Red brick repairs, possible?

[dirty boy]

Done lots of googling, but mostly just repointing firms.

I've started hacking off the pebbledash today (only done about 2m sq) bloody hard work, not coming off how I imagined.

Anyway, it's an old house, and there are red bricks underneath. Some are pretty good, others are poor, where the render is coming off, it's taking some of the face of the red brick too.

Can these be 'repaired' somehow?

Or is it definately a replace and re-point?

See pictures. This wall will be inside the house eventually, and i'd ideally like to keep it as it appears (only looking a darn site better!)

The rest of the house exterior i'll slap high build on or something.

Oh, and if anyone knows a better way of removing pebble dash than a bolster and lump hammer let me know!

Cheers.

[whitechief]

There are specialist firms out there such as this one:

http://www.plastic-surgeon.co.uk/Services/StoneAnd...

[surrey7er]

We went through this a while back... I am certainly no expert, but I understand that often, brickwork under dash is 'a bit crap' especially if the house was pebbledashed from the start. You might find that the best option is to re-render the outside... that's what we did.

we also had some face bricks repaired that had blown. It wasnt cheap, as it's labour intensive...

[Slagathore]

Where inside the new extension is it going to be seen?

If it's not that important, or won't really add anything, I wouldn't really bother hacking it all off. I've done it before with a lump hammer and chisel. Took bloody ages. I got fed up and started using a small breaker with a new, sharp chisel on it, that got it off a fair bit quicker, but it did start to heat the breaker up quite a lot, so you'll need to take some breaks.

I'd just put a new finish on over the top, probably.

[Spudler]

Re the exposed brickwork in extension: you'd be surprised how effective that brickwork will look once pointed in. Invest in one of these http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Power+Tools/Bosch+... or similar and hack off the render. Try pointing a M2 or so with either ginger sand/cement or yellow building sand/white cement and see what you think, it can make it a feature wall with character.
Re the outside: Hack it all off and have it rendered...maybe K-Render?. The cost of replacing brickwork WILL be very expensive and will very likely end up looking like a patchwork quilt.

[dirty boy]

Cheers for the responses, never knew about that hammer tool thingy, have just had a look on ScrewFix, I suspect i'll be investing.

Downstairs i'm not too bothered as it's in the garage, but I every inch counts in there as it's narrow already. Upstairs they're bedrooms, and we'd like to add character to the building. We'll see, but I certainly want the pebbledash off.

Thanks again, at least I can repair the odd brick if required too.