Beltline_B
Senior Member
In my own experience, new brick stains, but over time the stains meld together and you get a general weather worn look. The reason those older buildings in those examples don’t look stained.
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- Thread starter Surrealplaces
- Start date
DougB
Active Member
It seems to be worse closer to the group and below windows. Maybe tap water used to spray down sidewalks and windows? The new brick argument doesn't make sense as water staining seems worse in Calgary compared to new brick construction elsewhere.
retrofiturbanism
Active Member
As far as I know, the staining is coming from the brick itself. With rain or other moisture moving through the brick, salts and other minerals get deposited on the exterior of the brick as the water evaporates. It lessens with time as the amount of salt and other minerals in the brick eventually decrease. It could be an issue with the type of brick we use here. When it is worse in some cases than others, it might be an issue with the flashing, not the brick. But I'm not an expert.
haltcatchfire
Senior Member
The term you’re all looking for is masonry efflorescence.
Beltline_B
Senior Member
That makes sense. I never knew why but I have seen the staining is noticeable when the brick is new. I wondered if some of it wasn’t colour runoff coming from the mortar? Whatever the case, it seems to go away after a while.
They could always paint the brick white and it would solve the problem right off the top
They could always paint the brick white and it would solve the problem right off the top
Urb
Active Member
I drove by this yesterday - the brick areas look great, but they went with a straight seam metal cladding system around the back. It looks terrible already. The oil canning is already coming through.
This style of infill built on corner lots with the two rows of homes, and parking in the middle seems to be the latest trend these days.I like the layout and design of these. I'm glad to see this taking over from the duplex trend. Duplexes are fine for off corridor streets, but this type of arrangement is much better for the artery roads.
zagox
Active Member
Good for corner lots, bad when built mid-block, especially if the space between the buildings is too narrow. I think our planning regime prevents the worst of this typology fortunately. Denver banned “slot home” developments last year after they got some really crummy projects:
Definitely makes a big difference on a corner. You can have the slot facing away in the less important side street and not onto the artery or main road.Good for corner lots, bad when built mid-block, especially if the space between the buildings is too narrow. I think our planning regime prevents the worst of this typology fortunately. Denver banned “slot home” developments last year after they got some really crummy projects:
retrofiturbanism
Active Member
Good for corner lots, bad when built mid-block, especially if the space between the buildings is too narrow. I think our planning regime prevents the worst of this typology fortunately. Denver banned “slot home” developments last year after they got some really crummy projects:
Our bylaw kind of prevents this with requirements for every dwelling unit's front entrance to "face" a street (mostly in the M-CG district). There have been some weird interpretations of this, and a few products like the ones you see in Denver, but for the most part, we have avoided this. Instead, we got the "four pack"- the four units on a typical lot in a single building, each occupying one corner quadrant of the building, but with the entrances for the two rear units, which are located on the side, slanted and facing the street. Some people hate them. Sarina built a crap load of them on Kensington Road west of 14th street.
GoVertical
Senior Member
Seriously love this project off of fifth Street:
Here are a couple more of the slot homes that are popping up, but so far the slot is facing the side street so I'm good with them. Both these sites are 6 unit projects, one replaced a pair of houses, and one replaced a four-plex. Either way, it a density boost and a decent form of living for a family who wants to live in an inner city area. For a couple of years when I was a child, we lived in a townhouse similar to the white stucco one below, with a garage at the bottom, and two levels above. My parents always liked that unit due to it's functionality.
Another 6 unit slot home. You see these popping everywhere now.
Another 6 unit slot home. You see these popping everywhere now.
Cowtown
Senior Member
I like these 6 unit developments, they're what I like to think of as creeping urbanism, slow but sure density boosters without altering the landscape much. A few more of these and the neighborhood gets used to them, after that comes the small MU-2 type developments and then we start seeing some real change in the urban fabric.
cowGaryBerta
New Member
I'm trying to visualize what you're describing, but want to make sure - do you have any specific examples I can look at?
retrofiturbanism
Active Member
These are not slot homes. Slot homes have the "slot" facing the street, with the units facing that interior courtyard. Our projects are largely rowhouses, with each units front entrance facing the street.