Villa Construction & Maintenance
- construction almost entirely of timber
- one or two bay windows that face the street
- double hung sash sliding windows
- a veranda – often with fretwork decoration
- a piled subfloor
- internal brick fireplaces and chimneys
- hipped roof, typically 30–45o slope – sometimes with an internal gutter
- corrugated iron roof cladding
- rusticated weatherboard wall cladding – very early villas had overlapping boards
- facing boards to external corners and windows
- no insulation when built
- a high stud height – typically 3–3.6 metres
- air-leaky construction, leading to draughts and heat loss
- no mechanical ventilation in bathrooms or kitchens
- originally lined with scrim (sacking) and wallpaper over close butted boarding
- bathrooms added as a lean-to at the back of the house
- timber floorboards
MAINTENANCE FOR VILLAS
Regular maintenance required on villas includes:
- cleaning, checking and repainting the external cladding, which is most likely to be timber weatherboard. See the guide for external wall maintenance
- cleaning and checking the roof cladding, and recoating if necessary. See the guide for roof maintenance
- ensuring gutters and downpipes are kept clear of leaves and other debris. If necessary, prune back any tree branches that grow over the house
- checking that the subfloor space is dry and well-ventilated. See the guide for subfloor maintenance.
