How to get rid of ugly bricks on front of house

Dubhghaill · 4 Aug 2015

I currently own a chalet bungalow which is primarily concrete and standard red bricks. Unfortunately the front of the house has some weird bricks that are pretty ugly.

From inside the garage you can see that the bricks have nothing behind them, and they're only a couple of inches thick so I'm pretty sure they're not load bearing.

I'm wondering how to get rid of them. The house would look so much nicer with a plain render painted white.

Any suggestions?

Crystalclear · 4 Aug 2015

Knock them down? Humm, is it the colour of the stones that annoy you? Or just the shape/colour/design altogether?

I'd suggest quality masonry paint to match your other walls.

^woody^ · 4 Aug 2015

Classic 70's ... are you sure it's not listed?

Take them off, there might be a wall behind them

mattylad · 4 Aug 2015

Did Jack & Vera once live there?

If you think they are ugly, what made you buy the property?

endecotp · 4 Aug 2015

Look at neighbouring properties. Or even ask the neighbours if they remember this fiish being added.

I suspect this is cladding, and you'll find a normal wall behind. But you'd want to be really sure before knocking it down.

maltaron · 5 Aug 2015

They look like brick slips, normally around 20mm thick and stuck with mortar or tile cement. Or possibly brick effect cladding panels.

freddiemercurystwin · 5 Aug 2015

Can we see a pic of the whole elevation please?

endecotp · 5 Aug 2015

Looking again, I don't see any repeating pattern. So maybe it's not cladding.

JBR · 5 Aug 2015

maltaron said:
They look like brick slips, normally around 20mm thick and stuck with mortar or tile cement. Or possibly brick effect cladding panels.

Yes, that's what the Duckworths did to 'improve' their house.
I can't imagine why anyone in their right mind would want to ruin a perfectly good house in that way!

mfarrow · 6 Aug 2015

It looks like they were installed before the windows, so you'll have to move those in too.

Dubhghaill · 6 Aug 2015

Crystalclear said:
Knock them down? Humm, is it the colour of the stones that annoy you? Or just the shape/colour/design altogether?

I'd suggest quality masonry paint to match your other walls.

Basically everything about them.

^woody^ said:
Classic 70's ... are you sure it's not listed?

Take them off, there might be a wall behind them

Maybe over the front reception room, but not in the garage!

mattylad said:
Did Jack & Vera once live there?

If you think they are ugly, what made you buy the property?

Sometimes when buying a house in London you can't be picky. The house is fine inside.

endecotp said:
Look at neighbouring properties. Or even ask the neighbours if they remember this fiish being added.

I suspect this is cladding, and you'll find a normal wall behind. But you'd want to be really sure before knocking it down.

This house was built between two others which are not alike. This road was badly bombed in the war so there are some 1920s bungalows with a few randoms between.

I'm sure there are breeze blocks or whatever behind them in the internal rooms since they
have quite a deep windowsill.

freddymercurystwin said:
Can we see a pic of the whole elevation please?

Like this?

mfarrow said:
It looks like they were installed before the windows, so you'll have to move those in too.

I'm having new windows fitted next week which is what made me think about them!

Bonus shot of porch area ceiling:

plugwash · 6 Aug 2015

Those blocks in your garage definately look structural so I expect the rest of them are as well. On the house there will probablly be an inner leaf of the wall but the outer leaf will be part of the structure and not something that can be trivially replaced.

I guess you could render the wall or possiblly fit some sort of cladding. IMO those blocks look much nicer than boring brick or render but each to their own I guess.

endecotp · 6 Aug 2015

You might be able to work out the construction by removing part of the wooden cladding at first floor level and looking at the top of the lower outer wall. If you can do that without trashing it.

mattylad · 6 Aug 2015

This is going to be costly.

just build a new brick front, in front of this wall

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How to get rid of ugly bricks on front of house

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