Heritage barge repair — Camberwell and the eastern suburbs
Barge boards and gable ends are where a period house rots first. They're high, they're exposed, and on a Camberwell gable they're usually a moulded profile nobody stocks. The common outcome is a builder quoting the whole gable, or a handyman screwing on a plain board that's visibly wrong from the street.
What I do instead is cut back to sound timber, take the profile off the surviving section, and run new stock to match it. Where the decorative end is intact I template it. The join is scarfed and set up for paint, so once the painter has been through you can't pick where the repair starts.
Federation fretwork restoration — Camberwell and the eastern suburbs
Verandah fretwork, brackets and frieze panels go the same way: one or two elements rot or get broken, and the run stops making sense. Because Federation fretwork was cut to a pattern, a missing piece can be reproduced from an existing one — I template off a surviving bracket and cut replacements to match, rather than substituting the nearest thing from a timber yard catalogue.
If the whole run is gone and there's nothing left to copy, say so early. That's a design job, not a repair, and it needs someone who can source the original pattern.
Weatherboard and gable repair — Balwyn
Weatherboard, sill and verandah post repair on Balwyn's period stock is mostly about stopping at the right place. Boards get cut back to the stud, replaced in the matching profile — rusticated, chamfered or splayed as the house requires — and scarfed so the joins don't line up in a row.
Verandah posts and the framing behind them usually rot at the base where they meet the deck. Where the post is decorative and only the bottom has gone, the base can be spliced rather than the whole post replaced, which keeps the original turning.
What I don't do
This is repair and reproduction of individual timber elements. It is not registered heritage restoration, and I'm not a heritage consultant. I don't take work that needs a building permit or a heritage-overlay permit — if your council requires one, that's a conversation with them and usually a registered builder before anyone touches the timber.
No structural work, no re-roofing, no painting. All work stays under Victoria's $10,000 threshold. I'll tell you at the quote if a job is past that line rather than after.
Working with architects and painters
If you're a heritage architect with a schedule of timber repairs, send it and you'll get it back priced line by line. If you're a painter who's opened up a gable and found rot behind it, that's a call I'd rather get early — it's cheaper to repair before the scaffold comes down than after.
Who you're dealing with
Common questions
Will the repair match the original profile?
That's the point of it. I take the profile off the surviving timber and run new stock to match, rather than fitting the closest thing off the shelf. Once it's painted you shouldn't be able to pick where the repair starts.
My house is in a heritage overlay. Can you work on it?
For repair and like-for-like reproduction of timber elements, usually yes. If your council requires a permit for the work, I don't take it — that needs the council and generally a registered builder first. I'll tell you which side of the line your job sits on at the quote.
Is this a job that's too small for you?
Almost certainly not. Small period timber repairs are the whole reason this page exists — they're the jobs larger heritage builders won't mobilise for, and they're what I'm set up to do.
Do you work with heritage architects?
Yes. Send a schedule of timber repairs and it comes back priced line by line. Painters are welcome to call too — if you've opened up a gable and found rot, it's cheaper to fix before the scaffold comes down.