Brickie

I'd have said the heads wanted a detail,to give the impression of a stone head spanning the opening,rather than just following coursing lines to give that split block effect as there is in the photo. If you could live with that projecting say 10mm then maybe you wouldn't need to hack off the work that's done,but merely add the detail in an extra coat. Same with the reveals-is there enough play to have a quoin detail?

Hitch that line on your corner block!:) Looks good mate.

Don't mess with ProDave!!

I'm told that,in certain parts of Wales,friendly conversations between Mother & daughter are conducted in this fashion

One of them may've had a Lucozade label but definitely smelled more potent :))

I genuinely saw a rough old brickie attempt to improvise a water level with hosepipe (I.e. not transparent ) & a bottle of Lucozade once. Honestly,there are some right chancers in & around London :((

Drawings-they're just suggestions,really

Heard of a great method for setting out brickwork on tf- drop a plumb line from the eaves at each corner and measure off at the frame at each floor level. This will give precisely give you your dim from frame to front of wall & allow you to correct yourself as you come up if you're wondering off plumb by a mil or 2.

Hi & welcome. Q1 re bumper I'd imagine the. builder is referring to a tile bumper to get the old tiles down & stored until they're needed again. As for scaffold-are you organising this yourself? Normally the builder would do it & ask for the lifts at the heights they want.

Do a bit of surveying on the building you're proposing to extend first. Are the walls plumb (vertical)? Are adjacent sides square to each other(90 degrees)? these are just a couple of issues which might need addressing if trying to attach a timber frame kit to an imperfect,older building,and why,sometimes it's easier just to build something like this in ctraditional brick & block (or block & block.) Those potential problems are not insurmountable,but they do need to be planned out,adding time & money.

Could you show the layout & proposed changes on plan?

With the neighbours or having that conversation with your brickie?

Engineerings or similar hard fired brick at the bottom is always good,as is a tile creasing to throw rainwater off the face if not using coping. Youre right about Eng Gard Wall bond but the brickie broke a cardinal rule-change direction,change bond! I.e the header course on the sides should be 2 courses down & up from the header course on the long side.

He was harsh on you-if I got 100 per day from a complete novice I'd be over the moon! Also,on the subject of names,my Dad (Mum's 2nd husband) wouldn't allow me to be christened Catholic the same as my siblings. He came from a fairly religious (Protestant) Plymouth family,& didn't want the hassle with them. In concilliatory mood (back then,at least),my Mum suggested Adrian for the name-nice & neutral & he agreed. A few years later he was reminded by a colleague that England's only Pope,Nicholas Breakspear,was known as Adrian IV. My Dad was an excellent chess player but Mum wiped the floor with him there :))

300 /8 hrs = 37.5 blocks per hour. Just over one every 2 minutes. Even allowing for ties & cutting for openings,getting over lintols etc this is not that hard s challenge.

We'd love for that to happen but it never does. If your lads are 6' or more there'll be plenty of swearing at the scaffold clips but that's just the way it goes. Is it tube & fitting (traditional) or system scaffold? System is so much better on a standard shapes build & even better on TF,as you can lift the inner board as you reach the top of the lift & then drop it down half a metre when you move onto the upper lift. Have you ordered coursing blocks for above & below the openings? If you're expecting them to cut full blocks instead that'll slow them down considerably. You'll need bed joint reinforcement two courses above & below all openings too to minimise risk of cracking. Get them to prop the lintols too or they'll likely deflect.

There is a two part tie system I've used previously for larger cavities (you bed one part in to the skin you're building & the other part locks into it for the other skin.) No idea of cost,but what I've found when building a 150mm cavity (the largest I've worked on) is that,with all the will in the world,a lot of the ties topple out before you've laid on them. The extra length & weight of them makes them extremely difficult to keep in position before your brickwork goes on your bed joint,so inevitably a few (or a lot) end up being pushed in afterwards,seriously impacting their effectiveness. Another option might be to build in Abbey channel slots,&I use the sliding ties. Again,no idea on cost.

I've got one. It's mint for marking out arch voussoirs-best method I've found so far.

Rigid board insulation systems don't work in this scenario,where you have to build the outer leaf first. The insulation is pinned back to the inner leaf to allow a ventilation void-this is just impossible when the outer leaf is built first,as it would be in your situation.

Not quite,would be 110mm.

Or,buy the aircrere coursing bricks in 100mm instead of 140mm,invest in a block saw (approx £30 & will come in handy later on in your build) & cut them down to 140mm so you can lay them as 2 courses of headers. Or do you have a mate with a petrol saw? If so,you could lay them header bond flush to the back of your wall (or flush to the front,whichever' more practical) & just cut them down after. Might require 2 runs to get through 140 but will still be pretty quick.

Ok,so where does it say you need a Dpc tray below Dpc? The standard detail when I did them was a tray lapping down to Dpc level ( saves you using 100mm damp too,if you get it right.)

Have you got a drawing from the architect?

The reflective strip on hi-vis vests & a nice overcast morning is the perfect combo.

Do you have a laser level with the beeping receiver? My mate (a basement contractor) creates an upside down t in 4x2 & atteches the receiver to it,so the bottom of the it is set at the desired height. I'd say you'd want to vibrate the concrete anyway,& the answer to 'how self-levelling...' is 'not very!'