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In most of the timber houses you could find fret works to make the house look pretty. Anyhow in those times there was still a lot of good and cheep timber that would last for a long time, even when it was exposed to the weather, so, it was convenient to build with timber. Today things are different, and even here they build with bricks and mortar, but today to build a house will cost a lot more.
Welcome to our article, Australian houses in Brisbane.
The Australian wooden houses.
When we came to Australia in the early
sixties, we had a surprise, when we found that the houses were made of timber,
which were different from the houses we had left in Europe, all build of solid
masonry.
For us Italian migrants that had lived in
solid masonry buildings, even if some of them were rustic buildings; when we
arrived in Australia at the beginning it seemed strange that in Brisbane lots
of houses were made of wood, and most of them were set on wooden stumps, but
then we started thinking that they were still good to live in, so, we got used
to live in them rather quickly.
So, we had to forget how we were living in my
native town of Genzano
di Lucania, since now we were living in Australia the
Australian way, after all, as the saying goes, when you are in Rome do what the
Romans do. But then, what were the reasons and why these houses were made of
wood, or to use another word for wood how the locals called it, they were made
of timber.
So, this question arises, why these houses were made of timber and not masonry? If we use logic reasoning there is no difference whether houses are made of timber or masonry, as long as they can give the people that live in them that filling of safety and privacy that we aspect, when we live in our own home.
Having said that now let us see or guess the
reasons why these houses were made of timber, and why they were set on wooden
stumps.
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The wooden houses on stumps.
The wooden houses on stumps of Brisbane and
Australia
In Brisbane a lot of houses
are made of timber, but not only are they made of timber, they are set on
wooden stumps.
From what we have heard from the locals, we
can conclude that there were several reasons why the houses were made of
timber. The first reason is that when the first settlers started to build
Brisbane, there were plenty of trees that could be cut down and make good
timber to build those houses. And then, the
people that came to live
in Brisbane and Australia had good knowledge how to use timber, since they came
by boats, and because the boats of those days were mostly made of timber, there
were always carpenters and carpenter tools on board, in case to boat needed
repairs, so, to use timber and build timber houses was the easiest way for
them, since they had the knowledge the tools and plenty of timber in the woods
surrounding Brisbane, and other parts of Australia that needed houses.
At the beginning the houses were simple
shelters, but as the time went by they became better, because the
builders became aware of what would work better in this climate, you see, here
around Brisbane and northward, when the wet season comes the ground becomes too
wet for the houses to stand on the ground, in hot summer days everything
becomes too hot and there were lots of vermin on the ground, so, they found a
way how to build houses that would avoid most of these problems; that is why
the houses on stumps became a necessity, of course slowly they became even
better and even pretty, that is how the Queenslander house was born, which is a
large house with verandas around them that keeps the weather and the hot sun
off the main walls of the house. One can see these pretty Queensland houses if
you look around even today.
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The Queenslander houses.
The Queenslander house is a large timber
house; some of them are pretty and they serve the inhabitant well, as they have
been built to take the advantage of the hot climate in Brisbane and north
Queensland regions. Now since I have been working in these houses to maintain
them, let me describe them to you in more details. As anyone can guess there
are a few different types of these houses, but here we are talking about the
large Queenslander and the workers cottage, which is a small and cheaper
version of the large Queenslander.
As we have said, there were plenty of trees around to make hardwood timber, which as the name suggests is hard and very strong,
some of this timber are even stronger and longer lasting than the European oak
or other strong European
woods. So, the houses were strong and secure, the only natural enemy
of these houses were the white ants (termites), which are able to eat through
the wood and destroy the houses. The termites are native to Australia and if we
go up north in Australia, we can see strange mounts of earth springing up from
the ground, these is how the white ants live, they eat wood from the inside,
and they make these mounts of earth.
So, as you can see this was another reason
why the houses were built on stumps. The stumps were made of whole sections of
trees that are resistant to rot; of course, the white ants were still able to
eat those stumps, but they were treated with special paints and at the top they
had a capping of metal that would make a barrier to the white ants if they came
from the inside the stump, and also a barrier to the other ants or crawling
insect from the outside.
We can say that some of these timber houses
have been made pretty, because timber can be cut to different shapes easily, so,
they were prettier compared to the house made of masonry, which is very
expensive to decorate them with masonry, so, the houses are usually square
boxes with a roof at the top.
