We FINALLY got a mason to come over and look at our house! It only took about 10 days of calling every mason in the phone book. Isn't there a housing crisis and a downturn in house building right now? You'd think they'd need work!
The mason was very hard to read... in fact, we thought our house might be falling down from the looks on his face for about 5 silent minutes.
Luckily, he was very positive! He said it looks structurally fine, and that there was about a day's work in repointing various spots and rebuilding some of the areas under windows. He didn't want to give an actual estimate until we had scrubbed the brick down... but did give us a ball park of $400 a day, with no more than 2 days of work. Definitely in our price range...
He WASN'T so positive about being able to keep it natural OR our ability to find matching bricks... he said we will probably need to paint due to this.
So here's the question... how bad WILL a missmatched brick or three look every once in a while? Is it preferable to painted brick? And finally... if we are going to end up painting it, will we be better off just doing the work ourselves (since it won't have to look perfect if it is to be covered in paint)?
(For pictures of the work to be done, see this post)
13 comments:
Jennifer - love your house blog!
I confess - the IUD idea was actually one proposed by a friend of mine. I've never used one so don't have first hand experience (but technologically it sounds great!)
I don't think a mismatched brick here & there would look bad at all. But then, neither would a painted brick house if you absolutely had to. Oh--today when the permit guy came over to look at my house I told him about yours and he was amazed that someone would put asbestos siding over brick!!
I really like the brick. I don't think a couple mis-matched bricks would be too noticeable. Then again, if it bothers you there's always the paint. I'd give the natural brick a shot first, but that's just me.
It's looking so good!
I think you can get pretty close with the brick if you try. If you were doing a big wall or something, you probably could tell, but for minor repairs ... pfffph. Who cares if it's slightly mismatched? That will give it some character! Just don't let Brick Guy pick some lame bricks based on this excuse. I'm sure some looking will get you close to what you need.
Congrats on the good news!!
I think a few mismatched bricks might even add a little character. It's a way of putting your signature on the house!
But if you have to paint, paint it yourself. House painters are ungodly and, in the end, unless you're completely clueless, they don't end up doing that much better a job.
I'm with Nate-- give the bricks a shot. If you can't match them and you hate it, you can paint. But I have to say, coming form someone with a brick house I wish WASN"T painted, I'd wait for that as a last resort. But that's just me. I like painted brick fine but prefer natural.
Either way-- it's going to look great. Better than asbestos siding for sure. The brick just looks so appropriate.
yep, I say get the guy to do it, and you will know he is doing it right and good (hopefully). Then, if you don't like the mix of bricks, you can always paint it later.
Good luck and keep up the good work.
definitely don't paint straight away - you will want to see how the mortar and new bricks look after at least a year of weathering. You can always rub them with some dust/dirt if they look too shiny:)
I agree, if you aren't crazy about how the brick looks when they are done, paint it...I think painted brick homes are very cottagey looking. It's the only surface I can think of that actually looks good as the paint is getting worn too.
My 2 cents on the subject: I once saw in a show where they painted just the new bricks, so they don't stand out that much. Maybe thats an option, too?
Have the mason do the brick work, save youself the headache and when it comes to the structure of the house it's better to be safe than sorry. Then see how it looks, you can always play with the new brick to see if you can age it.
you could always have a faux painter come over and paint only the bricks that don't match - to make them match your existing ones.
I would go with the bricks too. Having just accumulated about 2000 old used bricks from various sources (different colors), I think you might be able to get ones that are pretty close and if they're slightly off, I don't think you'd notice. Some of them are very different sizes though - so you might want to carry around a sample of the ones you already have to check the size. Nice patio!
Post a Comment