Gyprocker and plasterer in Oak Flats
We fix ceilings, walls and wet areas in houses all over Oak Flats. Oak Flats was subdivided in 1924 and the railway station opened a year after it. That makes it an interwar suburb on a coast where nearly everything else is post war. It sits on the low southern side of Lake Illawarra, where water can arrive from two directions. And the cold here is real in a way it is not a few kilometres east.
Common gyprock problems in Oak Flats
Oak Flats is older than the suburbs around it and lower than most of them. Those two facts between them account for nearly everything we get called about. What follows is what a 1924 estate on flat ground beside a lake actually deals with.
Subdivided in 1924, and the railway followed in 1925
George Fuller subdivided land here in 1921 and the core estate was created in 1924 as the Lake Illawarra Township Estate. The timber cleared off it was sold for pit props and firewood. The subdivision brought enough people that the railway opened a station in 1925. Then the Depression and the war stalled it, so an interwar core sits under a much larger post war layer.
Water arrives here from two directions
This suburb is named in the flood study for its own side of the lake, along with Mount Warrigal and Warilla. Water rises out of the lake in one kind of event and runs overland in another after a short heavy downpour. Those two reach different houses, which is why being away from the water is not the reassurance it sounds like. The study also found more properties at risk than the earlier one had. Board that has actually been soaked gets replaced rather than dried and painted.
Winter here is not the winter at the beach
The weather station that records the coldest mornings on this coast sits immediately west of here. It is on the same low, flat, inland ground that Oak Flats is on, which the beach suburbs are not. June to August is a genuine cold curing window here and it is not one at Warilla or Barrack Heights. Compound stays wet longer when the mornings are cold, and pushing a coat that is not ready is how a wall ends up wrong. We plan the coats around it rather than around the calendar.
And the hot days are hotter here too
The same flat inland ground that makes the winter mornings cold makes the summer afternoons hot. On the handful of genuinely hot days each year the problem reverses completely. Compound skins over before it can be worked, adhesive grabs early and a joint flash dries instead of setting. That is a working day that has to be planned differently rather than pushed through. Neither the cold nor the heat is dramatic here, and both are enough to change a program.
Dutch, German and Finnish, from 1947
From 1947 this town took in families displaced by the war in Europe. They came mainly from Holland, Germany and Finland, which is a different story from the suburbs either side of it. That arrival is what filled out the post war streets here and it is most of what we work on. A small share of residents were still born in Germany at the last census. The houses those families built are now seventy years old and asking for things.
Houses held for decades, so the work is planned
A large share of homes here are owned outright by people who have been in them a long time. That changes the pace of everything rather than the technique. A renovation gets decided months ahead instead of being squeezed between a Friday and a Monday. So there is time to open a small section, look at it properly and price what is really there.
Why Oak Flats properties choose us
We sheet, coat and sand plasterboard across Oak Flats and the rest of the Shellharbour City Council area. The owner is on the job rather than running it from an office.
How a gyprock job runs in Oak Flats
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.
We come into Oak Flats past the airport, on the low ground behind the lake's southern arm. The station is the middle of the suburb and most of the older streets run off it. It is well back from the surf, so coastal grade fixings do not go into a quote here. What we ask at the quote is how old the house is, because the streets near the station are older than the rest.
Gyprock and plasterboard in Oak Flats homes
Oak Flats began as a subdivision rather than as a village, and the date on it is 1924. George Fuller had subdivided land here in 1921 and the core estate followed, marketed as the Lake Illawarra Township Estate. The station opened in 1925 because enough people had arrived to justify it, and then the Depression and the war stopped everything. From 1947 the post war layer went up, much of it for families arriving from Holland, Germany and Finland. So there is an interwar core near the station and a much larger post war suburb around it.
That means the era changes as you move through the streets rather than staying put. A cottage from the twenties and a house from the fifties are different framing, different linings and different problems. In practice we read the house in front of us instead of trusting anything about the suburb. Studs seventy or a hundred years old have bowed and cupped, so they get string lined and packed before a sheet goes on. And any lining we cannot identify stops the work until somebody who can identify it has looked.
The volume of work here is wet areas and ceilings, and the reason is arithmetic rather than anything local. A bathroom put in sixty or eighty years ago has had that long of water against its waterproofing. When it finally lets go the board behind it goes soft, loses its strength and becomes somewhere for mould to live. Ceilings of the same age pull away from their fixings, and the sag is the warning rather than the fault.
Get a free quote in Oak Flats
Tell us what you need done in Oak Flats 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 Oak Flats
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 Oak Flats and surrounds
Our service vehicles cover every suburb within the Shellharbour City Council area and the surrounding localities. If your suburb is not listed below, contact us to confirm coverage.
Frequently asked questions about Oak Flats
Do you service all suburbs in the Oak Flats area?
Yes. Our service vehicles cover every suburb within the Shellharbour 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 Oak Flats?
Our service hours are Monday to Saturday, 7am to 5:30pm. Work in Oak Flats 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.
Our street is nowhere near the water. Does flooding actually affect us?
Yes, and this is the thing most people here have wrong about their own street. Water reaches houses in this catchment two different ways rather than one. It rises out of the lake in one kind of event, and after a short intense downpour it runs overland in another. Those two reach different properties, so being back from the water is not the reassurance it sounds like. If board has actually been soaked it gets replaced, because drying it out and painting never holds.
Does a job here really take longer in the middle of winter?
Yes, a little, and it is better to hear that before a date is set than after it. The mornings on this side of the lake get genuinely cold in a way they do not at the beach suburbs. Compound stays wet longer when it is cold, so a coat that would be ready overnight in March is not in July. Pushing the next coat onto one that is not ready is how a wall ends up wrong. We build the extra time into the program instead of hoping.
How far does water usually travel behind a lining once a shower has failed?
Further than the soft patch, almost always, because water travels behind a lining rather than staying where you can feel it. A bathroom of this era has had sixty or eighty years of water against waterproofing that was never meant to last that long. Board that has gone soft has lost its strength and will hold moisture whatever is painted over it. So we cut back to something sound, replace it and leave it ready for whoever waterproofs and tiles. Send a photograph and we will give you a realistic idea of the extent.
The streets near the station look older than the rest. Are they?
Yes, and it is the most useful thing to know about the housing in this suburb. The core estate here was subdivided in 1924 and the station opened the following year, so those streets came first. The Depression and the war then stopped everything, and the bulk of the suburb went up from 1947 onward. Those two eras are different framing and different lining systems behind the same looking wall. So we read the house rather than the postcode, and we look before we cut.
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