Damage to brickwork on side of house

BrokenArrows

Looking for an investment property at the moment. One place has appealed to me but after looking at it on google maps i see that the outside has damage to the brickwork.

I havent arranged a viewing yet.

What could have caused this?
Does it possibly indicate something more serious rather than cosmetic damage?
What would i do to repair this so that it looks nice?

K.Flyer

The first thing I would have thought was kids throwing rocks at the side of the house.
I've seen similar weather deterioration in red brick before, but not to that degree.
The wall looks like a patchwork of repairs over the years compared to the wall on the other side of the house and I would wonder why.
If you are seriously considering buying it, I would suggest that you have a structural engineer / surveyor take a very close look at it and get quotes for repairs.

my3cents

Soft bricks and damp add in some frost and they fall to bits quicker. Very common to see that in the UK.

You often notice it a lot more in the lower courses which get water splashed up on them every time it rains.

Fix is to chop them out and replace and looking at that wall whole sections may have already been replaced.

Edit> The other possible repair is to render the whole wall.

BrokenArrows

Im not keen on rendering the whole wall.
I guess replacing the bricks would be the only option.

Im a bit concerned about it. As mentioned the house looks like a patchwork of different bricks,
I live in a house older than this one at the moment built with the same red bricks and repairs like this were not necessary.

beauf

Lots of different factors at play.

Seems to be this spalling...

https://turnbullmasonry.com/common-causes-spalling-bricks-fix-crumbling-masonry/

K.Flyer

BrokenArrows wrote: »

Im not keen on rendering the whole wall.
I guess replacing the bricks would be the only option.

Im a bit concerned about it. As mentioned the house looks like a patchwork of different bricks,
I live in a house older than this one at the moment built with the same red bricks and repairs like this were not necessary.

Rendering over the red brick may not be allowed by the local council, although some of the neighbouring houses have completely painted over their redbrick, so that may be an option after filling in the gaps.
Looking at the wall face on, it does look a mess compared to some of the neighbouring houses.

beauf

The issue will be if it continues and causes bigger issues. Looks like someone has done some repair work on it previously. So its a glass half full rather than half empty.