Decorative fretwork was easy to make with timber, so, most houses had some decorations in them, in one way or the other. I am going to search the Internet for photos that can show you what I mean, about fretwork and other timber names, anyhow, I am going to leave it to your imagination, once you see the photos of the houses and the fretwork.
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These wooden houses need some
care.
The timber houses need maintenance and care. For
those people that have not lived in timber houses before, they should ask
questions about them before they get involved in owning one of these houses. The
first question that will come to their mind is: are these houses safe to live
in and how long these houses can last? And then, what maintenance they require?
So, let me try to explain this timber housing situation.
Timber houses need more maintenance than
masonry houses; because you need to paint them for the timber to last longer,
otherwise the timber on the outside walls will slowly rot away, but then, there
are also some advantages, because if you want to change something it can be
done easily and it is cheaper than if you have a masonry house, therefore, it
is a lot cheaper to do some alterations, so, it can work well after all.
Having said that we need to say that these
wooden houses have some problems of their own, apart that they need to be
painted for the external timber to last longer, they have some vermin enemies
everywhere in the houses, because the timber is more vermin friendly than
masonry and bricks and cement, but the normal vermin are not a big problem for
the house structure itself.
The greatest enemy of these wooden houses are
the termites, or white ants as some of us calls them; The white ants can
destroy entire buildings by eating the wood from the inside, a lot of times
people don’t even know that the white ants are there eating their houses away
while they are living in them; you see, unless you know what you are looking
for, it is hard to see any sign of them from the outside. So, one day suddenly we
find out by putting pressure on a spot where the white ants have eaten the wood
from inside, everything starts collapsing inward and where there was a wall now
there is a big hole.
Therefore, it is worthwhile to learn how to
recognize the signs if there are white ants; and call an expert to check the
building if you are going to buy it.
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How to defend our homes from these pests.
There are a few things that we can do to
prevent this pest destroy our homes; the first thing that we can do is to check
that there is a barrier that stops the white ants to enter your building, for
instance if your house is a high-set house on stumps, check that at the top of
the stumps there is a metallic ant capping; this metallic ant capping is
usually a large galvanized round dish or square of metal and it is bent down at
the edges so that any crawling insect will find it difficult to enter your
house that way; we hope you can see the picture? The ant capping prevents also
the white ants to enter through the timber stump itself, if the stump has been
infested with white ants, because when they reach the top of the stump, they
cannot eat through the metal capping and so they cannot enter that way, of
course there are a lot of different buildings and a lot of different ways to
set a barrier; but sometimes the white ants find their way around.
Now there are ways that we should be looking
for if there are white ants; here the first thing that we have to keep in mind
is that white ants eat everything from inside and they don’t like to be exposed
outside for long, so, the first thing one can do is to tap on anything that is
made of wood; if the wood sounds hollow then the white ants may have eaten the
inside, so, a complete check is needed to see what is the cause; another way to
look for white ants signs is that if they are forced to go outside to move from
one place to another, they will construct a tunnel, so that they can go up and
down without being seen, so, we must look for any of these signs anywhere under
the building. Experts have told me that the white ants need moisture, so, they
have to travel to the ground to get the moisture and then they go up again
their tunnel to eat the timber; now if the building is solid and there is no
other way for the ants to go up they will construct their tunnel from the
ground up, so, we should be looking for signs to see if there are ants tunnel
constructed, and if there are tunnels, it means that there are white ants,
therefore you need a pest control expert to poison these pests, and you need
him fast.
Some natural enemies of the white ants
White ants have very few enemies because they
live and hide inside the timber, but there are some natural enemies in their
natural habitat, a couple of which are pictured here. As I said before, we need
to learn the signs how to spot the white ants, then do something if you find
that they are there, otherwise they could eat your house away quickly.
Hereunder we have pasted two links about
termites that Huber’s have written for you to check them out.
How to
Control Termites Naturally
Good luck to all timber house owners.
Dear readers, my intention is that I am going to write several articles about houses, how to own them, how to maintain them and how to build them, because that is what I have done during my life.
Next article will be, Is Australia the land of opportunity?
To see more click on this link, Australian houses in Brisbane.
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