Brick House
Think your house is made of brick, here's why you may be wrong.
An Australian Icon, the red brick family home. We most commonly associated them with the 60s and 70s but the popularity of bricks has seen a range of similar homes across Australia starting with Federation era double brick homes through to contemporary brick veneer homes.
Just as styles, trends & fashions change, so does what we desire in our home from aesthetics to functionality. Entire hit television programs exist on the basis on renovating, changing & modernising properties to make them more appealing to the broader audience.
This however is no modern concept & just like some renovations in modernity, a few people historically were doing the dodgy.
We’ve all been tempted to slap a fresh coat of paint on a deteriorating timber or to lay a new floor atop of the old but common sense usually prevails & we come to the realisation that whilst a little more initial effort that the end result will be far superior if we simply do the job correctly.
But how can we tell what the previous owner has done to the property & if they have done a great job or not? It’s a difficult question, with some things being obvious like massive gaps, tonnes of filler/silicone or an extension with a noticeably sloping floor. Others may be difficult to pick up with the untrained eye.
We’ve previously looked at why so many asbestos fibro homes exist, especially in The Blue Mountains; With a perfect post war storm of rapid residential expansion and cheaper construction materials we ended up with a tonne of regular everyday asbestos properties.
Next we enter the 60s & 70s - design was changing, brick was now all the rage & fibro property owners were left with two options; Nail some vinyl or aluminium siding over the top & act like it’s timber or brick up the entirety of the facade & pretend you have a new brick veneer home (not too much of a stretch considering the egregious use of asbestos products in the 70s).
It kind of looks like timber whilst squinting.
Obviously having brick applied over asbestos sheeting makes it incredibly difficult to remove with the brick work needing to be delicately removed by hand in order to gain access.
How can you tell if your house may have a supplementary fibro cladding behind the brick? Depending on how well the brick veneer has been constructed, it can be quite difficult - but some obvious sign are mismatched proportions to the house, the general thickness of the walls if you place a hand on an internal face and exterior whilst standing in the front door. One of the easiest and most common telltale signs is the eaves, as generally there would be no additional work to blend the existing eaves with the building resulting in fibro eaves that appear commically short with no final trim applied. In most instances you can see a fine gap atop of the brick work with the eave sheeting continuing to the internal wall cavity.
So, if on the hunt for your new home or planning some renovations to your existing, it may be worth having a closer look at the bricks before you get the ball rolling and if you think you need some help or aren’t sure what you’re dealing with, contact us today for a free property consultation.
Blackheath Asbestos Surprise
What happens when careless contractors fail to follow basic safety protocols?
A 90 year old home, timber clad with a corrugated steel roof in the township of Blackheath; No asbestos in sight, a renovators dream.
Besides from some fibreglass insulation past it’s prime, the ceiling cavity looks pretty good with the steel roofing removed.
As most home owners are aware, sometimes little surprises become apparent when performing maintenance, repairs and remodels left behind by the previous owner/s.
This 3 bedroom home in Blackheath, Blue Mountains was undergoing a light extension with a new roof to mate the existing older structure with the new addition. Works proceeded without issue as the foundation and framework of the original structure were in fantastic condition for its age.
Identified by a keen eyed roof installer, there was an amount of fibrous asbestos cement sheeting fragments scattered around the original bathroom ceiling surface. Investigation found that sandwiched in between the modern gyprock ceiling and original lath and plaster was sheeting of asbestos.
The fragments and associated dust were a result of almost 100 years of bathroom renovations, careless contractors and a well used adjacent chimney stack which over time had rendered the cementitious board holding the asbestos fibres unstable.
Whilst concealed in the roof cavity, the asbestos fragments and dust pose a relatively low risk however with the roof cladding removed for renovations, the open air exposure to the workers on site and surrounding public becomes a high concern.
After remediation to remove the present asbestos fragments, sheeting and associated dust - it was found that inaccessible areas surrounding the original fire place had also been affected by asbestos contamination. Unable to remove the associated waste without complete destruction of the home, a bonding agent was applied liberally to the cavity and signage erected to notify workers in the future of the asbestos contained within the cavity. These works, whilst not granting a certified clearance certificate within entirety - were at least enough to enable works to proceed as scheduled and without delay.