Sad about what's happening to bricks

[IwishIcouldski]

So many of the renovations round areas where I live seem to cover up the nice red bricks by k-rending the hell out of the houses. I think the traditional full or part brick facias of British homes is so beautiful and that there is just something about them. The bricks convey some sort of interesting status to the house.

I am not from Britain so maybe its nostalgia about what I think makes Britain, Britain.

AIBU to think this trend of smooth k-rendering the whole house, covering up the traditional red bricks, is unfortunate? I hope the trend stops and that we don't end up with more k-rendered homes than brick-facia homes.

I thought only dangerous cladding was being removed?

I like render, especially if you're looking along a whole street, sometimes the brick thing can be a bit overwhelming.

I don't think I'll ever have a house rather than a flat, but given the choice I would want rendering.

... but doesn't rendering feel more overwhelming? At least the part old-style render and part brick breaks things up but a whole lot of houses completely smooth rendered? To me that would be overwhelming.

I’m in Scotland and I feel like most of our houses are mainly harled (or pebble dashed or whatever you want to call it). The only brick houses I see in my local area are half brick half harled or the old granite houses.

my nan lives in Lincolnshire and I feel like it’s all red brick houses there.

I was thinking this yesterday. Beautiful brick covered with render, characterful windows replaced with blank panes. The houses are so ugly and the worst is that after a few years the ‘doesn’t need painting’ render takes on a dirty, grubby stained appearance and just looks neglected.

YANBU
We were livid when next door rendered rendered our brick garage wall on their side and the wall between the properties. Both are completely ours according to the deeds. Fortunately we were in when they did it and made them pressure wash it off before it set.
Had they not and moved we would have been liable for the upkeep.
They said they thought we would be pleased as it looks nice!!

K rend is a brand name for a type of plasticky/silconey render. @rafeal is right that it gets stained and grubby, especially where water runs down the walls. My friend lives on an estate built around 10 - 15 years ago and it's wall to wall K rend on the houses there. They look so shabby that firms have set up businesses jet washing them with a sort of chemical mix - it cleans the houses up a bit but takes the surface off the K rend so it looks dull and gets dirty quicker.

It's also impossible to repair without scarring.

Totally agree it will date, need painting and the low maintenance spiel used about it is rubbish.

I’m talking Jack and Vera style that costs thousands to remove.

Jack and Vera style? What's that?

“My dad told me about this!”: Stone cladding | LABC

I think it's the external version of the current trend for interior panelling. Looks lovely and smart/modern now, but will date quickly and in 15 years it will look terrible and be a nightmare to rectify.

I agree with you, OP.
I love our local brick which is a lovely rich, warm shade of red. The best of our local properties were built in the Georgian era and look like the sort of idealised houses that DC draw.
I'm no so keen on yellowy brick (e.g. London). But both are preferable to render.

Wow, that is quite something.

Naive opinion. We renovated and had to use breeze blocks in places because we simply couldn’t match the colour of the original brick. End result looks MUCH smarter.

I would love to have the red bricks of my Victorian house exposed.. but it, along with most of the older houses, are built of the locally made bricks, from the long gone brickworks down by the river.
And they are notoriously rubbish.
Porous, flaking, crumbling.
Old men in the village look knowingly at each other and say “Village Name bricks” shaking their heads in disdain.
So quite a lot of us have rendered houses..

Some of our Victorian bricks have fingermarks where they were hauled out of the moulds. They are the size of children's hands.

@BrickBiscuit that's both interesting (a slice of history) and sad in terms of what it implies.

I love older bricks, but not so much the newer builds. 1950s onwards. Not attractive to me and render looks better.

Many Georgian/Regency houses were rendered and look better that way.

They're rendering and making them grey here. Makes a street look dreary.

Our house is rendered. It’s going to cost £10k to have it all repainted 😱😱😱😱

Have you said this before on here or is there two people this has happened to? 😳

@notnorman , it rings a bell for me too.

I love brick. Our house was rendered when we bought it and it doesnt look as nice as the others in the street which still have part brick on show.

It is just fashion. The bricks will be back in in a few years and all the render will be removed.

I regularly drive across the uk on a diagonal and can normally tell where I am by the colour brick on the houses. It's particularly marked crossing the pennines where the red brick of Manchester gives way to the soot clad stone over the top and mellower yellow brick the further east you go. Terrible to cover that up.