Carpenter in Wyoming

1960s and 70s brick veneer is better than its reputation

There's a snobbery about houses from this era that isn't really deserved. The framing timber in a well-built 1970s Wyoming home is often better quality than what goes into new construction — properly seasoned hardwood, generously sized, and it's had fifty years to prove itself.

What's dated is the layout, the glazing and the insulation, not the structure. That's good news, because layout and glazing are exactly what carpentry fixes.

The things we do commonly find: undersized subfloor ventilation, termite damage in specific spots rather than throughout, previous owner-built extensions done to a different standard, and load paths altered without records. We open up carefully and price honestly.

The blocks step

Wyoming sits on the ridges and gullies north of Gosford. The blocks fall — sometimes steeply — and that has three practical effects.

• Approval pathway. Exempt development for a deck requires the floor to sit no more than 1 metre above existing ground level. On a sloping Wyoming block a rear deck off the living area is usually well past that, which means a CDC (roughly 10 working days through a private certifier) or a DA with Council.
• Retaining. Retaining walls over 600mm high, including batters, need consent in their own right. Cut into a slope to level a pad and you may have created two approvals.
• Access and cost. Getting materials to a rear yard three metres below street level costs time. Anyone who quotes without walking the access hasn't priced the job.

Under-house space is the cheapest square metres you own

On the elevated Wyoming blocks there's often a substantial void under the house. Enclosing or converting it is usually the cheapest floor area you'll ever add, because the roof and the structure already exist.

The catches are real but manageable: head height has to work, converting it to habitable space brings in ceiling height, ventilation, light, damp-proofing and fire separation requirements, and it will need approval. Converting it to non-habitable storage or workshop space is far simpler.

We'll tell you honestly which of those your space suits, because the difference in cost between the two is large.

Bushfire prone land at the edges

Wyoming runs up against bushland in places, and bushfire prone land mapping includes buffer zones — you don't have to back onto the bush to be inside one. If your block is mapped, structures within 5 metres of the dwelling must be non-combustible under exempt development. Worth a five-minute check on the Planning Portal before you design.