Brickie

I’d just cut straight down make it a MJ if rebuilt. Handy if you could go down in line with one of the reveals but not sure that would leave you the clearance you’re after. BTW you’ll make that side elevation live when you do cut an opening out-

As an aside-you are putting an admirable amount of thought & effort into detailing. With that in mind,I’d suggest ditching the PIR cavity insulation. Search the site here for others’ experiences. It’s too complex to summarise in a sentence why it’s such an impractical solution for masonry construction,but if pushed for a one liner I’d say the real world performance is NEVER anything like what it says on paper.

Others who’ve done refurbs & cast a slab will be better informed than me on this-I believe taking the DPM up the wall a certain way (rather than cutting it in) is more the done thing in that scenario.

Was it the same company who cast the slab (& didn’t leave much dpm free for lapping) as have started the blockwork? For that little amount of work I’d tell them to take it down,tape & lap some dpm in & rebuild. There’s only about £200 worth of work there. Also,are they using wall starter kits where the blockwork meets existing? I’d expect to see it poking out the top of what’s built. Have the cut a slot in the existing wall to slide a vertical dpc into where the new cavity meets existing? Otherwise you have an external wall becoming internal with potential for penetrating damp.

Does it need a membrane on the first floor?

I’ve been doing footings (& nothing else) for around 18 months now since relocating & the norm is to leave all doorways out,so the insulation layer is continuous & runs right out to the external leaf at doorways.

If you want be a bit OCD you could use the tray as a shutter & feed some stiff concrete in there. Is it just that corner of the block that’s broken off?

Hydrated lime is only for use in conjunction with cement-to make a reusable lime mortar you need NHL (natural hydraulic lime.)

If,a year or two down the line,it’s still bugging you,there are brick tinting companies around.

Good practice is to mix from 2-3 packs ( though in reality you’re lucky to get even that). Did you tell them that you wanted a mixture from every pack?

There are even brick effect render systems available,doesn’t always look great around openings but not a issue for you on a gable.

+1. Try asking for a breakdown of the price of ingredients next time you go for a meal.

Had this where reclaimed imperials were used on the outside-same issue,just bricks bigger rather than smaller. One of the main masonry support manufacturers (possibly Ancon?) made a small abbey channel slot tie which needed in the block,giving a variable height for the tie to slot in from the outer leaf.

+1 that’s a hell of a jump in a short time. Hope it’s he’s got the basics of a structure in place in terms of Foremen he can trust. The Developers QS’s are on the back foot right now but you can’t take your eye off the ball.

The Island is the bit in the middle-if that’s reduced down to top of concrete level then it helps production no end. Too late now-no way you were to know but it’s certainly not helping them. Looking at the photo-I’m 99% sure they’re tops Brickie,not footings. Putting one course around everywhere is certainly not how I’d go about it. Are they using a Dumpy level?

‘Experienced lads’-but are they experienced at doing footings? 99% of site work (& the people doing it) are either Footings bricklayers or Superstructure (‘Tops’) bricklayers. I’ve been doing footings for around 18 months after always being on tops & refurb since ‘96 & I’m far more efficient with the way I approach footings now than I was at the start. How level is their working area? Did you have the islands scraped out before starting? This time of year,the ground workers taking a bit more time to prep the working area makes a world of difference.

@nod look away now ?

You’re wet plastering,aren’t you? It’s my understanding (though I may be wrong) that a parge coat is used to assist air tightness when dot & dabbing.

How thick is the slab? I’d guess between 100mm to 150mm. The level should fall out to front (so the slab probably isn’t above DPC at the garage door.) You’re showing insulation & screed plus the blinding. You’re going to need to level the floor up so have measured up from the heighest point & transferred that height to the front to make sure you’ll have enough clearance to get a standard door frame under your existing garage lintol?

Given you have a breaker in there,you could just break out the whole slab & start afresh. Garage slabs normally laid to a fall so you’re going to have some work involved to counter that when converting to habitable space anyway. Especially if you want a pool table in there?

There are liquid membranes which can be applied to the slab,I believe. If you can get a grinder down the edge you could cut a groove so the slab above dpc isn’t in contact with the adjacent brickwork,that’s be a pig of a job though.

True,though when you are required to point up any work you’ll naturally try to keep joints full as it’s easier & quicker to joint them if they’re full to begin with.

I wouldn’t have a clue data-wise about this but I have been on jobs where the inner (cavity) face of the blockwork has been pointed,for this very reason. Years ago the blockwork wouldn’t have been pointed at all,just ‘flushed up’ which is quite haphazard & open to interpretation.

665mm is only 9 courses of brickwork,can he not take it down & build the MJ in? Brickfill or similar should be used during construction & then mastic applied for weather tightness once finished.

Interesting observations. I’ve used them on re-pointing in the past (though not the Pointmaster) with all the problems you’ve described & ended up preferring Grout bags-much quicker to sort any blockage issues. I think they’d be harder physically to use on a patio-you’d need to be on your knees. If I get a substantial amount of re-pointing to do in future,I’m going to invest in one of the drill attached machines. Again,probably not suitable for a patio though. I’ve seen the ground workers on site using a rubble sack with a corner cut off for pointing cobbles & the like.