Facelift our house!
Discussion
Our house, from the front, is, well, a little dull. I have it in mind that I want to make it look better, more contemporary, give it more kerb-appeal. This is how it is:
There is also the drive to consider. The previous owner apparently kept a large truck here frequently, and whilst a drive which happily takes 4-5 large cars is a bonus for us, the reinforced concrete look is not! And yes, I do need to get the jet washer out. Again.
We live at the end of a smallish close, however there are several designs of house locally. MrsC is concerned that changing the house will make it look out of place, but I think we can get away with that. I haven't got a decent picture at the moment, but some houses are mock-timbered, some are tile-hung like ours but in different colours of tile, some have feature brick panels, e.g. herringbone, etc.
We'd like a new front door, a new garage door, and a new driveway. I'm leaning towards replacing the tiles with cedar cladding, and going for grey windows. Presumably then a grey door & garage door. I can't find many pictures of what I mean; this is the nearest I can get to it:
And then what to do with the drive? Many neighbours have block-paved, and the roadway is too, but I'm aware that most options will need a significant amount of the existing concrete taken away, unless we can find something which doesn't add much thickness. The drive, whilst aesthetically-challenged, is solid and not falling apart anywhere.
Cost? I have absolutely no idea whatsoever. Can anyone enlighten me? The house is worth in the region of £400-450k, and whilst we don't want to double our mortgage, I also realise it's not a £5k job.
So, thoughts, suggestions, price estimates - do your worst!
There is also the drive to consider. The previous owner apparently kept a large truck here frequently, and whilst a drive which happily takes 4-5 large cars is a bonus for us, the reinforced concrete look is not! And yes, I do need to get the jet washer out. Again.
We live at the end of a smallish close, however there are several designs of house locally. MrsC is concerned that changing the house will make it look out of place, but I think we can get away with that. I haven't got a decent picture at the moment, but some houses are mock-timbered, some are tile-hung like ours but in different colours of tile, some have feature brick panels, e.g. herringbone, etc.
We'd like a new front door, a new garage door, and a new driveway. I'm leaning towards replacing the tiles with cedar cladding, and going for grey windows. Presumably then a grey door & garage door. I can't find many pictures of what I mean; this is the nearest I can get to it:
And then what to do with the drive? Many neighbours have block-paved, and the roadway is too, but I'm aware that most options will need a significant amount of the existing concrete taken away, unless we can find something which doesn't add much thickness. The drive, whilst aesthetically-challenged, is solid and not falling apart anywhere.
Cost? I have absolutely no idea whatsoever. Can anyone enlighten me? The house is worth in the region of £400-450k, and whilst we don't want to double our mortgage, I also realise it's not a £5k job.
So, thoughts, suggestions, price estimates - do your worst!
You could go with some kind of resin bonded surface on the drive, which won't add a lot of thickness and should be pretty low maintenance.
One thing I'd consider is the window frames. It appears that grey is in this season:
With a cream render over the brickwork and the new wood cladding it should really lift the look.
One thing I'd consider is the window frames. It appears that grey is in this season:
With a cream render over the brickwork and the new wood cladding it should really lift the look.
Cladding is a good a good shout, although I'd avoid the stuff in the picture you've posted that goes vertical unless you want the hassle of maintaining it often. Here in Norway 99% of houses are built from wood and cladding is almost always used for the outside walls. We've done a few houses over the summer where the owner had had vertical cladding and because of the rain (we get quite a lot) it runs down the wood and seeps in to the small gaps/joins which causes rot and needs attention every couple of years. We always replace with horizontal sitting cladding as that lets the water run off and avoids running over the joins making a waterproof joint.
davepoth said:
You could go with some kind of resin bonded surface on the drive, which won't add a lot of thickness and should be pretty low maintenance.
One thing I'd consider is the window frames. It appears that grey is in this season:
With a cream render over the brickwork and the new wood cladding it should really lift the look.
Yes, I'm definitely looking to go grey with the windows. The cream render is a masterstroke, some of the other houses have exactly that in their original design so it would tie it in nicely. Also it would give the opportunity to lose some cabling in the pillar to the left of the garage for a pair of lights either side.One thing I'd consider is the window frames. It appears that grey is in this season:
With a cream render over the brickwork and the new wood cladding it should really lift the look.
And if the windows are grey, then a grey garage door?
klmhcp said:
Lose the ball of plastic hanging off a bracket?
Fair shout, I don't even know why that is there!NordicCrankShaft said:
Cladding is a good a good shout, although I'd avoid the stuff in the picture you've posted that goes vertical unless you want the hassle of maintaining it often. Here in Norway 99% of houses are built from wood and cladding is almost always used for the outside walls. We've done a few houses over the summer where the owner had had vertical cladding and because of the rain (we get quite a lot) it runs down the wood and seeps in to the small gaps/joins which causes rot and needs attention every couple of years. We always replace with horizontal sitting cladding as that lets the water run off and avoids running over the joins making a waterproof joint.
