The Brick Veneer Home

You only need to drive around Canberra suburbs for a short time to realise that there is one common theme in Canberra housing. That is the brick veneer home. Old houses, new houses in almost every street you will see the same commonality. Personally, I can't stand the look of standard brick veneer homes, the only slight caveat is the houses made out of smooth Canberra red brick. 

For me brick houses represent one thing... a lack of imagination. Out of all the materials that could be used nothing says 'a project builder built my house' like a brick veneer house. Generally speaking the windows are small, the orientation is wrong and there is little insulation. There is no thermal mass in the inside of the house making them hot in summer and cold in winter.

This brings me to our new house. As I alluded to in a previous post, one of the reasons why we purchased our house was because it at least ticked two boxes and they were that the orientation is good and there is already some insulation. As for the looks... well I would say it won't be to long before there is a coat of render being applied to the brick work. I have been investigating a couple of products. The first one I am interest in is Rockcote Grey render. This looks reasonably easy to use and is more of a  traditional cement render. The other product that intrigues me at the moment is Dulux Full Cover Texture paint. It is an acrylic render that can be rolled on without the need to hawk and trowel like a traditional render. It may be more suitable to my skill set.

Front of the house

Front courtyard