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The brick color of our house is much darker than the one we saw in design center and it is really ugly. I posted a thread in this forum about 1 or 2 months ago asking for suggestions. Now it is pretty much worked out: Builder said they would redo the brick for me. Brick vendor will cover the cost. We than picked another brick color. They will take off the old one and put the new one on next week. I want to now what i need to pay attension to. Will it damage anything on the house itself? Thanks!
Watch any siding that is near the brick. and over the next few weeks, look for any peices that look like it is trying to peel or fall away from the house. Double check the skids they bring in with the new brick for the color that you want, before they start to install.
I don't know if I would have gotten so worked up over the color. Might have tried to get some money off, but that being what it is, my major concern might be over the type of damage that could be done and then covered up.
Those bricks are attached to the house framing with something called wall ties. Basically a lil piece of corrugated type sheet metal that is nailed into hopefully the wall wooden stud and then gets buried in-between layers of brick. Quite a few of them in your typical wall. So it might be something to convince the bricks to come loose fairly peaceable like in an efficient manner in large chunks.
The question would be how do they remove the old brick. Could go hack and smash with sledgehammers for a bit and then attempt to hook some type grapple with heavy cable or chains and pull the walls off in large pieces with heavy duty construction equipment. I would cover me eyes in the process. There is a gap between the wooden part of the wall and the brick that they could hook into. Hey, they got to do it by some economy method from their point of view. Doubt you can do it brick by brick. The method might define the madness.
Might damage whatever insulation, coating or barrier installed on the walls that faced the brick, typically there is something there. Does that get removed and replaced also??? Incidential type damage to other things, like window frames, etc, general type damage to structure or grounds, distort walls, general structure depending on the amounts of force used.
Would be enough to make me quiver knowing the way some peeps do things. I would have been more inclined to say, I don't want this house with these bricks, build me another over there some place with these other color brick. Hack and smash where the guy is "Losing Money" by doing it twice would tend to make me not sleep very well at night. Who will know the sins that get covered up second time around. Think I would be making a lot of inspection trips during the process.
If you have ever been involved with the correction of a major **** up, you know what I mean. Especially when it involves not being paid extra to do it.
Instead of tearing the brick off the home, which is going to be costly and messy, and possibly damaging, why don't you cosider brick staining? Do some reasearch & see if it's an alternative that you and your builder can mutually agree on.
Taking the brick off should not cause problems....
Quote:
Originally Posted by tianwaifeixian
The brick color of our house is much darker than the one we saw in design center and it is really ugly. I posted a thread in this forum about 1 or 2 months ago asking for suggestions. Now it is pretty much worked out: Builder said they would redo the brick for me. Brick vendor will cover the cost. We than picked another brick color. They will take off the old one and put the new one on next week. I want to now what i need to pay attension to. Will it damage anything on the house itself? Thanks!
tianwaifexian, I've worked for builders for many years. Maybe about half dozen times I've seen brick removed and re-installed. This sounds more alarming than it actually is. None of these homes received any damage from the removal and re-installation.
My advice is to have the building company explain the process to you, so that you understand the steps involved. Hire a licensed, professional home inspector to do an inspection afterward.
I don't know if I would have gotten so worked up over the color. Might have tried to get some money off, but that being what it is, my major concern might be over the type of damage that could be done and then covered up.
Those bricks are attached to the house framing with something called wall ties. Basically a lil piece of corrugated type sheet metal that is nailed into hopefully the wall wooden stud and then gets buried in-between layers of brick. Quite a few of them in your typical wall. So it might be something to convince the bricks to come loose fairly peaceable like in an efficient manner in large chunks.
The question would be how do they remove the old brick. Could go hack and smash with sledgehammers for a bit and then attempt to hook some type grapple with heavy cable or chains and pull the walls off in large pieces with heavy duty construction equipment. I would cover me eyes in the process. There is a gap between the wooden part of the wall and the brick that they could hook into. Hey, they got to do it by some economy method from their point of view. Doubt you can do it brick by brick. The method might define the madness.
Might damage whatever insulation, coating or barrier installed on the walls that faced the brick, typically there is something there. Does that get removed and replaced also??? Incidential type damage to other things, like window frames, etc, general type damage to structure or grounds, distort walls, general structure depending on the amounts of force used.
Would be enough to make me quiver knowing the way some peeps do things. I would have been more inclined to say, I don't want this house with these bricks, build me another over there some place with these other color brick. Hack and smash where the guy is "Losing Money" by doing it twice would tend to make me not sleep very well at night. Who will know the sins that get covered up second time around. Think I would be making a lot of inspection trips during the process.
If you have ever been involved with the correction of a major **** up, you
know what I mean. Especially when it involves not being paid extra to do it.
Absolutely agree with this poster. Is it really worth the risk?
The brick staining may be the better alternative.
Whatever you decide find the best inspector YOU can find and have that home inspected.
The builder told me that the brick vendor will do the work. They said this is not the first time that they do this and thinks that they know what they are doing.
By the way, since we have a 1 year warranty on the house, do we need to have the house inspected now or before the 1 year warranty expires?
Just out of curiousity it would be nice to see how they attempt to remove the brick.
Just remember a house is an engineered product. As such it is put together in a certain sequence. That sequence is important in many cases. So you rip out the brick but what to do with anything that was installed after the brick in the building sequence that now acts as some type of interference. Example: Maybe the soffits hang down to far and the present brick is covered a bit.
To me it is a bit like being a virgin only once. The second time is never quite the same. About like them saying after you just bought a new car, we have found a problem in the electrical wiring and it all must be replaced. Again another engineered product put together in a certain sequence with quality checks at certain points. Duh, no matter the assurance, never would I accept it. It ain't the same as how the factory would have done it. We would have to talk and somebody would have to make it worth my while.
Also that stuff about inspectors. The housing industry has sold that pap over and over again. As applied they are just about worthless for the real problems. Inspectors are great if applied properly. As in places like very large construction projects, shipyards, factories, etc. They get to see the engineered products built and witness each step of the process. That is a real inspector. They get to certify the product is what the manufacturer claims it to be and / or catch problems as they occur. To see something in its final assembled state for the first time means you can never really know squat about it's true state. Has nothing to do with the peeps involved, even if you call them licensed, professional home inspectors, it is a badly flawed process.
I've seen zillions of houses, both to look thru as in buying and to remodel (did it for 15 years as a general contractor, owned the business) or look over new construction type houses. You never know exactly what is going on unless you see it during the construction phases, especially at the critical times when problem will be exposed and visible and able to be truely determined as to condition.
Just had that experience in my present one. Remodelled this puppy and in one section of the living room it appeared there had maybe been a bathroom leak and maybe a roofing leak, both in opposite corners. Only thing you knew for sure, there was some source of water that had caused damage, normal to assume typical routine causes.
Finally ripped it apart and found real cause to be an improper sealed old chimney connection that was covered over. It leaked all the flue gas filled with water vapor that went into all sorts of places for probably years, some you could see, others, you had no clue until exposed. you don't know squat until seen in the proper condition.
To me a new house that has a major fix like replacement of the brick walls would be considered damaged goods. No matter what somebody else tried to tell me. And ah, yes....... If I had an inspector, they would be on site during the work and probably film a lot of it. Very hard to trust things done out of sequence in way too many engineered products, especially houses.
It ain't just undertakers that try to bury their mistakes. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise.....
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Sounds like you are very hung up on color......
