Plastering and Gyprocking in Merewether
Merewether runs three kilometres from the ocean baths west to Glebe Road, and it is three different jobs along the way. The beach end is flats and cottages, the ridge at Merewether Heights is large houses on steep blocks, and The Junction is Federation terraces. We work in all three, sheeting new rooms, setting them and repairing what is already there. What is behind the wall changes more here than in any suburb we work in.
Common plasterboard problems in Merewether
A suburb built continuously since the 1850s on ground that was still being mined in 1954 hands us a particular set of problems. These five turn up more than the rest.
There is often solid brick behind the lining rather than studs
Joseph Bowtell opened a brickyard here in 1866 and by 1877 seven brickworks were operating in the area. A great deal of the older housing was built from that brick. The wall you want lined then has no timber frame in it at all. Board cannot simply be screwed to masonry. It is furred out, packed to a plane and fixed with masonry anchors. The wall also has to be read for damp before any of that happens. It is slower than sheeting a stud wall and it is a different price. We would rather find it at the quote than on the day.
A gloss or dark paint calls for a Level 5, whatever the light does
Most people know a finish level as a lighting question. The standard has a second trigger that gets missed. Where gloss or semi gloss paint is specified, Level 5 is called for regardless of how the room is lit. Gloss reflects the surface rather than sitting on it, so every joint, fastener and trowel mark reads through. That decision belongs with the colour, not with the plastering. Tell us the paint and the sheen before we price the finish and you will not be resanding a wall to fix a paint choice.
There was still coal coming out from under this suburb in 1954
Mines were opened across the Burwood Estate in the 1850s. The colliery railway ran from The Junction past Merewether Beach through the first two railway tunnels built in Australia, in 1861 and 1862. What is unusual is the finish date. Hillside Extended, Glebe End and Glebe Main did not close until August 1954, which is within living memory rather than a century ago. Both suburbs sit inside the Newcastle mine subsidence district. A crack that keeps returning here has a candidate cause worth ruling in or out first.
The Morgan Selwyn floodway is built to a one in ten year event
Council classifies that floodway a high hazard flood precinct. A one in ten year interval is far shorter than the one in a hundred year framing most flood talk uses. The Water Research Laboratory at the University of New South Wales assessed it. Above a one in ten year flood, properties there could be significantly damaged. There is no funded structural fix and Council runs a flash flood alert service instead. Where a lining in that precinct has been wet before, it comes out to a framing line. The wall is metered dry before anything goes back.
The Junction and Merewether Heights are opposite access problems
Roughly a third of The Junction is terrace housing on an old street grid, with narrow frontages and little room down the side. A long sheet has nowhere to turn. Merewether Heights is the reverse. Almost entirely detached, but on steep elevated blocks off ridge streets and Scenic Drive, where the trouble is getting board up rather than around. Both end in the same conversation about sheet length. Send a photograph of the front of the building and the way in, and we will work out what board the job can take.
Why Merewether properties choose Newcastle Gyprocker Heroes
We sheet, set and sand plasterboard across Merewether and the rest of the City of Newcastle, on new houses, renovations and repairs. Every job here is priced before it starts, whether it is one damaged wall or a whole house of new work.
How our plastering and gyprocking service works in Merewether
Send photographs of a repair, or the floor plans for a new house or renovation, and we price the work from those. A site visit happens where the job needs one, and it costs nothing. Once the quote is accepted we agree a start date that suits your builder's program or your own. Nothing is ordered until that date is set.
On the day we sheet the ceilings first and the walls after, so each wall sheet picks up the ceiling line. We sheet rather than frame, so the studs, ceiling battens and furring channel are set out by your builder or carpenter before we arrive. Clear the room where you can and we work around what has to stay. Walls and ceilings are left set, sanded and ready for the painter, and a repair patch stays visible until it is painted.
We come in off Glebe Road at the Adamstown end, down Union Street for The Junction and along the beach road for the ocean end. Scenic Drive and the ridge streets are where the going gets slow. A steep driveway decides how board is carried more firmly than anything else on the job. Glenrock State Conservation Area runs along the southern and western edge. It is worth mentioning because it makes some of those streets narrower than they look on a map. Tell us the street and we will know which of the three problems we are dealing with.
