More Permanent Materials For House Exteriors

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31764, 22 August 1968, Page 13

More Permanent Materials For House Exteriors

External maintenance is one of the biggest recurring costs faced by most home-owners and to many people, particularly pensioners, it can become a worrisome burden.

Most New Zealand houses are still clad in the traditional materials of wooden weatherboard and corrugated iron, which deteriorate quickly without a good protective coat of paint.

Although many modern paints give effective protection for several years, the cost of repainting when it does become necessary is often more than most people can pay for comfortably. And It is unfortunate that the cost is often heaviest for the elderly who cannot economise by doing the work themselves. More and more new houses are now being constructed in permanent mat-

erials—that is those with a built-in resistance to the weather and which require little or no external maintenance.

No Painting And many owners of older houses are taking advantage of the new materials and techniques developed in recent years to cut down their periodic maintenance costs.

They are renewing roofs and exterior walls with materials that either need no painting or that have

long-lasting baked on finishes. It is always well worth while doing this because you not only get a better looking home and save yourself money on future upkeep, but you also add several hundred dollars to the value of your property. There is now a wide variety of permanent or lowmaintenance roofing materials on the market. There are, for instance, several types of tile available, ranging from the ordinary concrete variety to the lighter “decramastic”

and other chip-coated metal tiles.

Tiles are usually more expensive than corrugated iron (partly because of the extra timber needed to support them) but are designed to be completely maintenance-free.

Not sb long ago tiles could not be fitted to a roof with a pitch of less than about 30 degrees, but many modern tiles are suitable for roofs with a pitch as low as 12 degrees.

Other Profiles

If you wish to stick with a metal roof there are now several variations on the traditional wavy iron sheets. Today, galvanised roof sheathing comes in about four Or five different profiles and can be obtained

with a long-lasting bakedon enamel finish. Aluminium roofs have become popular in the last few years because of their excellent insulating properties and because they cannot rust, even if left unpainted.

Exterior weatherboard walls seldom need renewing completely, but when they do you will find a wide choice of materials for recladding your house. If you want your house to retain the “weatherboard look" you will find you are no longer restricted to using wooden boards. These days, the same effect can be obtained by using such varied materials as galvanised iron aluminium, asbestos cement or fibreboard.