SLEEK OR SANDSTOCK STYLE BRICKS ?

Hi all........I'm after your opinions, please :

this is what we will be building with a varioation on the balcony.
[IMG=http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/7200/edenbraegeorgesfairfronfg3.th.jpg]][/img]

[IMG=http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/4641/edenbraegeorgesfairfronah4.th.jpg][img]

It is a contmeporary style. We will be building in brickface & thei only part of the house to be rendered will be the balcony at the front & another one down the side.

We will be building in PGH Roman Greenway :

http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgu ... %26hl%3Den
Click on Colours & Textures, then click on Convict Sandstone.

Now my question is : with a contmporary styled home such as this, can I get away with the greenway, which has texture & rough edges ?
I want to get away from the very "now" smooth face bricks which are all the rage & which just aren't my cup of tea. I don't want the house to look dated in 20 years, so I thought that using a more conventional brick with complementary modern details ( cladding, rendering) might achieve that.

What do you all think?

Also, should the mortar be flush or raked ?

Again, thanks in advance !

Hi Southies,

I think it would look very strange - but I'm a lover of modern smooth brick - if you really like that brick - perhaps you could style the rest of the house in a federation feel?

If you choose your colours carefully - it might work - federation reds, greens & creams.

I'd go raked mortar.

And this is a better link I think to your brick details:

http://tiny.cc/NdB9X

I think it should look fine..............

Thanks guys for your input.

Michelle, would you go flush mortar to tie in with the modern look or go raked?

I notice your bricks aren’t even around the edges, by going flush you will highlight this, and make it stand out more, therefore making the mortar very obvious.

By racking the mortar, the character of your bricks will be more prominent.

your pick???

Good points - didn't think of that ? Gee this is tuff !

Rack them!

Thanks Michelle

We have built using the same style of bricks but different colours (Cadman & Blackett). Like you, we did not like smooth bricks. The outside of our house is raked and I think it looks great. However, due to a mistake on our builder's part, the internal brick walls were given a flush mortar and it was a disaster. The style of brick means that you end up with huge expanses of mortar and I have spent days chipping away at our walls to try and remove the big chunks of mortar which filled in the uneven gaps. We hated the look so much that we wanted the walls torn down but we were persuaded that it would be too expensive. God, I wish we had not listened and just demolished them. Even now, after years of living in this house, I find myself chipping away - at least it is a form of therapy for those stress filled days.

Neverfinished…..can you post a photo of them, internal?

It’s a good point to make for others in here.

I'd be happy to however there are two problems:
1. My camera needs charging
2. I have never posted a photo online - in fact, I have never even added a picture to my pc. I will ask my husband for help when he gets home from his boys' day out watching the motorbike races. However I cannot promise that it will be done tonight.

Neverfinished (love the username....matches mine)

I've PM-ed this to a couple of people who were having problems with posting photos....no harm in posting.....


If you are posting images from a website then have a look at this thread...

https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.p ... sc&start=0

If you want to post your own images most people on the forum use http://photobucket.com/ and follow **P**'s succint instructions from which I've extracted for you...

https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.p ... sc&start=0



Basically with photobucket you post the IMG code and then directs you post to look in your PhotoBucket account...
and in case you're worred I've had my PhotoBucket account since December and no spam emails from them..

to_do_list,
Thanks for the instructions. I'll have a go tomorrow when I have charged the camera and I am not suffering the effects of a nice bottle of red. Actually, just thinking about these internal walls and the botched up job that the brickies made of them is enough to make me want to open another bottle! The worst part is that they were built 26 years ago and we were charged $613 / thousand bricks to lay them. I have no idea of the cost of laying bricks now but in 1982 the usual cost was about $250 /thousand. (Which we found out after our builder paid the brickies).
I only hope your to_do_list doesn't take as long as mine. We never got to the end of our original list and now we are starting back at the beginning with the need to seriously renovate the house we built and to replace many of our appliances.
Sorry to the OP for going off track.

Hang on...you missed one:

3. I'm half sozzled.....http://i241.photobucket.com/albums/ff2/mikeb1968/drunk.gif

Alright, I have no faith that this is going to work but below is a picture of my shocking brickwork with flushed joints. I have left out the closeups as the wall is too ugly to share.


http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk279/Neverfinished05/th_Pictures2008a070.jpg

Edited to add: Oh my God!!! It actually worked. Thank you to Phoenix and to-do-list for dragging me into the 21st century.

I don’t think it looks that bad!!!!

Your bricks are a lot like mine! I have flush on mine also, and it looks good.
Your mortar is dark, I went with white.

I think your bricks are a little wider than the above bricks.

Thanks for the photo!!!!