Cladding and other advice

whiskywhisky

Hi All

We are soon hoping to embark on a double storey front and back extension.

It is a detached double fronted house and the front extension will solely be a double storey in the middle of the house, downstairs extension is porch downstairs and upstairs will be a new bathroom to the front. The house is currently flat at the front.

We have loads of queries regarding the extension, but 1 I would be very grateful for advice on is the finish to the front extension. The finish of the whole house is currently brick, I am not concerned about the back extension but the am wary that the new front extension brickwork will stand out and obviously look like a add-on. Therefore I would be very grateful for advice on this, we have had plans drawn up but need to iron out things like the finish before submitting:

- I am thinking the only real way around this is to clad the new front extension. If you agree what sort of cladding should I consider?
- Black wooden planks type cladding seems popular, what do you think? also if I go for black cladding should we also have black upvc windows instead of white?
- The roof will also be replaced, not sure yet what finish the roof will be. Should the roof and front extension cladding be similar? or will a contract set it off better?

Hope this waffle makes sense?

Thanks

Happy Christmas

EssexExile

A good builders' merchant should be able to match the bricks pretty well. We had an extension to our 1950 house & you can't see the join, the only place a continuous wall changes brick is hidden by a downpipe. Where new & old meet at an angle the different light makes them look different anyway so you don't notice.
Having said that, we have a "lump" sticking out the front of our house & I've often considered having it rendered for a bit of contrast.
As for windows, I think they look better contrasting with the wall. Dark windows in a dark wall just don't look right to me, but then I'm an old stick-in-the-mud.

whiskywhisky

EssexExile - many thanks. Reading your message does make me think a little that I may be worrying about the front finish when I should be worrying about something else.

My house is also a 1950's built and it did not occur to me that when new + old meet at an angle it will be hard to notice the difference. Also I am with you that I prefer white UPVC, also being old fashioned and also maybe wrongly I think having different coloured windows will start to look old fashioned in a few years.

Just out of interest during your extension, did you physically take a brick to various builders merchants to try and get a close match?

Furts

EssexExile is spot on - a downpipe is often used to hide the joint, as is building out say 225mm in from an existing corner. What you have to bear in mind is your bricks are imperial size, and new ones will be metric (unless you seek secondhand or renovation bricks). Hence the new bed joints will not allign with the old ones - this needs to disguised, or hidden.

EssexExile

whiskywhisky wrote: »

Just out of interest during your extension, did you physically take a brick to various builders merchants to try and get a close match?

Our builder got the builders' merchant to come to the site & discuss. We have an old extension from the 70s, so with the new extension & the original there are three different bricks. On a flat side wall all three look pretty bad together but take measures mentioned above & you won't notice. When I get home I'll post a photo (after the holidays).

Furts

EssexExile wrote: »

Our builder got the builders' merchant to come to the site & discuss. We have an old extension from the 70s, so with the new extension & the original there are three different bricks. On a flat side wall all three look pretty bad together but take measures mentioned above & you won't notice.

Be careful here. Your builder may be dealing with one merchant because this is where the best price is obtained. This does not mean that this is the best merchant for brick matching. The merchant knows there is a sale in the offing so does not have to try very hard - hence a potential limited selection of bricks, probably based on their respective profit margins.

Shop around for a match - some merchants are better than others.

DREKLY

I have been very impressed with a cladding seen on quite a few properties, made by Marley, I believe it's called "Cedra"
- it looks like a wood finish, but is self coloured, zero maintenance, and is a concrete fibre product, easily fixed, and easily cut - not sure how expensive it is, but the light grey finish I have seen on properties around Cornwall looks very good.

Thinking of using it myself on the avatar photo (concrete) property next year.

Lorian

Most of the manufacturers (that are still in business) have brick matching/catalogue pages on their websites. takes a little time to trawl through the pictures, but the search features help a lot. They will usually then send you a few face samples free of charge to check the match.


I was unlucky to find my brick was no longer produced, but will a little time an care (and quite a lot of samples) I manage to find bricks from another manufacturer that are a very close match.


First off though, consider if anyone else nearby has built anything recently and got a good match, and if so ring the door bell and ask if they know what they are!


Also there is a brick site (google will find it) where you send a guy two pictures (close up, and wide angle) and he will tell you what it is. He was the only guy that identified my brick correctly. google "brick matching" will find you many such sites.

Furts

Lorian wrote: »

Also there is a brick site (google will find it) where you send a guy two pictures (close up, and wide angle) and he will tell you what it is. He was the only guy that identified my brick correctly. google "brick matching" will find you many such sites.

Excellent advice and I second this with a proviso. Be aware of "brick registering" where shady middlemen register the brick and get a commission. The man on Google may be doing this. If so, this will be detrimental to your future negotiation on the price you pay for the bricks.

EssexExile

I promised earlier to post a photo. If anyone can tell me how to do that then I will, otherwise you'll have to take my word.;)

MX5huggy

To post a photo you need to upload it to a photo sharing site, photobucket, instagram, twitpic (or whatever it is) or any of the many others. then you post a link to in your post on here.