The Nawkaw brick colouring process was used to restore a group of five terraces in Sydney’s Paddington to their original period character after the project’s architects. Mellor Gray Architects, recommended it be used on old brickwork in each of the terraces and to match new brickwork.
Maintek, the builders, extended the gables of the terraces and replaced the roofing. New bricks had to be used for the extended gables as matching bricks from the houses’ era were not available. The old mortar in each terrace was repointed in white.
“Our first task was to clean the old bricks back to their original surface to allow us to recover them with the permanent Nawkaw colouring process,” says Anthony Watling, managing director of Nawkaw. “In addition to old layers of paint, the bricks were discoloured by age and over 100 years of accumulated pollution.
“The bricks in each terrace were different colours and the project called for all bricks to be the same colour, including the new bricks in the attractive gables. Our professional applicators also cleaned the repainted brickwork ready for the colour to be applied.”
The brick colours in each terrace, including the new bricks were carefully recoloured. The mortar was restored to a traditional red colour to blend with the bricks to present an attractive façade typical of the period of the streetscape.
Steve Mellor, of Mellor Gray Architects, says the finished result is fantastic. “We heard of the benefits of Nawkaw from another architectural firm experienced in heritage work,” he notes. “It has really transformed the project and provided an economical and aesthetic solution to the problem.”
Source: Building Products News.