Gyprocker and plasterer in Unanderra
We patch, re sheet and make good plasterboard in houses right across Unanderra. Unanderra rents more than four homes in ten, and almost eight in ten of its dwellings are separate houses. That combination exists nowhere else we work, and it changes the whole job. The post war housing here went up around the first Commonwealth workers' hostel in Wollongong. Most of what we do is putting those houses back between one tenant and the next.
Common gyprock problems in Unanderra
Unanderra is a rental suburb where the rentals are houses rather than units. That is unusual, and it makes the work easier in one direction and bigger in another. That one combination shapes how a turnaround here is priced and run.
Rented, and nearly all of it houses
More than four in ten homes here are rented, which is high, and almost eight in ten are detached houses. Everywhere else we work with that much renting, the rentals are flats and semis. So there is no stairwell, no landing a sheet will not turn on, and no lift to book. Material comes off the truck in full lengths and goes straight in through a front door.
A house turnaround is not a unit turnaround
A two bedroom unit has a handful of walls and a hallway you can see the end of. A three bedroom house between tenants has twice the surface, more doors, more corners and a whole extra room to check. The window between one tenant and the next is the same length either way. So we walk the house and price the whole scope rather than the room somebody rang about.
Finding it on the Friday is the problem
Almost all of this stock is older than 1990, so what is behind a lining is a real question. On a planned renovation there is time to look at it calmly and there is no pressure. On a vacancy turnaround with a date already set there is not, which is exactly when corners get cut. So we look at the quote rather than on the day, and work stops at anything we are unsure of.
Built around the workers' hostel
The Commonwealth built its first workers' hostel in Wollongong here, on Five Islands Road, on 98 acres of a former estate. The first large group of 160 European displaced persons arrived over a weekend in September 1949 to work in the Port Kembla industries. It had dining rooms, a post office and space for teaching English, and it closed in the seventies. The post war houses that went up around it are the stock this page is about.
Same postcode as Cordeaux Heights, and nothing alike
Cordeaux Heights shares this postcode and has no flats at all, with roughly one home in twelve rented. Unanderra has flats, semis and more than four homes in ten rented. One is a planned estate finished in 1999 and the other is post war housing around industrial land. Quoting 2526 as one place gets it wrong for most of the people asking.
We quote the room rather than the catalogue
There is no salt worth specifying for this far inland, so coastal grade fixings do not go in a quote here. Nor does a finish a room does not need, on a wall nobody will look at sideways. What we do spend the money on is preparation, because that is the part that shows for years. Telling a landlord what a repair actually needs is worth more than telling them what could be added.
Why Unanderra properties choose us
We sheet, coat and sand plasterboard across Unanderra 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 Unanderra
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.
Five Islands Road and the railway junction put Unanderra on the way to most places we go. That makes it a quick suburb for us to reach and a quick one to come back to. What we ask at the quote is the changeover date, because it is almost always the constraint. Where an agent is running it, send us their details and we will arrange access with them.
Gyprock and plasterboard in Unanderra homes
Unanderra's houses went up around industrial land and the men who came to work on it. The Commonwealth built its first Wollongong workers' hostel here in 1949, on land already earmarked for industry. The post war decades then filled the suburb with detached timber, fibro and brick houses for those families. A modest layer of flats and semis came later, but it never became the main story. Nobody publishes when it was built out, so we read the house rather than the street.
The tenure is what makes this suburb different from its neighbours rather than the housing itself. More than four homes in ten are rented, but nearly eight in ten are detached, and those two facts rarely sit together. Elsewhere a rental suburb means walk ups, stairwells and sheets cut down to fit a landing. Here it means a driveway, a front door and full length sheets, on a house that turns over every year or two. That is easier work in every way except the amount of it.
So the volume is turnaround and the skill is scoping it accurately in one visit. Doorknob damage behind doors, anchor holes where something was mounted, hallway corners, and ceilings after a leak nobody reported. Framing that is sixty or seventy years old and has moved, which gets string lined and packed rather than sheeted over.
Get a free quote in Unanderra
Tell us what you need done in Unanderra 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 Unanderra
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 Unanderra 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 Unanderra
Do you service all suburbs in the Unanderra 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 Unanderra?
Our service hours are Monday to Saturday, 7am to 5:30pm. Work in Unanderra 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.
We have a three day gap between tenants. Is that enough for a whole house?
Yes, for the ordinary damage, and the answer changes the moment a ceiling is involved. Doorknob holes, anchor holes and hallway corners across a three bedroom house is a day's work if that is all of it. What blows the window is a ceiling that has been leaked on, or a lining we need to look behind before cutting. So we walk the whole house at the quote rather than pricing the room you rang about. Then the date you are given is one that will actually hold.
Is it cheaper because the rentals here are houses rather than units?
Yes, in one specific way, and it is worth understanding which. Full length sheets go straight in through a front door instead of being cut down to turn on a landing. That means fewer joints, less handling and a faster day than the same job in a walk up flat. What it does not change is the surface area, and a three bedroom house has plenty more of it than a unit. So the rate per room is better and the total depends on how many rooms there are.
How do you price a whole house when we only know about one room?
By walking all of it, which takes twenty minutes and saves a fortnight of arguments later on. A tenant reports the thing they can see, and a vacant house nearly always has three or four more. Doors that have gone through a wall, anchor holes behind where a television was, and hallway corners nobody mentioned. We list every room with what it needs and what it will cost, so nothing appears halfway through. If something turns up behind a lining we tell you before we touch it.
The house is from the sixties and the walls are wavy. Can that be straightened?
Yes, and it is the most common thing we deal with in this suburb's older stock. Timber studs sixty or seventy years old have bowed, twisted and cupped, and board sheeted straight onto them mirrors every bit of it. So we string line the wall and pack it out, or fur off it entirely, before anything goes on. It costs a little more at the start and it is the difference between a flat wall and a wavy one. We say which walls need it at the quote rather than after.
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