Great tip, thanks, I wasn't hung up on whether it was horizontal or vertical but that makes the decision easy.What about cantilevering the garage roof with a big beam at the front and losing that pillar? It might not cost a fortune to do, though you'd need a proper engineer to tell you whether it can be done as a starting point.
Tiles, windows and cladding are where I would start. After that I'd weigh up whether your bricks then look OK before thinking about ways to cover them up. If you're budget is a problem, you could skip replacing the tiles at the back.
You want some bright plants at the front on the left. For your drive, decided how much you need and whether you want it in front of the garage. You could put block paving where the wheels go leading to the garage and then grass the rest, that would brighten things up nicely. I'd certainly look to reduce it down to as few spaces as you need and pput grass or plants down over the rest.
Tiles, windows and cladding are where I would start. After that I'd weigh up whether your bricks then look OK before thinking about ways to cover them up. If you're budget is a problem, you could skip replacing the tiles at the back.
You want some bright plants at the front on the left. For your drive, decided how much you need and whether you want it in front of the garage. You could put block paving where the wheels go leading to the garage and then grass the rest, that would brighten things up nicely. I'd certainly look to reduce it down to as few spaces as you need and pput grass or plants down over the rest.
V8RX7 said:
I don't think the modern grey windows etc will go with the old fashioned roof tiles - unless you want to change that to grey slate too.
Hmm, hadn't considered that at all - good point, that's the beauty of asking for input.paulrockliffe said:
What about cantilevering the garage roof with a big beam at the front and losing that pillar? It might not cost a fortune to do, though you'd need a proper engineer to tell you whether it can be done as a starting point.
Tiles, windows and cladding are where I would start. After that I'd weigh up whether your bricks then look OK before thinking about ways to cover them up. If you're budget is a problem, you could skip replacing the tiles at the back.
You want some bright plants at the front on the left. For your drive, decided how much you need and whether you want it in front of the garage. You could put block paving where the wheels go leading to the garage and then grass the rest, that would brighten things up nicely. I'd certainly look to reduce it down to as few spaces as you need and pput grass or plants down over the rest.
Fortunately the back isn't tile-hung, it's just brick. The drive is actually all in use. Changing that would mean the extremely non-PH option of selling some vehicles!Tiles, windows and cladding are where I would start. After that I'd weigh up whether your bricks then look OK before thinking about ways to cover them up. If you're budget is a problem, you could skip replacing the tiles at the back.
You want some bright plants at the front on the left. For your drive, decided how much you need and whether you want it in front of the garage. You could put block paving where the wheels go leading to the garage and then grass the rest, that would brighten things up nicely. I'd certainly look to reduce it down to as few spaces as you need and pput grass or plants down over the rest.
I'm going to try and mock it up although my photo-editing skills aren't that great.
My two penneth. You either do this properly or don't bother at all.
Ditch all the brown/dark features - guttering, soffits, windows and garage door. Remove the hanging tiles. This gives you a relatively blank canvas. Get professional advice on what type of cladding with which to replace the tiles. Try to find a wood colour that works with your bricks to save rendering. When you have your wood colour replace all the dark brown stuff with a light pastel shade. You'll be limited by your roof tiles, but you'll still have plenty of options.
And finally......don't bother with the above if you're going to leave the driveway as it is. You need a nice tidy surface in a colour that complements the house. Unless your job requires you to have so many vehicles get rid of one or two and introduce some low maintainance shrubs and maybe a small tree.
The worst thing you can do is change some things and leave others. If you want a proper transformation you have to go for it otherwise you'll end up spending a lot of money on something that still doesn't look good.
Ditch all the brown/dark features - guttering, soffits, windows and garage door. Remove the hanging tiles. This gives you a relatively blank canvas. Get professional advice on what type of cladding with which to replace the tiles. Try to find a wood colour that works with your bricks to save rendering. When you have your wood colour replace all the dark brown stuff with a light pastel shade. You'll be limited by your roof tiles, but you'll still have plenty of options.
And finally......don't bother with the above if you're going to leave the driveway as it is. You need a nice tidy surface in a colour that complements the house. Unless your job requires you to have so many vehicles get rid of one or two and introduce some low maintainance shrubs and maybe a small tree.
The worst thing you can do is change some things and leave others. If you want a proper transformation you have to go for it otherwise you'll end up spending a lot of money on something that still doesn't look good.
What's under those wall tiles?
Batons on brick wall or the cheap option?
Firstly how old are the Windows? Nearing change time? If so then you could change them out house wide that would make a difference.
Garage door you could simply paint it or go for something utterly cutting edge - but as you say it's a £409-450k place so you'd burn a lot for likely not even money back.
The house looks "fine"
The drive looks the weakest point by a country mile - do that. You say it's in full use and it's apparently 5 cars? If so then turn as much as you can to grass but with sunk plastic mash so you can use it year round issue free. Simply changing that will add colour back (plus not many people have or need that many cars especially in a house of that size)
You could plant wisteria which would look lovely.
How about lots of top end potted bushes?
