!!
Sounds to me like you're talking bout a picture rail going around the wall. If you're boarding over the top of it, well, wouldn't you have no choice but to take it down? To me, the ugliness of the wooden walls needs to go, no picture rail is redeeming enough to warrant them!!
Blue board is a type of compressed cement sheeting. Usually waterproof/ water resistant and used externally on houses for pillars, boxing up fences, bulkheads, putting on before rendering etc.
Theres also villa board, hardiflex, etc. most are brand names whilst they are essentially the same product some have higher levels of water, mould and strength resistance.
The old style Cornicing is prob cement plaster moulds usually nailed/glued on with plaster cement. If you have the plaster with fibers in it you can just start at one end and pull. Might have to use a crowbar or two everyone and then
Unless its a real old hertitage home and then they will be solid molds hand pulled and that would not be fun to remove and you prob shouldn't as they are feature style in old homes
Re the wooden strips, do you mean the joining strips on a fibro wall?
Hi, I'd get rid of the timber if it's that cheap stuff that's nailed/glued on. Just re gyprock the wall behind. If it's nice proper timber you can stain or paint it. From the sound of the house it's the cheap stuck on stuff.
The strips between the sheets of (not gyprock) is just to join them. I think it would be more trouble trying to patch over it. I would rip it out and regyprock this also. In doing this the cornice will come down too so in effect you would gyprock the whole room.
If you strip it yourself it's not as expensive as you might think. Then your house looks brand new. Patching will look like patching.
I just came across a few houses I was looking at that had these features. One of them was a period specific house, the other one was a bit of a mix, definitely not heritage house just a very old plain house. Just scoping out renovation possibilities for these houses and learn something about it as I hadn't really considered reno these before.
Hi James,
I know exactly what you're talking about! My house has the exact same walls and strips.
Originally I did just rip of the strips in one of the bedrooms (my trial renovation room) and plastered the gap.
After a couple of weeks it all started to crack. I was then later told that because the walls are some sort of timber board that it expands and contracts with the heat/cold (maybe why they use strips and leave a gap).
In the end with the walls in all the bedrooms I just ripped off all the ugly 'square' shape strips and replaced them with a much nicer looking half circle style, and repainted. This made a huge difference in my opinion, but my strips were below average to start with, not sure what yours are like.
My ceiling was the same, ugly timber strips. I ripped out all those strips to give me a flat but ugly ceiling, and then put a heap of top hat over the existing ceiling and then new plasterboard sheets on that. As for cornice, mine only had a strip of timber so my new cornice just went straight over the top of it. Added a new fan and light and painted the room and now looks great. Compared to what it was anyway.
I did just do an electrical job for someone on the weekend though that has completely ripped out all the ceiling and walls (same material) and getting all new plasterboard installed.
Depends how much you want to spend I guess.
Keep us updated.
Cheers,
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