u/pulseezar

We’ve been having our 1910s/Edwardian semi fully renovated including full repointing. I came home today to find the pointing company had decided to acid wash the brick, something we hadn’t asked for. The colour of the brick is now much lighter than the other houses on the street and I’ve since read that it can be very bad to apply this type of treatment to old bricks.

How screwed are we and is there anything we can do about it?

I always find it interesting how Manchester is presented to a global audience.

https://www.reuters.com/city-memo/manchester-like-local-2026-09-05/

The rain, homely pubs, music scene and dry sense of humour remain the same, but now skyscrapers tower over the city centre. While they're not to everyone's taste, I think they make Manchester feel grown-up and international — unlike the abandoned mills and grubby streets I knew as a kid.

We're looking for builders to undertake a complete renovation of an Edwardian property, including everything from rewire and replumb to new heating, some replastering, structural works (chimney breast removal and internal remodelling) and all general aspects of renovation. We've only managed to get one quote so far. And it basically lists all the jobs and has a price at the end.

This feels vague to me, I would have expected it to be broken down by individual jobs and show greater detail on specification. The builders are reluctant to give more detail and say that variations can be covered in their contingency.

Examples:

Insulate and board loft - to what depth, with what material or system?

Full rewire - does this include outside lighting, or lighting in the loft?

New doors - what type/style?

All steelwork - to the exact specifications set out in our drawings or something else?

This is the first time we have done this so not sure if we are asking too much.