Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 09, 2013 11:29 am Has anybody used PGH Crevole bricks for their build? Did you get any rust stains after the initial cleaning process? I want to use light coloured bricks and was leaning towards Crevole. However my Colour Consultant mentioned that there were some issues regarding rust stains with Crevole after the initial cleaning process. My initial selection of Sand Dune was rejected by DA. Just hoping to get some feedback from people who actually used Crevole. Re: ? Rust stains with Crevole bricks 2Apr 09, 2013 7:20 pm We plan to use Crevole when we build so can't help you with personal experience. However there is a display home near to us with expansive use of Crevole and it looks great, no sign of any stains. I'd say it was built around 12 months ago. If you like the brick I'd be asking your colour consultant for more information. "Some issues regarding rust stains after the initial cleaning process" seems a bit vague to me. Surely if there have been "issues" there would have been some investigation into the cause. Was the problem with the brick or the cleaning process? When we were looking at light bricks we noticed many had a "veneer" of colour over a darker brick, so if the brick was chipped the under colour would show. The light colour of Crevole went much deeper into the brick than others, this is one of the reasons we like it. Please update if you get any further information, might even be worth contacting PGH if you are concerned. Re: ? Rust stains with Crevole bricks 3Apr 09, 2016 10:38 pm Hi about a half year ago we selected PGH Crevole for our home. That time in Schofields PGH display centre the wall with Crevole has been demolished, but there was a wall with PGH Frost. And comparing samples we concluded that PGH Crevole is whiter than PGH Frost and PGH Frost is pinkish and you can "feel" that PGH Frost is thin layer of white clay and the core of the brick is a standard pink/rose/red klinned clay. The whitest possible is what we were looking for. So we did choose Crevole. Today just for fun we visited the display centre again, they restored the wall but we got very disappointed. Because even within such a small wall sample there is awful visible colour variations: 1. there is an area circled with blue, where brick is grayish, have no idea what it is but I definitely do not want to see something similar on my walls 2. there are spots of yellow (circled red) as if coming from inside of the brick... looks like those "rust stains" this topic starts from You need to see full-size image to spot those yellow spots Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ What makes us even more frustrated is that nobody in the display centre can say the definite difference between PGH Frost and PGH Crevole, however, cost is different. Moreorver we suspect the staff of the display centre mixed 2 varieties one of this was labeled as PGH Frost and another as PGH Crevole: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Who could help to figure out "who is who?". Apparently PGH personnel in Schofields are not helpful at all. If anybody own the house build of Crevole could you please share photos or tell about your satisfaction/dissatisfaction with the brick and the colour after some time? Thanks. We originally was inspired by this building on Bondi https://www.google.com.au/maps/@-33.888 ... !1e1?hl=en (that time we thought it was PGH Crevole, now I do not know, may be it is PGH Frost) Building Casaview Denison 30 https://fortdenison.wordpress.com/about Re: ? Rust stains with Crevole bricks 4Apr 10, 2016 3:51 pm Hi xyz Our bricks were laid just over 2 years ago . To answer 1. The greyish areas. The only time I see this is after a good amount of rain. The bricks look greyish when wet but go back to normal when they dry out. Some sections stay wet longer than others (less direct sun etc.) but hasn't worried me. To answer 2. While the bricks were still being laid we saw some (not many) with yellow/orange stains, as you said like rust stains. You couldn't miss them, they were really obvious. Our builder organised a special brick colour to be applied over the worst section. The rest were left. Over time the discolouration has disappeared completely or at least faded. The good news is that we haven't noticed other bricks developing these stains. They had them early or not at all. I'd suggest you talk to your builder and ask the brickies not to use these discoloured bricks or, at least, lay them in inconspicuous areas. We also had some bricks leech salt but that corrected itself as well. I do know how you feel. We originally liked one of the "veneer" type bricks at a display. When we went back months later they looked a completely different colour, as if the veneer was wearing off. It wasn't our imagination because we had a sample we had kept indoors and it was different to the faded display wall. Of course I can only tell you about our experience as batches will have changed, but I would use Crevole again. We wanted subtle, and they are, with just enough variation in colour and texture to give a bit of character. Also love the straight lines you get (see the last few pics). Here are some pics I took today. