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40mm Gap between blockwork


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Ali, they have said its to protect from the elements. Every time it rains, water will be entering the cavity causing more issues.

I have enough videos and pictures with all areas marked down. 

This will be the second survey. The first was localised around the visible cracks in the render. This will be with all the render off. Hopefully the SE seen enough of the faulty mortar etc when he was here on Wednesday. 

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33 minutes ago, Bri44 said:

Ali, they have said its to protect from the elements. Every time it rains, water will be entering the cavity causing more issues.

 

That sounds fair enough, but I would think a huge polythene sheet would suffice whilst still allowing full access/visibility to what's been uncovered. The cynic in me is thinking they might be 'tarting up' the appearance and perhaps even trying to hide some of the issues you've been observing. Pure speculation on my part though.

Edited by MJNewton
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There is a cavity there to stop water going through to the inside so I would stop them filling cracks in as by letting rain find it's way through it will allow you to show what is in the cavity isn't doing what it's supposed to do. 

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Thanks Guys. I think they are nearly done. 

The cavity is breached in many places with mortar snots and loose debris. I could see the fibre glass type insulation was wet already.

I too think it`s an attempt to make it look better.

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Are they going to coat that patchwork quilt with something to make sure the render can get adhesion to it. Previously it would have had the rough blocks. Now it has motar that looks like it was thrown at it from 6ft away and pointed in with the back of the shovel.

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Original plan was to mesh the house. Not sure what now as the only way they can sort the insulation/ cavity out is by taking down the outer block wall.  Accordinging to the concrete block association the damaged blocks should be replaced. 

We shall see what transpires.

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They have used whatever was lying round and hard to pack up a head or a cill to get it level. You can use a deep bed of motar as the weight of the head and cill will just make it sink so you find something to use as a packer. Could be a tile, cement board, slate. Have seen lots of things used. 

What is holding that up???

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40 minutes ago, Declan52 said:

They have used whatever was lying round and hard to pack up a head or a cill to get it level. You can use a deep bed of motar as the weight of the head and cill will just make it sink so you find something to use as a packer. Could be a tile, cement board, slate. Have seen lots of things used. 

What is holding that up???

 

 

Nothing under or on top this piece of whatever it is. It just sits on top of the concrete block and under the ledge. No mortar there.

Edited by Bri44
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40 minutes ago, bassanclan said:

The fact that it has a round hole in makes me think it's a sliver of brick,  but it's not compressible, so is ideal to pack up one ens of a stone ledge to get it level

 

 

It does look like brick but must have been cut pretty straight with a grinder or something if it is.

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13 minutes ago, Declan52 said:

I mean what's above that stone ledge as there ain't anything below it to hold it up.

 

 

The parapet wall is above it .  On the back of the house I can see it has metal L brackets holding it up but I don`t see any on the front.

 

 

parapet.PNG

Edited by Bri44
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Have they ever gave you a reason why they have an expansion joint at a corner. Never seen them like that before. Might be a perfectly good reason for it but the corners of any building are it's strongest points and by putting an expansion joint there it's made it weaker. You usually find them along a very long stretch of brickwork/blocks but right at the corner is a new one for me.

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15 minutes ago, Declan52 said:

Have they ever gave you a reason why they have an expansion joint at a corner. Never seen them like that before. Might be a perfectly good reason for it but the corners of any building are it's strongest points and by putting an expansion joint there it's made it weaker. You usually find them along a very long stretch of brickwork/blocks but right at the corner is a new one for me.

 

I am glad someone asked this as I had the same thought. I have never seen an expansion joint at a corner, it seems strange to me.

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If you look on the parapet wall picture there is one near the corner on the front of the house too. This one is about 15 inches from the corner whereas the wonky back one is about 4 inches from the end.

Could it have something to do with that piece of wall overhanging my neighbours roof?

 

According to Ancon wall ties, only flat slip ties should be used in a movement joint. My gables have embedded wire type which will prevent the intended movement.

 

I`ll ask the LABC warranty inspector why the movement joints are there. Any other questions you can think of that i should ask? I`ll put it all in writing to them. 

IMG_1983.jpg

Edited by Bri44
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6 hours ago, Bri44 said:

Can anyone tell me what this is called? Is it a roof tile? It`s 10mm thick and inserted under the end of a stone ledge. Under my stone window sills they have a lot of roof slate in the mortar.

stone under ledge.jpg

stone from under ledge.jpg

 

Just speculation but is that a bit of quarry tile that you would use on your hall floor say?

 

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I found another bit of tile. It matches my neighbours roof where the builders have damaged their tiles.  So it`s a roof tile they stuck under. 

Measuring under the ledge, at the opposite corner the mortar is twice as thick which I`d say means the top layer of blocks this ledge sits on is not straight. 

 

 

roof tile.jpg

stone ledge 2.jpg

stone ledge 3.jpg

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The use of a tile or anything for that matter isn't really a big deal. It happens. Won't cause any issues. The bigger issue looking at the last few pics is either that house is way way out of square or really out of plumb. Have you enough room between the wall and the scaffold at each corner to drop a plumb Bob to check how bad it could be. A long piece of string and a weight, bolt would work.

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I have checked the plumb. The front of the house is out by roughly 50mm

The curve is out between 20-28mm

The back seemed out just a few mm but it is windy there so hard to get a reading. 

Here are 5 pictures showing from the parapet wall down. I had to start over the ledge. When looking down you can see the line is further out from the base of house a lot.

 

 

 

 

IMG_2317.jpg

IMG_2323.jpg

IMG_2319.jpg

IMG_2320.jpg

IMG_2322.jpg

 

Edited by Bri44
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