Brickie

Are these the heights?

What structural opening dimensions have they given?

When you say you want a wider joint-do you mean the bed joints (horizontal),cross joints (vertical) or both? As above,messing with the standard 75mm gauge will cause you problems with your door & window openings,as the timber frame people will design these to standard brickwork dimensions,unless instructed otherwise. Btw the lime added to a cement mix (hydrated) is different to the type you mix lime mortar with (NHL).

Yes,I believe it should be ventilated with an air brick which could be covered with a Louvre. You could minimise the downward draft of cold air by inserting a chimney balloon prior to closing the opening off. This should still allow enough air flow in the stack. My old chimney sweep told me that a virtually free alternative was to to stuff newspaper into a bin bag and place this in the flue.

Solopark near Cambridge should have a healthy stock of Cambridge Whites,bit of a trek for you though.

A photo from further back to give context within the room might help. What age is the property?

The difference in mortar colour is because up to DPC (if it’s there) will have been built in substructure mortar & from there upwards in superstructure (probably silo) muck. Is the wall actually wet to the touch?

I’m working in footings for the last couple of years and I doubt it’s anything we haven’t seen before-you can definitely tell when you jump on a plot that was a ‘Friday Afternoon Pour!’ Personally I would check the corners to each other for level-if they’re within 20mm of each other then I wouldn’t worry (I.e. the highest one no more than 20mm higher than the lowest.) If it’s more,even up to say 50mm,find the median & make that your datum. I’m assuming you have at least 525mm from top of concrete to underside of floor? Once the corners are up (or profiles in place if they’re using them) then it’s a case of getting over any high spots or dips by laying two courses flat where necessary (where concretes low) or one flat on a tight bed with a coursing brick on top (where concrete is high.) When laying flat,remember to keep the centre of block to the centre of wall or the subsequent courses will tip

If so then your external ground level must be very low compared to your internal finished floor level?

I have the same timber set up in my loft-I’m inclined to think it was set up for the bricklayers to follow for the corbel,and provided a little stability during construction in the process.

So,brick elevation on one side,with render or cladding on the blockwork return? If it’s render,I’d go for a quoin detail,with the blockwork set back the depth of the render,so when applied it’s flush with brickwork.

1.2m is a pretty substantial load to be retaining-imagine how much extra force will be exerted when it’s been raining for a couple of days. It’s something your architect and/or SE needs to design really. I’ve built houses where the wall is retaining far less (<500mm) we lapped membrane from the dpc at FFL up the back of the wall& back in to a bed joint 150mm min above ground level,with an additional dpc at that level which was lapped down to as the ground level fell away to meet with the dpc at FFL. Absolute PITA to be honest. No cavity ties in that zone too so not an ideal solution I’d say,but I didn’t spec it.

Is this a garden wall?

If they’re building that 330mm substructure wall on your other thread then they’d be mad to not want it on price!!

Yeah,that’s the principle. Bonding the corners could be a pain though.

Indeed they should-sectional joints is the phrase. If you don’t then you’ll have straight joints (or less than quarter bond) vertically somewhere.

Not a one coat sponge merchant then?

Personally,I double them up (so two courses flat laid with the joints in line & then the next two laid half bond & so on.) The blocks compressive strength is standing upright-laid down it hardly takes any force with a hammer to crack them. That’s my reasoning,anyway.

Used to be the convention on new builds. I had days of ‘fun’ as an improver retrofitting them into the cavity when they’d not been on site during construction.

Agreed but alternatives are only such if they are viable-if the washing line & airer are full up and the PE kit or the bedding is needed for the next day then it’s a necessity. The drier isn’t used for convenience-far from it.

Had a quick go but didn’t seem to like Smartphone input. 👍 Even so,still worthwhile as we’ll be in this house for many years. Washing machine currently does approx 10 loads per week (plus many 7-10 drying cycles),which can almost all be done to suit. HW via immersion,so potential there too. Thanks for the replies.

Been doing some VERY rough fag packet calcs on the payback time based on your £1500 mentioned & it came in at around a year-does that sound about right? Like I say,extremely crude (I’m a bit busy to devote the time to be more accurate) but my thinking is that,even if I’m so far out that it’s double that,it’s still a no brainer. Garage roof,self install,partial shading,4kw,family of four so loads of daytime usage. TIA

They look somewhere between a Cambridge White & a London Stock. Have you had a sample batch of either & compared them with your existing? Are you anywhere near Solopark Reclamation,near Cambridge? Worth a look there if you are.

What’s with the partial 100mm skin on the outside? Plinth detail?

Been on footings for about 18 months and the weirdest ailment is that I have almost permanently tight hamstrings! Getting the adjacent area scraped flat is a must-I may be as a grumpy as a mountain goat but that’s where the similarity ends.