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Bricks 01 by snufl, on Flickr Found one stained, in a shaded area so maybe hasn't bleached out? Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Bricks 02 by snufl, on Flickr -Another stained one. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Bricks 03 by snufl, on Flickr Look at the bottom of garage door, right hand side, a few "rusty". But there were quite a few REALLY obvious at front of house when we first moved in, they have since faded so you can't pick them. There is some variation in individual brick colours but that is normal. A few more photos, no stains at all. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Bricks 04 by snufl, on Flickr Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Bricks 05 by snufl, on Flickr Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Bricks 06 by snufl, on Flickr PS. Forgot to mention. The "rusty" bricks were like that when laid. When we spoke to our bricklayer he seemed confident that the stains would disappear when bricks were cleaned - they didn't. Thankfully the house was only partially bricked at that stage and he tried cleaning one section. Once he saw it didn't work, he avoided using any other badly stained bricks. Re: ? Rust stains with Crevole bricks 5Apr 10, 2016 8:42 pm Hi snufl, thank you for photos! I appreciate it. Today we drove all Sydney looking on different brickwork (PGH provided the list of delivery addresses). Also I searched for images in the Internet. and: This is PGH Crevole on your back yard (behold 3 round holes in the brick): Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ This brick has been sold on Gumtree as PGH Crevole (behold 10 2x5 holes) Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ This brick has been sold on Gumtree as PGH Frons (behold 3 round holes again) Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Here on this forum viewtopic.php?f=31&t=67468 Behold 3 holes again! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ viewtopic.php?f=31&t=67468 and in PGH display centre in Schofields: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The left has been marked and Frost (9 holes) and the right has been marked as Crevole (3 round holes). To my non-professional sight the left product is of much better quality because you can see that core of the brick mostly of the same white colour, however, the right is seemingly of lower quality, because the "raw" uncoloured part of the brick is bigger and much dirtier... It looks like that "veneer coloured" brick. I have 2 theories: 1. PGH workers mix two sorts of bricks 2. PGH has 2+ production lines for Crevole, and quality variation between them is such that worst Crevole is nothing better (if not worse) than good Frost. If theory 2 is true, then for me it is NO-GO. We cannot pay for 50% more expensive brick which has such non-stable quality. I love this brick when it is of right colour and with no deffects, because even with that poorly coloured small display wall in Schofields you can feel the difference: any darker brick is warmer when this one is still staying "morning" cool. It is such a pity we may need to swap it with some other light brick. But no other brick stay such thermally well. Building Casaview Denison 30 https://fortdenison.wordpress.com/about Re: ? Rust stains with Crevole bricks 6Apr 10, 2016 9:10 pm Today we visited 114 Curlewis St, Bondi Beach, where we saw this brick during construction of that building somewhere in November. It proofs only one thing: when a bricklayer is good, when the quality of bricks is good as well, result is astonishing. Also may be on such vast areas of brickwork it is very hard to spot something wrong. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Building Casaview Denison 30 https://fortdenison.wordpress.com/about Re: ? Rust stains with Crevole bricks 7Apr 10, 2016 9:38 pm however, even in this magnificent building in Bondi Beach, on the first floor, there is an issue: black stains on the bricks... very similar to those on left-overs that people sold on Gumtree... