Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jul 15, 2016 3:26 pm Hi, We're currently building with Rawson Homes (Windermere 35). We have built once before so we have a little experience on the subject but we are by no means experts. So far, the build has generally gone well. However, we have encountered a problem that became apparent after the 1st floor brickwork was cleaned. There is an issue with the brick colour blending above our garage door (see photo). The brick we are using is called Concord (from PGH Bricks) and it naturally has different shades of colour through it. But, as you can see in the photo, the bricklayer has not blended them properly above the garage door so there is a big patch of light brown which is really noticeable from the street. Ironically, on every other part of the house, the bricks seem blended perfectly (of course!!). I've brought it up with our site supervisor who has acknowledged the issue and suggested that the bricks can be stained on order to help blend the colours. The company they will use for this is NawKaw http://nawkaw.com.au/. I've read up a little on Nawkaw and brick staining both on these forums and elsewhere on the net, and it seems like a viable option, however I am not entirely sure about it. Should I accept the Nawkaw brick staining solution? Can some individual bricks just in this section be removed and then replaced? Or, would the whole section have to be redone again if I declined the Nawkaw option. Any advice would be very much appreciated! Re: Brick Blending Issues on Front Facade - Any advice??? 2Jul 15, 2016 7:14 pm Ask PGH what they think and what action they would suggest. I have heard of them sending out inspectors to look at quality of bricks when there have been problems. Maybe they can give you some guidance. Maybe refer the builder to this guide and see what they think http://www.pghbricks.com.au/~/media/pgh/brochures-and-flyers/bricklaying-guides/pghbetterlayingguide-web.ashx Ask why the builder thinks that a sub-standard finish is acceptable, particularly for a front facade. At the very least, make sure they give assurances that this was not a normal practice and that they will make sure their bricklayers are following best practice guides. If they continue to play down the significance, don't be afraid to escalate the issue to someone in management and be nice about it. Say that not only do you think it devalues the look of the front of your house, but it will reflect badly on them when others see the level of workmanship that is on offer. I wouldn't be very happy about it, and I don't think you should use any products to stain the bricks. I would be pushing for them to redo that part. Building a Fairmont Custom in Seaford Meadows Our Build Thread Re: Brick Blending Issues on Front Facade - Any advice??? 3Jul 16, 2016 10:33 am I'd probably be okay with the staining option as long as there was a written guarantee from rawson that the colour staining would match, last and not fade. I would not want to have to deal with a third party company five years down the track if the stain didn't hold up, for example. I'd probably ask for addresses of other places where they'd used this method, too, to check it out before agreeing. Re: Brick Blending Issues on Front Facade - Any advice??? 4Jul 16, 2016 11:33 am First of all thanks so much for replying guys. This house building business is stressful... As suggested by MJT, I gave PGH a call and spoke to one of their customer service people. She was aware of Nawkaw brick staining and said that the service they provide is of good quality and quite reputable. She also said replacing individual bricks was often problematic because trying to re-lay the bricks would often result in the mortar being uneven which could mean it would look worse. According to PGH, getting Rawson to redo a whole section would also be unlikely for a relatively small section. Thanks red15. I'll ask Rawson for some examples where Nawkaw brick staining has been used. Apparently Nawkaw offer a 25 year guarantee but I'm not sure about a guarantee on it from Rawson. We're paying for independent inspections to be done at certain stages and I've asked our building inspector about the issue. I'm just waiting for them to get back to me but if they say the staining is a good option, I might just go with that. Thanks again for the replies. I'll see how we go with it. Re: Brick Blending Issues on Front Facade - Any advice??? 5Jul 16, 2016 11:09 pm Good luck, I hope it all works out for you. My personal opinion is that it doesn't look too bad. Just that its right at the front and you know it's there so you might notice it more. You might be able to disguise it in other ways, like putting your house numbers there, or some sort of feature strip or render or planter box or something. That might also draw more attention to it, not sure. That NawKaw does appear to work miracles on some of their pictures, so I hope that works for you Building a Fairmont Custom in Seaford Meadows Our Build Thread Re: Brick Blending Issues on Front Facade - Any advice??? 6Jul 19, 2016 1:10 pm I don't have any advice but every time I look at your bricks i have brick envy. I really wanted concord bricks however they where a 3k upgrade. Despite the miss match it looks lovely. sekisui build viewtopic.php?f=31&t=75060&p=1573965#p1573965 Building a sekisui house in Holmesville NSW viewtopic.php?f=31&t=75060 Re: Brick Blending Issues on Front Facade - Any advice??? 7Jul 19, 2016 6:34 pm I've seen this on other houses and I would not be impressed. Honestly you pay all that money for a house you at least should get a quality finish. I would make them redo it. It's not right they should get away with it. I'll be watching my builders like a hawk. Re: Brick Blending Issues on Front Facade - Any advice??? 