Brick and Mortar Restoration South West

13/11/2024

Hey Everyone,

A quick update on our future plans for Brick & Mortar South West.

As some of you may've seen already, the team behind BMR SW have been working on a new registered building business called Built2B, which has become our full-time focus since April with the start of our first new home build. With ongoing specialist Trade shortages and supply difficulties of materials, of which we relied upon for our type of work, has meant BMR SW has stood still for most of 2024.

As a result, this has led us to consider our future with BMR SW. So, with Built2B being our primary focus, we have decided that we want to finish the story on our terms and will be working towards closing the book on BMR SW in the coming months.

We won’t be taking any new enquiries from now on and we would like to thank everyone along the way who has entrusted us to undertake work for them.

We’d love for you all to join us over at Built2B however, as while one book closes, another one with a bright future ahead is unfolding and we can’t wait to show you what we have instore ahead over there.

Regards,

The Brick & Mortar South West Team

24/06/2024

Hi Everyone,

Just an update on our situation and we have some exciting news to share with you all

We've held a long term ambition of becoming a registered Builder one day and late last year, we began assembling the plan to make this a reality

Therefore, the Team you've followed through the years are proud to announce that we launched Built2B officially earlier this year and began our first new home build in the Witchcliffe Ecovillage. Under Built2B, we'll be undertaking new home builds, renovations and extensions, general carpentry and maintenance works among others

We'll be posting updates along the way with work we do on the Built2B Facebook and Instagram pages in a similar style to how we have done here, so we'd love for you to join us in our new journey

We know some of you might be wondering what this means for Brick & Mortar. All we can honestly say is that due to the current Trade availabilities, we can no longer offer most of the services we did previously with confidence that we'd be delivering to the high standards we aim for. We can deliver this though with Built2B as we're able to undertake more of the required work ourselves and have already assembled a great group of Trades to work with us for the specialised areas

For now though, we'll be providing updates on our work with Built2B and look forward to sharing with you everything we enjoy about building

02/09/2022

With the return of sunny and clear days, our Team has been able to make the most in the change of weather and undertake projects outside once again, such as in Gracetown last week where we conducted mortar pointing repairs.

These repairs mainly took place on a second storey where fretted mortar was contributing to moisture entering the home. In between taking in the amazing view of the ocean, our Team cut out the concerning area and re-pointed it to improve it's water tightness.

Repairs were also undertaken around a window sill on the first storey, where fretting was occurring and could allow moisture into the home.

To learn more about mortar pointing, visit our website below for more information
brickandmortarsouthwest.com.au/mortarpointing

12/08/2022

Removing walls to create larger open spaces can be a great idea to improve the flow and usability of a home. Spaces can be repurposed or enlarged to suit the needs of our Clients and whatever it may be that they're looking to achieve.

A recent wall removal we undertook in Bunbury is a great example of this, as the kitchen, dining and living rooms were all separated thanks to two walls between them that meant there was scope for improvement.

After liaising with a Structural Engineer to determine the sizes of the LVL beams that would adequately support the roof, our Team set about installing them to the Engineer's specifications. After the beams were in place, it was safe for the stud walls to be removed and the space to be opened up.

With the walls now removed, the home feels much larger and offers much more usability, which our Clients plan on taking advantage of by installing a larger kitchen than what was previously possible.

In combination with the wall, we were also asked to expand a door opening up to standard height, which we completed by installing a new lintel and removing the brickwork underneath.

We love receiving great feedback and we received the following after we were finished, which makes our Team extra proud of the work they do:

"Good communication and keeping me updated on progress of works. Site cleaned up and cleared of debris. Would use again. Thanks for the great work" - Kim

To learn more about our wall alteration service, visit our website below
brickandmortarsouthwest.com.au/wall-alterations

28/07/2022

Although brickwork can be very strong when done correctly, it cannot always avoid the forces of a car impact or standing high in heavy winds!

Thanks to these sorts of events, our Team have been very busy lately with re-building a brick wall in Margaret River and a chimney in Dardanup.

While the brick wall was a simple re-build and render repair, the chimney was constructed with bricks that are no longer available and required us to source the closest available match.

To aid in combing the old with the new, our Team salvaged what they could from the fallen half of the chimney and replaced the most fretted bricks in the remaining base before re-pointing it to match the re-built top half.

To learn more about our brick repair service, visit our link below to see what we can do for you today.
brickandmortarsouthwest.com.au/brick-repairs

15/02/2022

To capture the views of the coastline in Bunbury, it's very common for properties to be built up using limestone retaining walls due to being a natural product, hard wearing against the effects of the salty air and usually requiring little to no maintenance.

Unfortunately for the Owners of this property, their limestone retaining wall had developed cracking over time and needed a solution to prevent the situation from deteriorating further.

As it was found the cracks were mostly a result of settlement, they first had the foundations underpinned to stop the movement before asking us to address the cracking in the limestone blocks.

Due to the cracking going straight through as opposed to following the mortar joints of the blocks and their size, we installed the larger 9mm x 1m Thor Helical crack stitching bars and 6mm bars in longer lengths where needed to tie larger sections together and stabilize the walls.