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Looks like the bricklayers choose the least visible space to lay these "defective" bricks. However, if I were owner of that apartment I would not consider my balcony "least visible space" Building Casaview Denison 30 https://fortdenison.wordpress.com/about Re: ? Rust stains with Crevole bricks 8Apr 10, 2016 10:17 pm snufl Hi xyz Our bricks were laid just over 2 years ago . Thank you for exhaustive set of photos. Also I noticed that your mortar technique was probably flash. Am I right? Probably this is the first time we see "flash", all other buildings were "raked". Building Casaview Denison 30 https://fortdenison.wordpress.com/about ? Rust stains with Crevole bricks 9Apr 11, 2016 5:28 am They're lovely bricks. Bricks vary because clay is natural therefore prone to colour variations. Soil colours change across the country. For example although we have PGH quarries and kilns here, we don't have Crevole or Frost here in SA. We can get them but transport adds $$$. Could the differences with those bricks be because they are from different states? Did you do your Gumtree search for your state only? Possible they've been mis-labelled by seller too. We built our house with PGH Bianca. They are similar but I think they are in SA only. They too are creamy/white slurry brick but have a light pinky/cream clay base. All bricks will chip so we need to consider that when choosing ... Doesn't really bother me, I reckon they'll hold up well enough over the years. If I get too many chips that do start to stand out, I'll mix up a white watery paint wash and brush over Re: ? Rust stains with Crevole bricks 10Apr 11, 2016 7:36 am [quote="xyz"]however, even in this magnificent building in Bondi Beach, on the first floor, there is an issue: black stains on the bricks... very similar to those on left-overs that people sold on Gumtree... Looks like the bricklayers choose the least visible space to lay these "defective" bricks. However, if I were owner of that apartment I would not consider my balcony "least visible space" /quote] I have never seen anything like this on our bricks. Looking at the photo even the mortar looks grey in places. To me this looks like dirt or mould on the surface rather than defective bricks? Re: ? Rust stains with Crevole bricks 11Apr 11, 2016 8:23 am xyz snufl Hi xyz Our bricks were laid just over 2 years ago . Thank you for exhaustive set of photos. Also I noticed that your mortar technique was probably flash. Am I right? Probably this is the first time we see "flash", all other buildings were "raked". Yes, ours are a flush joint. The reason is that our house is very exposed to salt laden wind. By keeping the wall as flush as possible it gives the salt a chance to wash away rather than sitting in the crevices of a raked joint. So it is to minimise the risk of salt damage to the mortar. The Crevole is an exposure grade brick, so I think the quality would have to be high to cope with extreme conditions. I've had a good look at your photos of the Bondi units and I have to say our actual bricks look as good as the ones used there, I really had to search around the house yesterday to find the few stained ones I photographed. The raked joint does accentuate the lovely straight edges of the brick, but we went with practicality. We still get lovely straight edges and corners to the house which I like. The 3 Holes - Yes, our sample brick and all the bricks laid had 3 holes. I believe that, because of the light clay colour, they come from Queensland. Re: ? Rust stains with Crevole bricks 12Apr 11, 2016 7:47 pm TomCat We built our house with PGH Bianca. They are similar but I think they are in SA only. They too are creamy/white slurry brick but have a light pinky/cream clay base. All bricks will chip so we need to consider that when choosing ... Doesn't really bother me, I reckon they'll hold up well enough over the years. If I get too many chips that do start to stand out, I'll mix up a white watery paint wash and brush over That's actually why snufl have chosen PGH Crevole and that is why we are planing to use it. It is a premium brick and it coloured deeply inside. Agree "all the bricks chip", but this will remain white under the chip, contrary to PGH Frost which has a coloured veneer over the core. Of course some mold can grow here, some dirt can gather... but... It is pity that in SA there is not PGH Crevole. It should suit SA climate exceptionally well. As I can see here PGH Bianca is something like PGH Frost, the same thin coloured layer over the core: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ may be, sorry, even worse (it terms of whiteness) than PGH Frost. Building Casaview Denison 30 https://fortdenison.wordpress.com/about Re: ? Rust stains with Crevole bricks 13Apr 11, 2016 8:03 pm TomCat Could the differences with those bricks be because they are from different states? Did you do your Gumtree search for your state only? Australia wide, I would even say world-wide, because there almost no information from independent sources (non-PGH) about that bricks so I google the widest possible way and found only little. TomCat Possible they've been mis-labelled by seller too. The probability of this enrages me. I think PGH could at least always produce this brick on the same equipment using