VERANDAHS
If you are thinking about having a new verandah built you've probably been looking at other homes in your neighbourhood and wondered why some verandahs look better than others. Some blend and compliment the home whilst others looked tacked on.
It may be the choice of materials used or the verandah style. Or it may be the size of the posts, the fascia beam level or the roof slope.
An all steel "kit" verandah pre-made in a factory may be appropriate in some applications (at the rear of your home for example) but completely out of place at the front of your character home.
We have been working on homes for over thirty years and noted some common features of verandahs in Adelaide's character homes.
The posts are generally timber and nearly always at least 90 mm square but often 115 mm or 125 mm square. The edges are frequently "stop chamfered" but "turned" posts are very common on Villas and symetrical cottages.
The fascia beams are generally 210 mm - 230 mm deep and the bottom edge is often machined with "beaded" or "stop chamfered" detailing.
Bullnose style verandahs are a feature of many of Adelaide's character homes. Whilst the curve may vary from home to home the Bullnose curve traditionally used on Adelaide's older homes is generally between 450 mm - 550 mm radius; with the length of the curved section being slightly longer than the radius.
The other important feature is the rise from the top of the fascia to the top of the wall plate. The bullnose verandahs on most older homes will have a rise of at least 450 mm, and 600 mm is common.
The best looking bullnose style verandahs are usually on homes with at least 3000 mm of wall height.
Case Study
Objective
The owners wanted to re-instate the characteristic features of their return verandah villa, which originally had a bullnose verandah. The original bullnose verandah had been removed when the home was re-roofed 30 - 40 years ago. During the re-roofing process the roofing from the main roof was extended across the verandah space and a large gable was constructed on the corner. The owners also wanted to change the roof colour from the "Bronze Olive" to a colour more sympathetic to the
DownloadSolutions
We removed the large corner gable and the rafters and purlins on the verandah sections.
We re-instated the original roofline, fitting new fascia boards and battens to the eaves. The fascia boards were machined with an old style "Beaded" bottom edge to replicate the traditional fascia board finish.
We re-roofed the home using full length Woodland Grey "Colorbond" steel corrugated roofing and fitted Monument "Colorbond" steel "OG" profile gutters.
The new Bullnose verandah incorporated bullnose shaped rafters and intermediate purlins supporting the bullnose roofing. These were required because the verandah width exceeded the 1800 mm nominal maximum width for bullnose verandahs without rafter / purlin support. The additional support was also desirable because the roof is accessed regularly for gutter cleaning.
The new bullnose roofing was curved to the radius typically used on Villa homes.
We created a "false" gable at the corner. i.e the gable sits above the bullnose verandah roofing.
The gable incorporates several features typical of the home's period: - Decoratively shaped ends on the barge boards, pressed metal (aluminium) gable infill, full length finial and timber "cricket bat" style barge caps.
Outcome
An amazing transformation correcting the previous bastardisation of a character home.
Very satisfied customers.