8Jul 20, 2016 1:55 pm Quote: I don't have any advice but every time I look at your bricks i have brick envy. I really wanted concord bricks however they where a 3k upgrade. Despite the miss match it looks lovely. Thanks for that! We really liked the Concord brick. We're doing a knock down rebuild in Winston Hills and the neighbouring houses are older style, 1960s red brick houses so we wanted to try and keep the same traditional style of the street. Concord works well because you can use it to create a more traditional look. Quote: I've seen this on other houses and I would not be impressed. Honestly you pay all that money for a house you at least should get a quality finish. I would make them redo it. It's not right they should get away with it. I'll be watching my builders like a hawk. I know what you are saying but sometimes sh%t happens unfortunately! I guess when you are building you have to tread a line between getting what you want but having to compromise sometimes. I'm not saying that you should let people walk all over you, but mistakes are going to be unavoidable despite your best efforts. From what I've researched so far (talking to PGH bricks, speaking to friends in the building industry and asking our building inspection people about it), redoing or patching up the section may result in it looking worse as you can usually tell when brickwork has been "patched up". You can watch your builder as closely as you want but if you are expecting perfection then prepare for disappointment sometimes. We've got the experience of having built before and we're are also paying for independent inspections but I still accept that things are going to go wrong every now and then. I'm not sure just yet on what action we're going to take, we've got a new site supervisor now who is going to arrange for someone from PGH to come out and have a look so we'll see what they recommend. Thanks for the feedback!! Re: Brick Blending Issues on Front Facade - Any advice??? 9Jul 20, 2016 1:58 pm I had a look at the nawkaw website out of interest, and even though the 'after' pics are very impressive as far as being a vast improvement on the 'before' shots, I could definitely see differences in the patched area of every single one. I hope you can find a solution that you can live with. Re: Brick Blending Issues on Front Facade - Any advice??? 10Jul 22, 2016 10:04 am Did they use the wrong bricks? Looks off to me.... @Orph Build thread: viewtopic.php?t=78328 Home Furniture: viewtopic.php?t=80551 Technology Hub: viewtopic.php?t=83663 Landscape Design: viewtopic.php?t=80645 Orpheus Building the Metricon Glendale 38|Sydney Re: Brick Blending Issues on Front Facade - Any advice??? 11Jul 22, 2016 5:45 pm Orpheus Did they use the wrong bricks? Looks off to me.... @Orph Build thread: viewtopic.php?t=78328 Home Furniture: viewtopic.php?t=80551 Technology Hub: viewtopic.php?t=83663 Landscape Design: viewtopic.php?t=80645 I would be questioning the brick also. It looks like a completely different shade. There are slight variances in the bricks above the brown cluster which look like normal variances within a brick colour but the cluster looks very different. If this were my house I would go with the staining option. Best of luck and I hope this can get resolved one way or another! Welcome to our new Metricon Henderson viewtopic.php?f=31&t=81978 https://metriconhenderson.wordpress.com Re: Brick Blending Issues on Front Facade - Any advice??? 12Sep 23, 2016 10:05 pm **UPDATE** We had the Nawkaw brick staining done today and I'm really impressed with the result. I dare say that you can't notice anything amiss at all. My eye is still drawn to the area where the light patch of bricks were, but I think that is more due to the fact that I know where the original problem area was (and I am also a little OCD about it too!). If you were to see the house for the first time you wouldn't notice any blending issues. They were able to blend the area in without overdoing it: I spoke with the Nawkaw guy on site before he started work on it and he explained that they can even match the metallic/glossy finish on the bricks by tailoring the stain (as shown in this closeup pic): If anyone is experiencing similar problems I can say with confidence that Nawkaw is a viable solution. I was skeptical at first but the result is actually much better than I thought it would be. Now to tackle the several other issues with the build Re: Brick Blending Issues on Front Facade - Any advice??? 16Sep 25, 2016 9:39 am Thanks guys. Its a weight off my shoulders now that it has been resolved. Here are more photos if people want to have a look. I'm sure there will be plenty of people considering Nawkaw staining and researching on these forums in the future. These photos show the the spot in the afternoon sun. In person it actually blends in even better. The photos tend to make it pop out a little for some reason. From the street: From the front porch: Thanks Re: Brick Blending Issues on Front Facade - Any advice??? 17Jun 05, 2018 3:49 pm Waldork Thanks guys. Its a weight off my shoulders now that it has been resolved. Here are more photos if people want to have a look. I'm sure there will be plenty of people considering Nawkaw staining and researching on these forums in the future. These photos show the the spot in the afternoon sun. In person it actually blends in even better. The photos tend to make it pop out a little for some reason. From the street: From the front porch: Thanks unrelated but im building the windermere 32 and super excited, are you able to share any photos of your house? what facade did you choose? Building Standards; Getting It Right! AS2047 Section 6 Page 31 speaks to Construction/Tolerances of Windows and external glazed doors in buildings Check also New South Wales Guide to Standards and Tolerances,… 12 18781 I am looking at building a house. Has anyone used Construkt Homes (based in Adelaide)? Does anyone have experience with this builder? 0 5389 A question. Im in Queensland and building a new home. We managed to reach practical completion 6 weeks ago but we haven't heard any date for handover yet. Who should we… 0 2988 |