the same core hole pattern. They know it sometimes easy to mix up Crevole and Frost, why not create some distinguishable looks for these 2 varieties? How can I be sure that piles of not cheap bricks they will deliver to my lot are of right sort? That makes me saaaaad panda... Building Casaview Denison 30 https://fortdenison.wordpress.com/about Re: ? Rust stains with Crevole bricks 14Apr 11, 2016 8:32 pm snufl I have never seen anything like this on our bricks. Looking at the photo even the mortar looks grey in places. To me this looks like dirt or mould on the surface rather than defective bricks? the camera didn't catch it well... but to my naked eye it looked like scam/cinder (similar to that you can see on some photos above not on face of the brick, but on top and bottom)... It seemed to me that stains was not result of damp patches/leaking... And too regular I think for mold. Vice verse as if brick has been drawn out of a kiln incorrectly or has been incorrectly extruded from. I hope I wrong Building Casaview Denison 30 https://fortdenison.wordpress.com/about Re: ? Rust stains with Crevole bricks 15Apr 11, 2016 8:53 pm snufl Yes, ours are a flush joint. The reason is that our house is very exposed to salt laden wind. By keeping the wall as flush as possible it gives the salt a chance to wash away rather than sitting in the crevices of a raked joint. So it is to minimise the risk of salt damage to the mortar. The Crevole is an exposure grade brick, so I think the quality would have to be high to cope with extreme conditions. Even with flush it looks great, we also plan to flush but mostly to avoid mold and dirt accumulation on mortar. After all in Sydney we all have just 3 metres to neighbours nowadays, a half of the house will be shadowed. snufl The 3 Holes - Yes, our sample brick and all the bricks laid had 3 holes. I believe that, because of the light clay colour, they come from Queensland. Alas, looks like number of holes is not a good indicator of the brick sort at all. And this is what we fetched from PGH Display Centre in November: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ I dare say left is PGH Frost and right is PGH Crevole, but cannot say definitely because they were mixed together either by customers or by the personnel... So they could be: -- with 3 holes -- with 10 holes -- with 9 holes (bigger oblong hole in the middle) Building Casaview Denison 30 https://fortdenison.wordpress.com/about Re: ? Rust stains with Crevole bricks 16Apr 21, 2016 11:39 pm And this is example of what could happen with Crevole, when a brickwork is not covered/not under eave. Water spilling from balcony leaves dump patches which become permanent stains with time. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Also I found that PGH recommends: "It is recommended that an ironed or flush mortar joint is used when Frost is laid." Looks like this is so because black scum that PGH Frost has on the top and bottom. If it is raked, it will be visible. Currently decided to stick with PGH Crevole (because other options we preferred PGH Sandstock range are even more expensive). In turn the builder promised to do everything to lay and then clean this brick the correct way. Building Casaview Denison 30 https://fortdenison.wordpress.com/about Re: ? Rust stains with Crevole bricks 17Jul 30, 2016 10:21 pm Our PGH Crevole has arrived! Yay! http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah4/xyz2016/Crevole%20Brick/IMG_7978_zpsrt5jjuty.jpg http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah4/xyz2016/Crevole%20Brick/IMG_7977_zpsalikusua.jpg http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah4/xyz2016/Crevole%20Brick/IMG_7976_zpsviyqayoy.jpg http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah4/xyz2016/Crevole%20Brick/IMG_7975_zpswvtmcnty.jpg http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah4/xyz2016/Crevole%20Brick/IMG_7974_zpsynqczuhn.jpg http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah4/xyz2016/Crevole%20Brick/IMG_7973_zps20hdltbf.jpg http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah4/xyz2016/Crevole%20Brick/IMG_7972_zpsyccz7jgz.jpg http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah4/xyz2016/Crevole%20Brick/IMG_7983_zpsowk2rixg.jpg http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/ah4/xyz2016/Crevole%20Brick/IMG_7982_zpsixyol22l.jpg Building Casaview Denison 30 https://fortdenison.wordpress.com/about Hi everyone, Have just put a shower in the laundry and after only using it 2-3 times have noticed staining on the grout. The tiles were glued onto a concrete wall after… 0 5449 You’re on the right track, wire brush in a grinder then a zinc rich epoxy primer then a top coat of some sort, like a waterproofing membrane. Raising the concrete would… 1 7030 Very common on rendered homes Smaller suppliers get the lower quality raw materials 6 11861 |