Brickie

Are you asking so you can cut the blocks down where the opening is? 20mm upstand would achieve some very nasty nicknames from one as clumsy footed as me.

Look like some kind of post war LBC. Some guy called Steve Findabrick keeps coming up on my LinkedIn-might be worth looking for him.

Hard core game of swing ball you’re proposing there, @JSHarris :)) Not that wacky Id say-I’ve never built a twisted pier but I believe a micro version of what you suggest is one method of building them. Another method might be to keep your centre point as a reference check,set up vertical profiles at say,4 metre intervals & make a curved profile to the shape of the circumference. It’s probably too impractical & time consuming to check every course but you could check maybe every 4th & correct any minor deviations so they don’t increase. Btw,my experience of building curved brickwork (albeit garden walls,so more forgiving of minor inaccuracies) was that production can be surprisingly high. Yes,it’s all level work but that’s offset to an extent that you’re just working the length of your level for the height of the lift before moving along and repeating the process.

Sorry-crossed wires I think.

If you cut them at 109mm you’ll get 4 out of 1.

I can’t imagine so but you might in years to come as you’re going to see it. Using a coursing brick as a soldier as described is more for work which will be rendered or clad (& hence not seen.)

@Carrerahill I’m not making any assertions on the structural rights or wrongs,just relaying my past experience as a foreman & dealing with NHBC,who as you said don’t like all that. Even known some building control to get funny about it. Anyhow, @epsilonGreedy‘s garage is fair faced (I believe?) so not an option for him.

Wouldn’t get away with that on a big site-mixing materials with different Newton’s plus different rates of expansion for the render. Whdre possible,I bond my corners block to block I.e. lose the 100mm piece. For course 2,I cut a 330mm block to give half bond one way,& use the 110mm offcut the other way to give half bond both directions. If not fair faced,you can just judge the 110mm by using your 100mm bolster 10mm in from the end of the block. Saves you getting your tape out constantly & 4 cuts gives your 8 courses worth.

Hell of a lot come in at 210mm high now,too. No fun if you’re having to bump up at all to keep level with the existing house.

Hmmm,hard to say whether they can handle it or not-by rights should be fine as you’re not governed by existing floor levels,building lines etc on a New Build like you are on an extension. My worry would more be-can they price it accurately? If you miscalculate one element on an extension (skips for digging founds for example) the hit should be smallish & able to be absorbed in the overall price. The scenario you don’t want is the guy realising he’s dropped s clanger at some stage & either a)cutting corners to make up the shortfall or b) losing heart & interest in the job as he takes on other work to keep his cash flow rolling.

Is that a standard lintol or a steel in the picture? Looks a fair span-I’d want to see it propped during construction to stop it bowing. Doesn’t appear to be a cavity tray in place neither. I bet they were cheap,this crowd.

... though it does give an unsightly bulge as it’s compressed out by the creep of the building.

@Russell griffiths May I ask why 3 extensions & not one big one? Was it due to the shape of the previous building or a PD loophole to do 3 on separate occasions? Asking as I know very little about PD rights & need to swot up for my next house.

Just to add that the lap in a dpc should be minimum the width of the wall. So in your case-215mm wall means min 215mm lap at any join.

Alas,none of them ‘lucky.’

Then sit back & relax with a spritz & some stuffed peppers. You do know that’s how us brickies spend our Saturday nights,right?

Are you talking up & down on the line? If it ranges through plumb within tolerance then that’s all the plasterer needs.

Have you got any pictures? And have you drilled any sections out? i find it hard to believe any section of walking was built using mud instead of mortar.

Sure I went to a winter rave called ‘Thermal Mass’ once.

Just a couple of ads I’ve seen. The traditional regional swing in rates seems out of the window atm,for whatever reason. Leeds,Manchester,Liverpool,Midlands-all offering comparable day & price rates to the South. Wales & the far South West maybe the exceptions.

You’d get at least 40% more on site,with a continuation of work,fork lift bringing your gear AND a subbie making a cut on top. Go jump yourself :))

‘The mortar should be the weaker element of the wall’ (I.e. not as strong as the material it’s bedding) was a fundamental passed down to us at college. Another was the question ‘is the mortar there to keep the bricks together or to keep them apart?’ Bit of a trick that one as it has to do both to carry out its function properly,but it was intended to stimulate a different train of thought. When I was a hoddie/improver in my late teens/early twenties it was all mixed on site (except maybe jobs in the city where space was an issue so they might get ready mixed delivered.) We used to do different ratios for the external & internal walls. I think some issues arise due to building on unsuitable land (or not building with the correct system for the land.) I’ve worked on two flood plains in my time on site. One of them I know had issues with cracking before the job was even finished.

I’d be amazed if your party wall was 330mm deep,;one brick (9 inches) was standard in solid wall construction & the Victorian Builders wouldn’t have over engineered out of the goodness of their hearts. When you say the bearing wall is 140mm are you measuring plaster face to plaster face?

With a small mixer (like yours) I do a mix of 12 decent shovels full to half a bag of cement. Personally I put the dust in halfway through so I just count out loud each shovel as it goes in,eliminating the risk of mis-counting. As for mixer safety-no reason the mixer has to be turning as you load it.

That’ll be your dpc then.