ICs filling with debris during construction

[Tony L]

Is it normal to leave covers off the ICs so the ICs fill up with lumps of mortar & other debris?  I don't understand why anyone would choose to leave the IC cover on the ground right next to the IC for a week or more.  There are at least 5 of these in position & every one has the cover off.

[Canski]

No that’s nuts. Maybe they took it off to point the blues but even so. 

[Conor]

Nope. Must remained sealed. We had a blocked drain about a year after moving in. I pulled out a load of mortar and stone that had gotten in some how.

[Russell griffiths]

Just ensure the last one in the run has something down it to catch the crud, give them a good flush with a hose and then collect the crud. 
you need to be all over your builder like a bad smell. 

[Tony L]

2 hours ago, Russell griffiths said:

...you need to be all over your builder like a bad smell. 

 

Yes, I realised that when he finally admitted, after a great deal of research & effort on my part, he'd overcharged me £7,000 for the extra work the BCO had requested.

 

When I first told him he'd overcharged, he told me he hadn't.  After receiving my first email, explaining my reasoning, he admitted to an overcharge of c£370. After I did a load of QS work & wrote a second, lengthy email, he admitted to overcharging £7,000.

 

Thanks very much for the responses.  It's good to hear some BH experts' opinions.  It gives me the confidence to tell him how things are going to be done/redone when he starts telling me, "I've been doing this for 35 years...".

[Iceverge]

20 minutes ago, Tony L said:

It gives me the confidence to tell him how things are going to be done/redone when he starts telling me, "I've been doing this for 35 years...".

 

Well done. 

[Russell griffiths]

Moving on with the rest of the build it would benefit you to ask some questions here first so you can preempt how things will be done and you will have a grasp of if it’s going off piste slightly before something has gone too far. 
 

[mjc55]

you can also get covers for the 110mm drains, would be a pain if they got blocked.

[Canski]

5 hours ago, Russell griffiths said:

it would benefit you to ask some questions here first

 This is true. I’d like this question to be asked …. What happens between the ends of the beams ? And just out of interest ( it’s good to see the holes on the blues filled in) but why with black mortar ? Nothing wrong with it but why ?

[Tony L]

5 hours ago, Russell griffiths said:

Moving on with the rest of the build it would benefit you to ask some questions here first so you can preempt how things will be done and you will have a grasp of if it’s going off piste slightly before something has gone too far. 
 

I think we only have a few days' work left with this builder now.  The main tasks are to finish the drains & put down a few courses of bricks on the outer leaf - blues where they'll be under ground or under the patio/path down the sides of the house, & black bricks that will be visible above ground & below the white render that's going onto the block outer leaf.

 

The next phase of the project is to get the building regulations drawings & notes for the rest of the build finalised & submitted for full plans approval.  I'm thinking I'll have asked so many questions you'll all be fed up of me by the time that goal has been achieved.

[Tony L]

5 hours ago, mjc55 said:

you can also get covers for the 110mm drains, would be a pain if they got blocked.

Thanks for this.  The redundant 110 inlets in the ground have been capped, but it may not have occurred to me to put caps on the 110 you can see in the picture, above, & also the pipes & conduit that are coming up through the B&B floor.  Once this phase of the project has been completed, it will be a good few months before we begin work on the superstructure.

[Tony L]

21 minutes ago, Canski said:

I’d like this question to be asked …. What happens between the ends of the beams ? And just out of interest ( it’s good to see the holes on the blues filled in) but why with black mortar ? Nothing wrong with it but why ?

 

I posted about the gaps that have been filled between the ends of the beams on another thread - I'm not really happy with what's been done, but BCO has passed it & some people here have told me it's OK.  Firstly, it doesn't match the drawing the builder is working from.  The beams are supposed to be on the inner leaf of a cavity made from 100mm blocks.  Instead, they've been put on the edge of 350mm wide trench blocks.  There's DPC underneath the beams, but I don't think it's doing much because a dollop of mortar has been put in between most beams (possibly with slips too) & this bridges onto the trench block.  My air bricks are going into some of the gaps between the beams.  BCO said he wants to see trays at his next visit, so we'll see how this looks when it's done.

 

The black mortar was being used for black bricks, which have been laid on the back wall of the house (out of shot for this picture) & I suppose it was left over at the end of the day & a small amount has been used in the blues.  I expect most blues will have ordinary mortar in them.  The black mortar is expensive by comparison because I asked the builder to buy black sand rather than use dye.