Audio interview with Rob Hyde
Rob is a Builder & Manager of Portrait Custom Homes
Click above to listen to Rob Hyde talk about this build.
This North Fremantle house is a protected heritage building. We completely rebuilt the inside and refurbished the front facade, including the original jarrah board work. A brand new, modern home made from an old Fremantle house.
They made the original facade from jarrah boards. The boards were removed, stripped, and repainted. A lot of the old paint was lead-based, so the stripping process had to be done properly.
Atrium
There’s an atrium in the middle of the house.
This gives us the feeling that this home is environmentally aware. The outside seamlessly melds into the inside.
Raw brick & polished concrete
Polished concrete floors, raw brick and paving give the house a natural feel.
Some building materials came from over East, but we sourced most of the building materials locally (in WA).
Raw Porcelain Tiles
We shipped the raw porcelain tiles from Italy.
It’s also quite normal to import high quality sanitary wear (taps, sinks, bathroom appliances) from Europe.
Raw Porcelain Tiles
Some of the internal cladding on this project is called paper rock.
Paper rock is paper with layers of resin and paper – dark black with a glossy finish.
We also used a lot of raw steel. The stairwells and balustrades are raw and galvanised steel. Those were polished and given a sealer.
We used rammed earth in the undercroft – again – to give a natural feeling that has its own beauty.
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Nature & Home Design
Trees and plants work like evaporative cooling systems.
They absorb heat during the day and in the evening they lose moisture with the evaporation from leaves.
This cools the surrounding air. This works well in a courtyard – or the atrium (pictured)
The tree in this courtyard is deciduous. In summer it will bush out, giving lots of shade in the hot summer months and in winter when the leaves drop, it lets the sun through.
Also, with North Fremantle being so close to the sea, the atrium provides a natural area that isn’t shaken by the elements. It’s wind free.
You can keep your windows and sliding windows open all the time.
Construction Materials
We use natural raw materials inside and outside the home.
Accoya (wood) cladding throughout gives the home a nice, raw feel.
Locally sourced materials
Today, there’s more of an environmental push towards using local materials. An added advantage of using local products is that you can get things quicker.
Granite & Marble stone tops
Specific, coloured granite or marble stone tops come from overseas.
We usually import tap ware from Europe. It’s not economical to make these items in Australia. Whilst there’s a transport cost, the scale of production keeps the costs down.
Rammed Earth
Rammed earth is popular in SW Western Australia
Rammed Earth is very much an Australian thing. It’s used in the Southwest of Western Australia and Margaret River in particular. It provides a simple, quick and easy way of building structures.
It is a fantastic insulator which works well in climates (like down south) where there are big temperature differences. It can absorb heat in the day ready to release on a cold night.
Supply Issues due to COVID-19
Currently, there’s an issue with aluminium and powder-coating aluminium. In the old days we just used a silver mill finish, but everything is mostly powder-coated now.
The biggest wait was for Equitone – a dense, fibre cement. When used as part of a ventilated rain screen cladding system or rear-ventilated curtain wall facade, Equitone panels allow air to circulate behind the cladding, keeping moisture, mold, heat, and frost away from the building.
Happy Clients say…
We bought an old 2 storey home that we seriously considered knocking down to start again. We met with Rob Hyde, who was able to see out the box and how we could achieve all our goals by altering the existing structure. We are delighted with the result, the turnaround time was much quicker than starting again and we had a lot more budget to invest into the finishes than we would have if we had started from scratch…”
After months of research we appointed Portrait Custom Homes to build our new family home in Applecross. From the start Rob had a very competitive, open book approach to pricing and an exemplary work ethic in keeping the job on track. Rob’s sound technical knowledge and open communication have made dealing with Portrait Custom Homes a pleasure. We moved into our new home on time and we are extremely proud of the quality and workmanship.
We met with and got quotes from a few builders recommended to us by our architect. At our first meeting with Rob Hyde, we immediately felt comfortable working with him – he was thorough, knowledgeable and transparent. We can only say that he has a great team of people, trades and suppliers that he works with. The quality of finish is outstanding and our building experience could not have been better.