ᐅ Discolored clinker bricks, house facade, compensation, expert assessment?

Thank you for your help... Of course, we would have preferred to restore the original condition, but that has failed.
Even a cleaning specialist reached their limits. The cost estimate was 3,500 EUR. We declined because they rubbed off all the white sand from the test bricks.
That made it even worse than the yellowish tint.

So the original condition can never be restored. Removing all the bricks is not reasonable… of course.

Now it’s about compensation… what’s especially frustrating is that the color is not the same on every side. For example, the east side is much more yellow than the west.
It really looks bad when you look at it closely…

It annoys me every day!
Money only helps to a limited extent… but if the house is ever sold, the inspector will immediately see the defect and deduct money right away…

We have the sample board from the builder… and we’ve also been there with it several times, and the difference is very clear!
The builder admits this himself, but the jointing contractor refuses to take responsibility and does not see the fault with themselves… and only they want the expert involved, so the builder has to go along because they don’t want to be left with the costs…

The original brick is called Geestbrand Röben bunt/weiß.
The example photos on the website are quite clear… a completely different brick.

Additionally, we have photos of the brickwork as it looked before... exactly like the one on the comparison house.
The discoloration only appeared after it was cleaned with chemicals.
Not all sides reacted the same way... I assume it depends on how intensively each side was washed with water.
For example, the east side is much more yellowish than the west side.
If you only look at one side, you might quickly think that is the original color... but when you look at all sides, it becomes clear that the color tone is not consistent.

So the question is, what would be a realistic amount to propose in order to avoid involving the surveyor/expert... 500 EUR is a nice try, but even I understand that this is more of a joke than a reasonable offer.

Christian

Were the photos (before/after) taken with the same camera under the same lighting conditions (cloud cover/time of day/season)? Otherwise, they are not very useful...

DerBjoern schrieb:
Were the photos (before/after) taken with the same camera under the same lighting conditions (cloud cover/time of day/season)?
Otherwise, they’re not very useful...

Hello,

the white balance is not exactly the same, and the lighting conditions differ somewhat. It is meant more as an indicator.
By looking at the white window frames, you can roughly see that it matches.

In the meantime, I spent a lot of time comparing the photos from before the cleaning with the current condition and also asked a friend who is a building inspector.
The conclusion was: only the east side of the house is really badly affected... It is still fairly yellowed and clearly stands out from all other sides, which no longer have the original color but come very close. At least, all other sides have the same color and it is hardly noticeable that it’s not the original. An outsider would think it was meant to look like that.
At least we wouldn’t make a big deal of this and would leave it as is...
Because this point is really debatable and the outcome could go either way.

However, the difference compared to the east side is very striking when you look from the corner and have two sides in view.
So, realistically, this concerns compensation for one gable side... as all attempts to clean by the developer, a jointing contractor, or a specialist company have failed. And replacing all the bricks—even if you consider one side defective—is unlikely... And you cannot just replace one side. How would that look?

Therefore, the final question to you is: how much compensation do you think would be reasonable? It is quite obvious that the offered 500 EUR is disproportionate, but the developer has signaled willingness to negotiate and settle this without going through a formal expert report.

What amount do you consider reasonable for this one side?

Thank you
Christian