A villa restoration asks for two things of the timber: the same species as the original, and the same profile. The second part is straightforward. A cabinet-maker can mill a profile to match any sample we provide. The first part is the hard one. Heart rimu, kauri, matai, and totara in the widths and grades used in 1900 are not cut in New Zealand today. The supply is recycled, and the market for it is small and competitive.

The recyclers we work with

There are half a dozen recycled-timber yards in Auckland that we source from regularly. The inventory turns over week by week. A client or architect who has walked through the yards with us has a better sense of what is available and at what length. On a villa in Herne Bay or Devonport where we need twelve metres of six by one kauri architrave in one continuous grain, a visit to the yard before the scope is finalised often changes the specification.

Three-metre lengths are plentiful. Six-metre lengths are scarce. A continuous eight-metre run of heart rimu flooring to match an original hallway can mean waiting two or three months for a single villa demolition to come through the yard.

When the original cannot be matched

Two standard responses. First option: match the species but accept some grain variation, and position the new timber where the variation is least visible. A replacement architrave on a bedroom door can carry slightly different grain to the original if the bedroom is not part of the principal heritage sequence in the house. Second option: match the profile in a different species and stain or oil to read similar at distance, on the understanding that a close look will reveal the difference.

On character overlay work in Mount Eden, Ponsonby, or Devonport, the heritage assessment sometimes specifies that replacement is with the same species. We have yet to be refused a sympathetic substitution where the argument is made in writing with photos of what is available in the yards. The conversation happens with the architect and planner upstream.

The repair we prefer to replacement

Scarf-jointing a rotted section of architrave rather than replacing the full length. Splicing a new tread into a stair where the nosing is dressed to match. Filling and finishing a small section of original timber rather than pulling the whole board. Original timber almost always reads better than replacement once the finish is on. A careful scarf joint at a discreet location is invisible at two metres. A full replacement is obvious for years.

Skirting and architrave: the detail the eye catches

The eye catches a mismatched skirting or architrave faster than almost any other detail in a villa. Colour can often be tuned with oil and wax, but the profile has to be exactly right. We mill new profiles from a sample pulled off site. The cabinet-maker we use specialises in heritage profiles and keeps a library of common Auckland profiles by decade.

Flooring: the strategic question

If the original floor is heart rimu strip and has lifted in the entry hallway, the question is whether to lift and repair or lift and replace. Our default is repair. Sanding and refinishing a hundred-year-old floor that has one good sand left in it is preferable to pulling it out, because what goes back in will almost certainly be a wider board, a different heartwood figure, and a different moisture behaviour across the first twelve months.

A specific project

On a villa restoration in Herne Bay in 2024 we replaced eleven metres of rotted kauri skirting around a formal dining room. Three linear metres came from Quayside Recyclers, five metres from a second yard in Mount Roskill, and three metres were retained from the original after scarfing. The finish is a single oil coat over the lot. Two years on, the difference between retained and replaced is visible only under close daylight on the south wall. That is as close as we get.

What to expect on a restoration timeline

Timber sourcing for a heritage villa restoration adds two to six weeks to the procurement programme. Start the conversation at developed design stage. Visit the yards with the architect before the specification locks in. The timber stock visit is one of the most useful half-days on the project.

A note on finishes

New timber and retained timber finish differently. A hundred-year-old kauri accepts an oil coat with visible grain that a freshly milled kauri will not match in the first year. We sometimes age new boards with a diluted tannin wash before the first oil coat to close the gap. Even then the finish evens out fully only after two to three summers of daylight. Factor that into the expectation you set with the client.