The 9mm bars were more appropriate in this situation due to their ability to carry more load per bar even though they share the same tensile strength properties as the 6mm.

In the rear garden area, after installing the bars, we used a limestone finish render over the area and raked in grooves to give the appearance of limestone blocks.

To learn more about our crack repair service, visit our link below to see what we can do for you today.
brickandmortarsouthwest.com.au/crackrepairs

01/02/2022

Matching the old with the new can be a difficult balance to manage and the Owners of this old home came to us to see if we could not only re-point the original section of their property, but also match the mortar colour and style to the extension at the rear which had used cream mortar rather than fitting in with the white from the lime mortar.

As the lime was heavily fretting in some areas and soft in others, along with the desire to match the cream on the extension, it was decided to re-point all the lime sections while also carrying out repairs such as replacing fretted bricks that had been patched but didn't match the brick colour perfectly.

After the lime mortar was removed and replaced with new cream mortar in a rolled finish, the original section of the home now matches in with the newer extension and finally looks like they both belong together.

To find out more about mortar pointing, visit our website and see what we can do you!
brickandmortarsouthwest.com.au/mortarpointing

22/12/2021

We just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy new year as we head into this holiday season.

It's been amazing to have everyone's support this past year and we'll head into 2022 working to make it an even bigger and better than ever.

Stay safe and we'll talk to you all soon!

- The Brick & Mortar Restoration South West Team

(Note: Our Offices are now closed for the year and we'll re-open on January 10th, though we will still be receiving any emails or enquiries sent in)

19/11/2021

We've got our fingers crossed tonight for Kevin, Travis and the Old Bank in Bunbury, the building is a finalist in the 2021 WA Heritage Awards category of "Conservation or Adaptive Reuse of a State Registered Place" and is up amongst some other amazing projects.

We're very proud to have been a part of this restoration and wish everyone the best of luck in the awards!

Photos and history once again by the amazing Memories of Bunbury

Wishing Kevin Coote, Travis, and the team the best tonight at the WA Heritage Awards in Perth. Their old Commonwealth Bank Building's heritage restoration is competing with 7 other stunning projects in WA for the win. Whatever the outcome, you are a winner in our eyes, creating so much happiness within the hearts of Bunbury locals.

Our old Commonwealth Bank on Victoria Street is a finalist in the 2021 WA Heritage Awards in the category of "Conservation or Adaptive Reuse of a State Registered Place"!

“The Old Bank” built in 1929, has been restored to its former glory and is a focal building due to its strategic location in Bunbury. The carefully selected restoration team executed the conservation project with great passion, extensive research and consultation with the City of Bunbury and Heritage Council. As renovations progressed, exciting heritage features dating back to the original construction were uncovered. Great efforts were taken to maintain the re-discovered heritage attributes of “The Old Bank”.

Project owner and manager: Kevin Coote
Architect: Kent Lyon Architect
Builder: Ian Drummond
Brick and Mortar Restoration

Congratulations! A brilliant project that has captured a huge public interest!

The finalists in this category are:

101 Canning Highway
Former Commonwealth Bank Building*
Farmers Home Hotel
Fountain Office Redevelopment at Parliament House
Old Onslow Townsite
Warders Hotel and Emily Taylor
York Residency Museum

Full details of the other finalists in this category:

https://www.dplh.wa.gov.au/information-and-services/historic-heritage/heritage-grants-and-incentives/heritage-awards/2021-western-australian-heritage-award-finalists/conservation-or-adaptive-reuse-of-a-state-register

16/09/2021

Our Team has been hard at work recently completing all sorts of work throughout the South West, ranging from insurance repairs, plastering all the way to carpentry, all of which we used In Dunsborough to remove a wall between the kitchen and living room to create an open living area.

To conduct the removal, we first removed a small angled 'V' wall and bricked up the opening from this return. This allowed us to install a steel beam across the width of the room where the wall would be removed and adjust the roof structure to suit in order to carry the load of the roof itself. Once the beam was in place, the remainder of the wall was safe to remove.

We also removed the brick cupboard in the laundry as it was due to be replaced with a more modern cabinetry and layout.

Once the wall and cupboard were down, our Team repaired the ceiling and walls, ready for painting.

The difference made by removing the kitchen wall was dramatic, with the space feeling much larger and modern while also allowing much more natural light to flow throughout.

To see what we can do for you, visit our website below.
www.brickandmortarsouthwest.com.au

16/06/2021

New logo, same service, same us.

Some of you may have seen us start to roll out our new design already, but it’s finally time to complete the transformation from our past into the future.

A big thank you to Renee from Fat Red Bird Designs who was fantastic to deal with throughout the design process and made it very easy to accomplish what we were looking to achieve.

09/06/2021

In our research about the Fmr. Commbank Building's history prior to starting our part of the restoration project, The Memories of Bunbury was a treasure trove full of old pictures of Victoria Street from decades ago that helped us understand what the building looked like in it's former glory.

They've recently been able to share more previously unseen pictures thanks to the Commonwealth Bank and it's amazing to see how the building has evolved over the years and we're proud to have been a part of the project to bring it's original façade back after many years covered under layers of paint.