What has caused this brick discolouration?

John_the_Boy

Viewing a property soon and noticed a couple of the bricks have gone discoloured. Hopefully the pictures show ok, the mark is below the end of a gutter just above the lead flashing. As the gutters look rather full of leaves (large trees near by) I assume this is due to water overflowing or dripping from the gutter end piece? Anyone have any thoughts, ideas etc just wanting to know if this could be an indicator of a bigger issue or will sort itself out once the gutters are maintained properly. Thanks in advance.                                                         

EssexExile

As it's immediately below the gutter end stop, I'd suspect that's been leaking and made that brick wet. It's hard to tell from the picture, is that brick mossy?

John_the_Boy

Thanks for the response. I am viewing this afternoon so will be able to get a better/closer look. From what I have seen it doesn't look mossy, more like dried algae/slime (only way I can describe it).

Could well be some dirt discoloration as well if the gutter end piece is dripping? That said the decline on the gutter looked ok when I did a walk past but there are leaves/grass in that part of the gutter that could be retaining water and dripping from the end join. 

Eldi_Dos

The ratio of gutter to roof is very small on that facade so even with the gutters clear and free flowing may not be able to cope with heavy downpours.I would look into cost of upgrading to gutters with a larger cubic capacity and how much it would cost to have them cleared on a regular basis.
At the moment water may be finding its way from the gutter into the cavity and collecting inside the area where brick is discoloured.When viewing the house pay particular attention to inside walls, check for differences of temperature with the back of your hand.
Any other houses on the development showing similar problems.

John_the_Boy

Eldi_Dos - thanks for this hadn't thought of doing this. No other houses on the development are showing this but this is the only one of this design.

I have done a google image search and found the same design else where and none look to have this from what I can find with street view.

twopenny

What age is the streetview?
Can you see if it's clean on that - which could give you an idea if this is a couple of years or more/less?

John_the_Boy

The street view is 2011 so quite old, it didn't have the mark then. It was built in 2004 so didn't develop the mark during those 7 years but not sure if this tells me anything.

coffeehound

The tiles look a bit green immediately above which might indicate debris build up.  Not sure if you can see some overhanging the edge

John_the_Boy

Thanks for the comments.

To conclude this thread in case it helps anyone else at some point.....

Viewed yesterday afternoon, had been raining a few hours before but had stopped by the viewing.

Had a good talk with the vendor who was very open and honest (as far as I know anyway). She said she gets the gutters cleaned yearly due to the close proximity of some fairly large trees but hadn't last year due to family illness (they are moving in with the family member hence why selling).

The mark started late last year and developed through the winter but hasn't got any worse during the summer months. She has someone booked to clean the gutters and to try and clean the brick work up to see if that sorts the issue.

I was able to check inside around where the mark was on the brick and no sign of anything and was even able to get a good look at the brickwork using some binocular the vendors son had. Just looks like dirt and possibly lichen/algae/slime which has dried and possibly stained.

Probably wasn't the house for me in the end as the chimney whilst a real one at the top is just a gas flue from the living room to the loft and we would want to put a log burner in but can't as it stands unless we want an external flue, which we would prefer not to have to do.

propertyrental

John_the_Boy said:

.... was even able to get a good look at the brickwork using some binocular the vendors son had. .....

You mean you are going to viewings and relying on the vendors to provide binoculars?

Are you actually a serious buyer?

Time to buy your own (and create a list of things to look for if you don't already have a list)

Next you'll be telling us you don't download and take the Title deeds and Plan with you!!!!!!

No I'm not just being narkey (or tongue in cheek!). This is a moneysaving site, and spending £6 to check basic things at an early stage on properties you are serious enough about to view can easily save you a couple of hundred on a survey later.

John_the_Boy

I had my own binoculars in the car and had done at least 5 walk pasts before viewing so I would say I'm a serious about checking out what I am considering buying. I mentioned the vendor providing the binoculars to show that I didn't feel they were trying to hide anything.

As to buying the deeds I do that after a viewing if I want to make an offer or want a second viewing.