We’re looking at a house to buy which has an extension on the side. It looks like a variety of different types of bricks have been used and the front of the house doesn’t look great. If that problem can’t be resolved then we’re not interested.

How easy is this sort of problem to fix? And how much is it likely to cost. I’m assuming there’s some blasting thing that can be done to make them all look the same. Many thanks.

Brick tinting will fix it. Cost about £700-£900. Search Google

http://brick-tinting.co.uk/gallery

C

That looks like 3 cheapo job lots of bricks. What were they thinking of?

Awesome! I was searching last night with different phrases and it kept coming back with masonary paint. Tinting was the word. That’s great, ta. Looks like that’s exactly what we need.

Alternatively you could render over for 30 quid per sqm

No idea what they were thinking. It used to be a garage on the ground floor I think but it’s now a bedroom and bathroom.

If we buy we’re going to split that ground floor wing in half, make the front half a study/games room and make the back half a bike/utility room.

Upstairs the 4th bedroom will just become an extension on the bathroom.

We use firms like this all the time where bricks are a bad match, have been stained, damaged etc. They work wonders.

If that extension is 3 sides, it will take about 5-6 hours on a dry day. Make sure you are at home at the time so they can only go when you are happy (even if they spend another 30 mins going over an area again)

DO NOT BUY ONE OF THE KITS ON THE MARKET AND ‘HAVE A GO’ YOURSELF!!!

C

wouldn’t rendering just cover the bricks up? That’s not what we want.

Nope, this is definately the sort of job I’d leave to someone else.

Looks like they’ve used yet another batch of bricks for the back of the extension. 😉

If your going to tint, get the owners to sort it out
or find someone that as done it before and get the money off the purchase price.

You could also render the extension as it looks inset from the front of the house.

As ChrisE recommends bricktinting will sort that out no problem. I often get involved in looking at sites that require bricktinting on new bricks, and the process works very well.

On your last pic that looks like the red bricks have been painted? That could be more of an issue.

Just waiting for the viewing to be arranged now, hopefully tomorrow. I’ll check out if those bricks are painted or not. I’m assuming they’d need to be stripped in some way first? The house is empty and stripped so they’ve either already moved out or died. The house is really cheap for what it is (£160k) and the area seems nice. I’m trying to work out what the problem is with it. Back and side garden are a little small but knocking down the partition between them would open them up a bit.

Is the attention to detail on the rest of the construction as ropey as the brick choice?

The brick tinting is pretty impressive!

Id be going down kona bunnys route of thinking as if its bodged on the surface i would really want to poke much deeper under the surface.

If you dont know what your looking for then get someone who does.

Is cheap for a reason i guarantee it.

I’d look to see how well the extension brickwork is tied into the original, from the photo is doesn’t look like they are, or is it just me?

from the photo is doesn’t look like they are, or is it just me?

Looks like its set back from the main house.

Some nice stone cladding will sort that out.

Some nice stone cladding will sort that out.

And some ducks for the wall on the inside 😆

That’s where we’re moving from. 😉

We have a friendly brickie who I would always get in to have a look at things before we consider making an offer but I just wanted to get a quick understanding on whether this particular issue was hard to solve.

Thanks for the advice.

For 160K you not in London then

Nice one wish you luck in your future new home 😉

Looks to me like its been built in three stages:

1) Single storey garage with a flat roof
2) Garage Bricked up
3) Additional storey added

Which of course brings up a variety of issues:

Is the extension single skin?
Was the footing suitable for a single storey single skin garage or has it been increased to suit a 2 storey cavity wall construction and tiled pitched roof?

Obviously all of the above should have been completed completed by a competent builder who would have called in the local authority building control to check for compliance with building regs.

Definately get it thoroughly checked over.

If you do buy it, Samurai, be sure to post over here in a year or so. 8)

As above! I wouldn’t be bothered initially about the aesthetics but more the construction. Did it have full planning? When? With full regs? Inspected? The bricks can look as matched as you like but with a big **** off crack down the centre falling away from the original house and cold as hell cos it’s only 4″ is much more important!

You’ve got to wonder what kind of detail and thought went into the bits you can’t see when they did the brickwork like that. I imagine it is cheap because people are scared. Personally I’d walk away because I wouldn’t want the risk.

I like the fact his monoblock drive is a better match for the original brick work than the ones he used 🙂