Residential plastering in Merewether
Coal built this suburb and brick finished it. Mines opened across the Burwood Estate in the 1850s under the Newcastle Coal and Copper Company. The colliery railway ran out from The Junction, and the brickyards followed from 1866. What that produced is a run of miners' and workers' cottages from the 1860s through to 1900. A strong Federation layer went over the top, then interwar and post war growth, then a good deal of later beachside redevelopment. Merewether Ocean Baths opened in 1935 and remain the largest in the southern hemisphere at 100m x 50m. The Bathers Way runs six kilometres north from there to Nobbys.
The Junction holds the oldest intact piece of it. The Federation cottages at 55 to 75 Glebe Road are a conservation area in their own right. Their period of significance runs only from about 1909 to 1915. Single storey, open verandahs, pyramidal roofs and no garaging at all. Work in housing of that age is relining, cornice repair and making good after something older comes out. The ridge at Merewether Heights is the opposite. Large detached houses on big blocks, where the work is renovation, wide ceilings and rooms built to face the water. The beach end sits between the two and brings flats with it.
Get a free quote in Merewether
Tell us what you need done in Merewether and we will get back to you with a price as soon as we can. There is no obligation to go ahead.
Services we provide in Merewether
New home plasterboard
Renovation plastering
Plasterboard wall repairs
Sagging ceiling repairs
Cornice repairs and installation
Soundproofing plasterboard
Patio ceiling lining
Water damage and wet areas
Suspended ceilings
Bulkhead ceilings
Fire rated walls and ceilings
Commercial plastering
Asbestos in older homes
Suburbs we service in Merewether and surrounds
Merewether sits inside the City of Newcastle, and we work across the suburbs around it as well. The list below names the ones we are asked for most, rather than the limit of where we travel.
Frequently asked questions about plastering in Merewether
Do you cover the suburbs around Merewether?
Yes. Newcastle Gyprocker Heroes covers Merewether and the suburbs around it, right across the City of Newcastle. Every neighbouring suburb named on this page is inside the area we work in, and there is no travel charge to any of them. If your street is not shown, call us and say where you are, and we will confirm it on the phone.
What are your service hours in Merewether?
Our service hours are Monday to Saturday, 7am to 5.30pm. Newcastle Gyprocker Heroes keeps those hours across Merewether and the rest of the City of Newcastle. A call outside them reaches voicemail rather than another number. Leave your suburb and a short description of the work and we will come back to you.
Does a house on Scenic Drive need the same fixings as one behind the baths?
No. The high corrosivity band for a surf coast reaches roughly a kilometre in from the shoreline. The streets behind Merewether Beach sit inside it. Merewether Heights, further back and higher up, does not. Coastal grade fixings on the beach side and standard ones on the ridge is the honest answer. Newcastle Gyprocker Heroes ask for the street before pricing, because the difference is a materials line rather than a guess.
When is a Level 5 finish worth paying for?
In two cases and not otherwise. Where the room takes raking light across a wall, and where the paint is gloss or semi gloss. A gloss finish will not hide anything the wall underneath is doing. Level 4 is the standard and it is right for most rooms in most houses here. Newcastle Gyprocker Heroes price a Level 5 as its own line so you can see what it costs and decide room by room.
Why is plastering a Merewether wall sometimes more expensive?
Usually because there is brick behind it rather than a timber frame. With seven brickworks operating here by 1877, a lot of the older housing is solid masonry. Board cannot be screwed to it, so a frame has to be built out from the wall and then packed true. That is more work and more material. We look for it at quoting stage so the price does not move once the job has started.
My Merewether wall keeps cracking. Is that the old mine workings?
It might be, and this is one of the few suburbs where the question is recent rather than historical. Mining under here continued until August 1954, and both Merewether and Merewether Heights sit inside the Newcastle mine subsidence district. Internal plastering needs no subsidence approval, so this changes how a crack is read rather than what you are allowed to do. Send photographs and tell us if it reopens in the same place.
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Ready to get started?
Call and tell us what the wall or ceiling is doing in Merewether, or send the plans for new work and we will price it.