Dan1983

Think we are going to stick with gas boiler set up for now after further thought. Concerned about the noise from the fan on the ASHP. Not really the overall dB but the pitch, think it would be unfair on the neighbours

Cheers guys for all the pointers! Up to DPC now and they are looking good. Mortar still wet in the pictures. Past DPC we are going to use a light grey mortar with V or raked out joint to show off the rough edges of the brick.

Up to DPC, going to use a lighter mortar for the rest of it with either V or raked out joint to show off the edges off the brick work

Thank-you, No surprises yet, last main item on the list is roof slate. Awaiting clearance from national park from samples. Im going to email the supplier today to see what lead times are like. Price wise hopefully no changes apart from the tweaks we are making as we go.

That’s fine, rather spend more and get the finish I want

Hopefully all sorted. Been to Elliot’s where all of our remaining packs of bricks are currently stored. They have gone through a few packs and mocked a wall up and they look much better. Still not the same shades as expected but we both agreed we liked them. Builder going to mock a wall up with muck just to make sure. Deffo going to need to be mixing 3/4 packs at a time with these bricks

I don’t like them as they do not resemble the samples that led me to purchase them. If they were representative I would like them.

Just got back from site, given a few bricks a rinse off under the tap as water on site. Fair amount of red dust streaming off. Left them to dry so will re visit in the morning. Going to meet the builder over there and break open the other two packs and have a sort through. He is keen to push on understandably as has concrete booked for tomorrow but if i don’t like the bricks I will have to halt proceedings.

Faz you are correct they are mega dusty, first pack has quite a few breakages also. I will go back round and clean a few up. They are Ibstock Ivanhoe cottage blend. Sorry I’m not worried about the national park picking out the difference in appearance as I would be covered that they are the correct ones by stock name. The issue is I’m not sure I like the look of them, really didn’t want anything too red or orange and liked the spectrum of yellow/ white and black on the samples and pictures. I would be using grey mortar which would break them up rather than the red pictured in the extra photos. Understand the point regarding standing the labour down but I had a good vision of how I wanted the property to look from the start and really don’t want to compromise that. As you say many shortages, these bricks took 8 weeks and came direct from Ibstock. 4-6 weeks for planning approval then a further wait to order/ deliver would put the project back by quite some margin

Just can’t risk anything with new forest nation park they are mega strict! Was due to concrete pour tomorrow to DPC, builder asking if he can use the bricks to DPC level but thinking I should hold off

National park wise samples were the pictures in this case due to covid restrictions etc. I think I’m going to have to put a hold on things and as you say discus with Ibstock.

Sorry late reply guys. I don’t have the samples anymore but they did have a good colour variation. The pictures were taken in direct sun light last night at about 1900. I have since found some more pictures online and they don’t look too bad on a build but still unsure. Its a nightmare scenario as the national park take up-to 6 weeks to approve materials so this could set us back 2 months as a guess, that’s if we can even return the bricks? will post some pictures of another build