House painting in Mt Eden

Villas and bungalows on the old estates

Council’s special character survey of the Stonyhurst Estate, laid out in 1879, lists villas and transitional villas from the 1880s to 1910s and bungalows from the 1920s and 30s as the commonest styles, along with apartment buildings that became popular after the First World War. In Mount Eden South, villas often fill nearly the full width of their sites.

Full-width villas leave narrow side paths, which affects how sheeting and access are set up for the side walls. Apartment blocks from the interwar years are a separate job again, closer to small commercial work, and are quoted that way. See commercial painting for body corporate repaints.

On the slopes of Maungawhau

The special character statement describes a steep, narrow street pattern laid out in the late 1800s on the western side of the mountain, with small, closely spaced sites, and elsewhere larger sites with mature planting. Scoria and basalt walls and kerbing are part of the character around Mount Eden Village.

Houses in the English Cottage and Arts and Crafts styles were often built in brick or plastered brick, or partly clad in timber shingles, rather than all weatherboard. Each takes a different approach:

• Weatherboard villas: wet scraping and sanding, primer on any bare wood, then two acrylic coats.
• Plastered brick: cracks filled, sealer where chalky, a masonry paint.
• Shingles: brushed in so the paint reaches every lap.
• Basalt and scoria walls: covered and protected, not painted.