Re-pointing external brickwork advice needed please!

[BenHutton]

Hi,

I live in an end of terrace Victorian house in London. The pointing is in a bad way and is made worse by the house being painted an awful terracotta colour. I've had some brick refurb firms quote up to 15k to re-point the whole house, strip the paint and restore the bricks to their natural appearance. I don't really have 15k spare! So was wondering what my options were. The house is double fronted and has a large flank wall (see pics).

//media.diynot.com/160000_159267_45484_13576548_thumb.jpg

//media.diynot.com/160000_159267_45485_20886260_thumb.jpg

//media.diynot.com/160000_159267_45486_46125870_thumb.jpg

So a few questions:

Am I better off just leaving it for someone else to carry out down the line? Will this automatically knock off 15k off the value of the house and deter any non developer type buyers?

Are there structural concerns or will I be ok leaving it a couple of years? The front and back are painted so should be fairly weatherproof and the flank wall is sheltered.

Would it be worth my while trying to patch up the worst bits on the front and back and then perhaps repaint to improve the aesthetics and hence reduce the negative impression the brickwork currently has?

The flank wall is barley in view- could I perhaps pepple dash/render this rather than giving it a full expensive refurb?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers

Ben

 

[cotswoldbuilders]

Cant see clearly from the photos, but the brickwork looks pretty sound.
I cant imagine it would cost any where near 15k to rake out and repoint.
I wouldnt advise rendering it, get some more prices in.

 

[huddsspread]

Because of where you are ( london ) you are probably getting priced on your road. ( im from essex originally ) If i was you id get about 10 quotes, and not from builders, from bricklayers, as they lay bricks and then point them. 15K is about 12k to much! Where in london are you?

 

[BenHutton]

Interesting. We're in East London. The quotes were from proper brick referb companies if that makes sense. I spose the issue is that once you re-point do you not either need to repaint or do a full referb as it'll look messy given it's currently painted?

 

[joe-90]

How do the wide-boys propose to get the paint off?

 

[BenHutton]

Not sure! Some form of paint stripper or something. What would you guys do it my situation? The flank wall is prob the worst in terms of pointing but obviously nobody sees that so would it be money wasted getting that sorted?

 

[joe-90]

You can't use paint stripper. My guess is the cowboys will sand blast it and take the face off the brick. Just repaint it a colour you like. Simples.

 

[BenHutton]

Ok so re-point and then repaint is the way to go then? How much roughly should the re-pointing be say per m2?

 

[huddsspread]

Ok so re-point and then repaint is the way to go then? How much roughly should the re-pointing be say per m2?

My neighbour charges £20 a sqm, thats raking out and re pointing, plus materials which wont be a lot.