Australian House & Garden

Question: We have a seventies style house (the boxy high set type) with a single garage. We would like to convert the garage into a room. What can we do, where the garage door was, so that it doesn't look like a garage converted to a room?

Answer: The garage is a valuable piece of real estate and more often we are seeing this space transformed into a livable space, for instance, as a guestroom or teenage pad. The idea is to maintain continuity with the existing exterior window and door style, so don’t add any element that detracts from this. A friend recently converted the double garage in his modern house to an ‘apartment’ for his teenage son. He replaced the garage doors with epoxy-coated sliding aluminium doors.

Question: I would like to put in wooden floors but I'm worried that my children would damage them. What sort of wooden floor would you suggest?

Answer: Timber floorboards are especially good in family homes. They are soft underfoot and wear exceptionally well. They also have a modern vibe as well as being a tried and true classic. When making your selection, it is generally known that Tasmanian oak and jarrah are rated ‘harder’ than blackbutt, brushbox and spotted gum. Blackbutt and spotted gum, however, are enjoying great popularity at the moment. Boral solid blackbutt flooring costs around $70 per square metre for 130mm size boards, with installation, sanding and polishing an extra $78 per square metre; confirm prices with your local flooring specialist in your state.

Answered by Rose-Marie Hillier

Question: The windows of our 70's era house are covered in a dark tint. We've peeled the first layer off easily enough and were expecting to find a layer of glue - but it appears to be another layer of very brittle window tint. How can we remove this? We've tried mineral turps and have used a scraper with not much luck.

Answer: It might be worth your while checking with an automotive dealer regarding the removal of the window tint. It sounds like you need a heavy duty chemical to release the window film if turps and a scraper have proved ineffective. Good luck.

Answered by Rose-Marie Hillier

Question: My weatherboard house needs a fresh coat of paint. I’m wondering what to use so that I don’t have to do the job again for at least 10 years.

Answer: Preparation is the key to any paint job. Remove peeling paint, prime all surfaces, then apply a top coat of specialist exterior paint. If you live near the coast or in a polluted area, wash the walls before sealing them with primer. I recommend washing exterior walls occasionally as dirt corrodes the paint. All paint fades, but acrylic paints have a longer lifespan. An acrylic gloss formula is suitable for weatherboard, but enamel is best for around windows and doors, since acrylics don’t flow like enamel and can get stuck in nooks and crannies. Dulux Weathershield is a top-end exterior product, though there are many other good-quality options available.

Question: We are building a new house and I am really stuck with exterior colours. The colour roof, facia and gutter which we will be having is colourbond dune. So I would like two colours that would work in with that. I am thinking along the lines of Dune for the main walls and then I need a darker feature colour. Any suggestions would be great. I am very much into neutral colours. Thanks

Answer: You are not making a point of difference with your exterior colour scheme if you plan to have the same colour for roof, fascia, guttering AND all the walls. Choose a lighter neutral, such as Solagard Chino, for the walls, and for the window frames and any features you want highlighted, go either lighter again, or darker. If you choose a lighter colour, Solagard Winter Haven is a good idea, and if you opt for the darker option, try Solagard Urban Grey. Make a bold statement with your front door; paint in either deep raspberry red or glossy black.