
【1. Walls – Mud Bricks, Blue Bricks, Rubble Masonry】
Vernacular houses in Hakka villages tend to be constructed with 3 main materials, mud bricks, blue bricks, and rubble masonry. Old village houses tend to be constructed with mud bricks. Wealthier villagers would construct the front façade of the house with blue bricks and construct the other three facades with mud bricks. The even wealthier villagers construct the whole house with blue bricks (such as the Tang Ancestral Shrine, now part of the Ping Shan Heritage Trail). However, such elaborate houses are rarely seen in the northeastern villages of New Territories.
【2. Timber Roof Structures】
Older buildings tend to have timber roof structures. The beams, parallel to the ridge, support the rafters, which in turn support the tiles. The tiles protect the building from rain and prevent leakage. Denser rafters offer better structural support, yet they are also more expensive. Some villagers mention denser rafters can also prevent thieves from entering the house through the roof.
The main beam beneath the ridge supports the weight of the whole roof. Usually the thickest round logs will be used. They are often painted in red, with red cloths and coins hung on them for luck. Some of the richer families would also install an ‘offspring’ beam.
Some of the common timber types used in old house construction are fir, teak, burma padauk and burmese ironwood. Timber cannot be used immediately after logging. They have to be dried slowly to avoid shrinkage and crackling.
The structural components of old buildings in villages in Northeastern New Territories are rarely constructed with mortise-tenon joints. Such joints are mostly used in smaller objects, such as wooden window frames. Woodworkers coats bamboo nails with tung oil and heats them to reduce moisture in the bamboo. Tung oil repels bugs hardens wood, it is said that the wood can last a hundred years after the oil treatment.
【3. Roof tiles】
There are four common types of roof tiles: flat tiles, blue tiles, cylindrical tiles and glazed tiles. There are other types such as drip tiles, translucent tiles and tile ends. In principle, the roof tile system guides water away from the house, so as to avoid water from entering the house through slits. The structure has to be heavy to create a compact roof.
A three-layered system waterproofs the tiled roof. The base tiles form the bottom layer, the middle layer is composed of obliquely arranged flat tiles, cylindrical tiles or blue tiles cover the gaps between flat tiles. Mortar covers the interior and exterior of cylindrical tiles.

The slope of the roof pitch is also considered. The steeper the slope, the faster the water flows away, but it will be easier for the tiles to slip. From experience, the most suitable slope is about 27-30 degrees, and the flat tiles should be laid in a way that 70% of the tile is overlapped and 30% is exposed.
If there are too many leaves gathering on the tile roof or plants start to grow, water will be channeled into the gaps, resulting in leakage. Thus, the tile roofs need to be maintained regularly, such as to remove siltation and moss. If the house is abandoned and not maintained, the village house will leak very soon. Once the timber structure gets damp, it will start to rot, termites and other insects will also start to eat wood. Therefore, the roofs of old houses tend to fall first, leaving only four walls.
