Gyprocker and plasterer in Cordeaux Heights
We work on new rooms and additions across the whole of Cordeaux Heights. Cordeaux Heights was three dairy farms until 1973 and a finished estate by 1999, so it was drawn before it was built. It has the largest households we work for, at close to four bedrooms a dwelling. There is not a single block of flats in it, and nine in ten homes are owned rather than rented. It sits on the lower slopes of Mount Kembla, which decides the rest.
Common gyprock problems in Cordeaux Heights
Cordeaux Heights is the only suburb we cover that was planned in full before anybody lived in it. That gives it problems no old suburb has and spares it most of the usual ones. What follows is what a purpose built estate on a slope actually asks for.
Three dairy farms in 1973, a finished suburb by 1999
The land here was three dairy farms until a developer bought them in 1973 to build a suburb. Council adopted a development strategy for the estate in April 1979, releasing land for up to five thousand people. It was completed in 1999 and won awards for the way it was laid out. Nowhere else we work has a build period you can put dates on like that.
The streets were designed before the houses
The estate introduced several firsts for development in New South Wales when it went in. A hierarchy of street widths, roll over kerbs, and stormwater run through a network of parks rather than pipes alone. For us that means wide, well graded streets and driveways that a truck can actually use. Material lands close to the door here far more often than it does in an old suburb.
Same postcode as Unanderra, and the opposite of it
Cordeaux Heights is 97 per cent separate houses with no flats at all, and roughly one home in twelve rents. Unanderra shares the postcode and has flats, semis and more than four homes in ten rented. Those are two completely different markets a few minutes apart. Anybody quoting 2526 as one place is going to be wrong for most of it.
The largest households we work for
Homes here average close to four bedrooms and about three people living in them, which is the highest we deal with. More rooms and more people in them means noise between rooms inside a single house. Media rooms, home offices and a bedroom next to a living area are ordinary here rather than unusual. What a wall between two of those rooms has to do is a real conversation, not an upsell.
Built onto a slope, and surveyed for it first
The estate sits on the lower slopes of Mount Kembla, a few kilometres south west of the city. The 1974 feasibility study for it was done by consulting geotechnical engineers, which tells you the ground was a design question from the start. On the ground it means stepped and split level sites with driveway grades to match. It also means the upper streets are wetter and slower to dry than anywhere down on the plain.
The old half is already flat, so the join is the test
In most suburbs the existing wall has moved for decades and new work has to be blended into something irregular. Here the existing walls went up to a modern standard and are straight, so there is nothing for a join to hide in. An extension or a second storey has to meet a surface that is already true. That is a harder finish to get right and a much better one when it is.
Why Cordeaux Heights properties choose us
We sheet, coat and sand plasterboard across Cordeaux Heights and the rest of the Wollongong City Council area. The owner is on the job rather than running it from an office.
How a gyprock job runs in Cordeaux Heights
You call or send the form, and the more you can tell us the better. For a repair, a photo of the ceiling or the wall usually settles the question before anyone drives out. For a new build or a renovation we quote from the plans. Suspended ceilings are always quoted from plans rather than from a description.
The owner is on site, and the ceilings go up first, then the walls, then the cornice. The sander runs with a bag on it and the rest is done by hand, so there is dust in the air. We clean up and take the offcuts and the empty bags away with us. The walls are left sanded and ready for the painter's primer coat, because we do not paint.
Cordeaux Heights is up behind Unanderra on the lower slopes of Mount Kembla, off the highway. It is a short run for us and an unusually easy one once we are in the estate. The streets were built wide enough for the trucks that built the place, which still helps. What we ask at the quote is the driveway grade, because that is the one thing the plan could not flatten.
