We are currently getting a 2 storey extension built to the rear of our house. We were told to vacate the property after 1 week, so we have not been on site, however our architect is the site manager and is keeping an eye on things. we have visited twice in the evenings to pick post up etc but then we shortly leave again. This evening my husband was over and took some photos for me to show me their progress (I’m 6 months pregnant so time is a factor for us) and in one of the photos it seems the brickwork of the extension does not line up very well with the brickwork of our original house. at the start the builder did show us some bricks he could use so we chose the ones that were best colour wise, he didn’t mention they would be any different size wise but it looks like they are. He said to order any other bricks would be 6 -8 weeks, but to us they looked a good enough match so we went ahead. We’re disappointed with how the brickwork looks, is this a bad job or just down to the bricks possibly being a different size? Is there anyway to improve this? They are now well up to the second storey. Sorry the image isn’t great but it was dark (the left side is the new brickwork)
Wrong bricks used I guess.. My house bricks come in 3 sizes and wrong size used on our extension. I was told it was all that was available but I have since found out that was wrong information. Oh well. Done now and looks similar to yours. Right size bricks are 3 times the price though
If the original house has imperial bricks and you have new metric bricks then this problem will occur. A common way to try to hide it is to site the rainwater downpipe over the join.
What Astramax is alluding to is that if the original property is old enough then the original bricks will be a different size, (imperial, not metric). It would be possible to get bricks of the original size, but that would be costly... possibly/probably too costly. What you are experiencing is very common, and you will see it on LOADS AND LOADS of extensions! Sometimes the join can be hidden/disguised by a gutter drainpipe or something similar. I'm not a builder, only DIY, but I fear there is not much to be done about this... basically, it's to be expected. Regards, Cando
It’s a 1950’s house. After reading online, I saw that there’s an issue with metric and imperial and guessed that might be it, I know nothing about building though.
You can still get imperial bricks in some designs. Might have to special order them and the cost puts some off. Place in Oxford sell my London bricks in wire rustic I found out
If you hate it that much then consider a different finish for the second storey such as cladding or render, if you do choose an alternative finish you will want to inform the builders asap so they use concrete blocks rather than waste money and time laying face brickwork to cover it over in a couple of weeks.
Hi. I think I’ll just stick with the bricks, I don’t want to draw more attention to the area if I can. Hopefully a drain pipe or something might help with the join. I guess we’ll just have to put up with it. I think I was just worried that it was a dodgy Job or something, so at least it’s not that, just cosmetic.
Hi Wayners, not really tbh. He just showed us two bricks which he thought were the closest match, and the other wasn’t as close so we chose that one. He just explained that to order any others could take up to 8 weeks. Colour wise it was a good match but we weren’t aware the size was different and he didn’t mention that to us.
I did wonder about that actually, but worse things have happened, I doubt on a 1950's property it would be a planning crisis and I'm sure there's procedures to alter the spec.
One other question, is toothing in the brickwork rather than having a join no longer recommended? Most of the houses on our street have extensions and all that I can see are toothed in which looks a lot better.
Has to be an a straight joint rather than toothed in to allow for the extension to move independent from the house. If it's brick/block construction then imperial bricks would cause issue with tying into blockwork. You'd end up with ties pointing up and the potential for water to track along the tie.
As Dan Parkinson said, you also see a lot of extensions set back from the front of the house to alleviate this issue, though toothing in isn't strictly forbidden.
I think the other thing possibly is a lot of the other extensions have been completed a fair while ago when I assume building regs were different, re; toothing.