Matching red brick for an extension

avenida

Hi

I have had house on market for 8 months now but having thought it all out we are now looking into a 2 storey extension onto the side of our house.

We got an architect to do up a rough sketch, our only concern is how the property will look from the outside at the end.

We were thinking it might be hard to match up the brickwork, our house is 40 year old.

any comments on how easy or hard it would be to match, or would we be better rendering the whole house?

Please click on link to see a pic of the outside of our home.

Just dont want it looking like 2 house stuck together and silly looking

http://www.propertypal.com/1-laral-gardens-monkstown-newtownabbey/91047

wallbash

Brick matching is fairly easy , builder will know where to go

avenida

Thanks, its just I had seen a few extensions done locally and my gdness its is so noticable from the road that they have had an extension done the brick is completely different

avenida

one builder has quoted us 30k for the shell then we would have to add on kitchens and bathrooms etc, we have budgeted 10k for this, do you think this is realistic

My architect has said there is a new streamlining system in place in northern ireland where we could get planning in 28days if noone objects, wonder does this happen much?

cally1_2

We had an extension built last year.
The builder matched the brick very well. He had a good idea of hwihc one to get and double checked it with his supplier who came around and had a look to confirm.
Our house was built in the 50s so the old bit has some weathering othersie the match is very good.
It was one of my main concerns too.

ormus

your brick is very common design/style. you should have no problems matching it up.

avenida

sounds good, where you glad you did the extension?

What was it like living in the house while the building work was going on?

Did you stay within budget?

avenida

Forgot to mention the top half of our house is multicoloured brick, you can see from the pic, architect says to render top half of house on the front only, do you agree?

ormus

i dont think it looks too bad as it is.
a nice porch would do wonders for the house.

avenida

ormus wrote: »

i dont think it looks too bad as it is.
a nice porch would do wonders for the house.

Thats more money though will mention to architect

leekat21

I'm living in my house while a 2 storey extension is being done. 10 weeks in and it's been fine thus far. Most of the work has been to the new area and that's all outside. My only infringement was a velux window being fitted in the roof over the staircase and that caused some dust and dirt, but the builders taped all the doors up and vacuumed when they had finished that day. I work from home and have been amazed at how little disturbance I've suffered.

Re brick matching, you can take close up pics of the bricks and send to some companies, they will then match for you. Or you can check websites and they will send sample boards. We did both and we were matching to a 1901 built house. Our match is pretty good though the new area does look new and different because the bricks are slightly different sizes. (you only really notice this when you're close and when you become anal about the matching!)

It may be different in your area but our extension has had to be constructed in deference to the original house so it's set back by about 300mm and the roof line is also about 300mm lower. However, we overcame lower ceiling heights by having a step down into the new rooms.

Our extension doubles (just about) the size of our house and gives us a living room, garden room and bedroom with en suite.