Gyprock and plasterboard in Cordeaux Heights homes
Cordeaux Heights was drawn on paper before any of it was built, which no other suburb here can say. The land was three dairy farms until 1973, and Council released it for housing at the end of that decade. Building ran through the eighties and finished in 1999, so the whole suburb sits inside about twenty years. There is no colonial layer, no mining village and no post war fibro belt underneath it. A lining that could predate 1990 still gets looked at first, because the earlier stages are older than that line.
What that removes from a job it puts back somewhere else entirely. Framing built to a modern standard has not bowed or cupped the way a seventy year old wall has. So there is far less packing and furring before anything goes on. The surfaces are square and true, and the substrate is sound even where the finishes are dated. So the difficulty here is not making an old wall straight. It is meeting a straight wall with new work and leaving no trace of where one stops.
The work follows the size of the houses and the length of time people stay in them. Extensions and second storeys, rooms opened into each other, and bathrooms from the eighties and nineties finally reaching the end. Almost none of it is turnaround work, because almost nobody here is renting. What we get asked about most is how a join will look in five years, which is the right question.
Get a free quote in Cordeaux Heights
Tell us what you need done in Cordeaux Heights 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 Cordeaux Heights
New home builds
Renovations and extensions
Patio and alfresco ceilings
Suspended ceilings
Bulkhead ceilings
Soundproofing and acoustic walls
Fire rated walls and ceilings
Sagging ceilings
Wall repairs
Cornice
Water damage and wet areas
Commercial
Asbestos in older homes
Suburbs we service in Cordeaux Heights and surrounds
Our service vehicles cover every suburb within the Wollongong City Council area and the surrounding localities. If your suburb is not listed below, contact us to confirm coverage.
Frequently asked questions about Cordeaux Heights
Do you service all suburbs in the Cordeaux Heights area?
Yes. Our service vehicles cover every suburb within the Wollongong City Council area and the surrounding localities, including the ones listed below. The service area runs from Helensburgh in the north to Nowra in the south, and west up the escarpment to the Southern Highlands. If your suburb is not shown on that list, contact us and we will confirm whether we cover it.
What are your service hours in Cordeaux Heights?
Our service hours are Monday to Saturday, 7am to 5:30pm. Work in Cordeaux Heights is booked in during those hours, and the phone is answered then too. Outside those hours you can leave a message or send the form on this page. If a ceiling is sagging and you are not sure it is safe, say so when you get in touch. A photo sent with it usually tells us more than a description.
How old is the housing in Cordeaux Heights?
The whole suburb was built inside about twenty years, which is unusual enough to be worth saying. It was three dairy farms until 1973, Council released the land at the end of the seventies, and the estate finished in 1999. So the earliest streets are eighties construction and the last ones are late nineties. That still means the earlier stages of the estate are older than 1990. Any lining that could be from then gets treated the same way it would be anywhere else, and we check rather than assume.
The existing walls are dead flat. How do you join new work to that?
That is the real question in a suburb like this one and it is worth asking early. Everything here went up to a modern standard, so the existing walls are straight and there is nowhere for a join to hide. In an old house a slightly imperfect join disappears into a wall that already moves. Here it does not, so the join has to be set flat rather than feathered and hoped over. We say at the quote where the transition will fall and how we intend to treat it.
The noise between the media room and the bedroom is bad. Can that be fixed?
Yes, and it comes up here more than almost anywhere because of the size of the houses. Four bedroom homes with three people in them end up with a television room next to somewhere people sleep. What it takes depends entirely on how the existing wall was built, so it gets opened and looked at rather than assumed. Sometimes it is straightforward and sometimes the wall has to come out. We will tell you which one you have before you commit to anything.
Our driveway is steep. Is that a problem for getting sheets in?
No, though it is worth telling us at the quote so the day is planned around it. Cordeaux Heights sits on the lower slopes of Mount Kembla and plenty of the blocks are stepped or split level. The streets themselves were built wide, which helps more than people expect. Where a truck cannot back down, the sheets get carried, and we allow for that rather than absorbing it into the morning. A photograph of the driveway with the enquiry saves the guessing.
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