Batons on brick wall or the cheap option?
Firstly how old are the Windows? Nearing change time? If so then you could change them out house wide that would make a difference.
Garage door you could simply paint it or go for something utterly cutting edge - but as you say it's a £409-450k place so you'd burn a lot for likely not even money back.
The house looks "fine"
The drive looks the weakest point by a country mile - do that. You say it's in full use and it's apparently 5 cars? If so then turn as much as you can to grass but with sunk plastic mash so you can use it year round issue free. Simply changing that will add colour back (plus not many people have or need that many cars especially in a house of that size)
You could plant wisteria which would look lovely.
How about lots of top end potted bushes?
How about extending the front room out to match the garage, change the angle of the garage roof so there's a more gradual slope to the left side. You could then have a semi blank canvas to alter the frontage.
Drive is a major visual detraction a skim of the right colour resin would work wonders.
Drive is a major visual detraction a skim of the right colour resin would work wonders.
elanfan said:
How about extending the front room out to match the garage, change the angle of the garage roof so there's a more gradual slope to the left side. You could then have a semi blank canvas to alter the frontage.
Drive is a major visual detraction a skim of the right colour resin would work wonders.
Or even just moving the street door forward flush with the garage door and change them both for something contemporary. Would create an additional porch area. Drive is a major visual detraction a skim of the right colour resin would work wonders.
Render and paint the brickwork and timber clad the hung tile areas.
PeterY27 said:
render the brick and paint white, cedar clad over the tile hanging, grey window frames and some nice oak high quality doors good modern light up/down light fittings on all corners to highlight bits
That's almost exactly what I was thinking, along with doing something to the drive.SonicHedgeHog said:
My two penneth. You either do this properly or don't bother at all.
Ditch all the brown/dark features - guttering, soffits, windows and garage door. Remove the hanging tiles. This gives you a relatively blank canvas. Get professional advice
What sort of people do I go to for the professional advice? The website posted earlier has some amazing results but I suspect that they are at the top of the market, and we'd rapidly price ourselves out of the area if we spent TOO much.Ditch all the brown/dark features - guttering, soffits, windows and garage door. Remove the hanging tiles. This gives you a relatively blank canvas. Get professional advice
SonicHedgeHog said:
And finally......don't bother with the above if you're going to leave the driveway as it is. You need a nice tidy surface in a colour that complements the house.
Unless your job requires you to have so many vehicles get rid of one or two
The drive definitely needs something done, even if we did nothing else. It's terrible. As for the cars, well, there's my daily, MrsC's daily, my Defender, and the RRC project which you can see the corner of. I could shift the RRC on but they rest are keepers. Oh, and there's something in the garage already Unless your job requires you to have so many vehicles get rid of one or two
Welshbeef said:
What's under those wall tiles?
Batons on brick wall or the cheap option?
I suspect the latter. There is a small return at the sides of the house and the tiles cut into the bricks, so I expect it's just blockwork under there. The houses were built by Croudace…..Batons on brick wall or the cheap option?
Welshbeef said:
Firstly how old are the Windows? Nearing change time?
They’re not original, no idea of age but nothing wrong with them, but I’m prepared to change them.Welshbeef said:
The drive looks the weakest point by a country mile - do that. You say it's in full use and it's apparently 5 cars? If so then turn as much as you can to grass but with sunk plastic mash so you can use it year round issue free. Simply changing that will add colour back (plus not many people have or need that many cars especially in a house of that size)
Would that mesh stuff make the grass survive with cars on it?elanfan said:
How about extending the front room out to match the garage, change the angle of the garage roof so there's a more gradual slope to the left side. You could then have a semi blank canvas to alter the frontage.
Drive is a major visual detraction a skim of the right colour resin would work wonders.
Not sure whether we’d get PP to extend the front, although it would make a massive difference. I had a house once before where the garage was proud of the front window like this, and did apply (before the current Permitted Dev rules) and it was thrown out. No other houses in the village have done that that I’m aware of.Drive is a major visual detraction a skim of the right colour resin would work wonders.
Can resin-bond be put straight on top of this concrete? How thick would it be?
mgtony said:
Or even just moving the street door forward flush with the garage door and change them both for something contemporary. Would create an additional porch area.
Render and paint the brickwork and timber clad the hung tile areas.
Yes, lots of people with this style of house have done the front door thing and created a porch. The main reason we haven't (yet) is that we can dry the dogs off under there without making a mess, but I guess that can still be a function of the porch.Render and paint the brickwork and timber clad the hung tile areas.
It's interesting, there are several different variations on this house style around the village, lighter bricks on some, white windows on others, etc. I used to want/like the darker appearance but it looks dingy now.
Some Gump said:
IMO those pictures look like offices. Might just be me tho, I really dislike the modern look for homes. Fine for offices.
I'd be re-doing the tiles in white render / black timbers Done right IMO it'd look really nice.
I'll have to get some pictures, there are houses nearby which were built with that look!I'd be re-doing the tiles in white render / black timbers Done right IMO it'd look really nice.
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