How bad is this brickwork & should I start again?

[Tony L]

My builder says he’s finished this stage of the build & I should pay him.  The last jobs on his list were to build the outer leaf up to DPC then put the crushed concrete base down for the scaffolding to go on.  The build up to DPC is 4 courses of black bricks, as pictured.  I’m not happy.  I wasn’t pleased with what’s beneath this either, but at least it’s underground & can’t be seen.

 

Should I knock all these black bricks down & pay somebody to do it properly?  Obviously, I’d be deducting the cost of work (by a competent person this time) & materials, from the approx. £18k the builder wants me to pay.

 

Picture 1

 

 

[Tony L]

There are loads more examples of this kind of step in the level of bricks/height of mortar bed.  NHBC has a formula for determining whether the thickness of any bed joint is acceptable.  I didn't come across this until this evening, so perhaps I'll have to go back & measure 8 successive bed joints & do the maths, although I don't know where to measure them, because my bed joints can have several mm difference from one end to the other of just one brick.  NHBC is saying +/- 1.5mm from the average across 8 succussive, so it looks like the difference in height from one brick to the next above will be way out of spec'. 

 

2

 

[Tony L]

In this picture, the line is touching the top of the brick to the left of the air brick.  4 bricks along, at the end, the corner is 13mm too low.  Look how wonky the brick above the arrow is.

 

3

 

Edited December 8 by Tony L

[Tony L]

Here, I used the back of my tape measure as a straight edge.  It's resting on the top of the brick between the vertical red lines.  The bricks to the left are too low.

 

4

[FuerteStu]

Must have been a Friday afternoon job... 

[Tony L]

I used an absolutely straight piece of wood for this picture.  I cleaned excess mortar off the tops & put the wood down.  It's resting on the bricks in the red ellipse.  See the gap in the blue ellipse.  Is it OK to have so much mortar missing above the blue arrow?  What about the smaller gaps in the mortar by the red arrows?

 

5

[Tony L]

6

[Tony L]

7

 

 

[Tony L]

Internal corner - ie I was standing on the B&B to the the picture.  It looks untidy to me, but I don't know what level of untidiness is acceptable on the inside.

 

8

 

[Tony L]

Missing mortar again.  Is this OK?  I don't think so, but I'm not a builder.

 

9

 

[Tony L]

10

 

 

[Tony L]

& there are a lot of instances of perps out of line.  NHBC says the centre lines are not supposed to be further off than 15mm over 5 perps.  Here, we exceed that in just one.  The builder was already told to pay special attention to these after some were spotted very close to one another on successive courses that are now underground.  I could put up a similar picture for two of the other walls, but I'll spare you.

[Tony L]

Last picture.  Will it be OK to build the inner leaf up off this block that's been bedded down at an angle on the edge of the B&B?

 

& is it OK to have these two blocks on top of the periscope like this?  I'm guessing the builder is supposed to have put an air brick under here, to take the weight, but I'm wondering whether I should smash one of these blocks off to check that these blocks are not just resting on the periscope.  There's a very heavy wall going on top of this.

 

12

Edited December 8 by Tony L

[Tony L]

What do we think?  Should I knock it all down before the mortar sets too hard, & start again.

 

If I'm keeping it, I suppose I should scrub all those mortar splashes off the outside of the black bricks before they set hard, or have I left it too late to do that already?

[Mike]

It's not great, though I've seen much worse on the inside. You're clearly not impressed either and can show that it's not up to the expected standard so, if a delay wouldn't be disastrous, I'd take down at least the sections that are bad & will be visible to be redone.

 

1 hour ago, Tony L said:

Will it be OK to build the inner leaf up off this block that's been bedded down at an angle on the edge of the B&B?

It's difficult to know what's above and what's below the intended level. If they're only a few mm off then it's unlikely to cause a crisis.

 

1 hour ago, Tony L said:

is it OK to have these two blocks on top of the periscope like this?  I'm guessing the builder is supposed to have put an air brick under here

I'd only expect an airbrick in the outer leaf, so imagine that the blocks are bedded on (or resting directly on) the plastic which is, of course, non load bearing. Normally the ventilator would pass through the inner leaf lower down by adding an extension to the ventilator. They'd then have a lintel over the top of them if they need to take a significant load.

 

 

[nod]

You will get a much better job if you haunt your build and restart it in the summer Nice dry weather and long bright sunny days 

I suspect this is what your builder will point out 

[Andehh]

I have pretty high expectations, but the reality is a lot of this isn't terrible...a bit sloppy but you're below DPC and most of that will never be seen again...

 

Had the builder been staying on I'd have said totally leave it, the fact he is rotating off gives you wiggle room but for the sakes of half a days worth of a brickie they will get resolved, but the level of stress you'll have put into this....

 

You're building a house, not a space shuttle. It's outdoors, in all weathers, by multiple people who generally have a low threshold of care and lower skill levels, and they're far more experienced then you are at grinding people down If you have this level of attention to detail and expectations this build will put you in any early grave. You need to prepare to compromise, the art form is in knowing when you need to - vs when your standards mean the work gets redone. You can't win them all though...

[Chanmenie]

It is very sloppy, I’m not a bricklayer but I can lay bricks better than that.

I’d certainly be looking for a new builder, as it shows a total lack of pride and care, you’ll forever be worrying what else isn’t done properly.

 

If a jobs worth doing it’s worth doing well !!

[Russell griffiths]

It’s rough no doubt, so needs a bit of fixing. 
 

I would be more concerned over the height difference from corner to corner and from one side to the other. 
 

you need some form of rotating laser or just a laser level, set it up un poor light conditions and get a clean stick, go to a corner and put a pencil mark on that stick, go to another corner and see what difference you have. 
 

the next bloke carrying on will have a ball ache if your levels are out, trying to get up to the top of doors level all the way around if the bit below dpc is 40mm out will be a pain. 
all the rough working should have been sorted out long ago. 
 

the inside of the cavity is always rough. 

[ToughButterCup]

11 hours ago, Tony L said:

My builder says he’s finished this stage of the build & I should pay him. ...

 

To what extent does this sloppy work matter? 

 

If the work will never be visible, and is structurally OK (level, straight, correct mortar mix) it doesn't matter. But don't let the sloppiness go unremarked.  Because its part of the 'way' which your builder operates. And pay him.

If it does matter - isn't level, perps all over the place, wrong mortar mix,  is off line - then get it put right before any further work is done. And don't pay until it is right.

 

People and systems show themselves for what they really are when things go wrong. Handled very carefully this issue could really help your build a lot.

[Roger440]

I guess it probably doesnt matter from a practical point of view, but the two things that would concern me are, 1, given the stabdard of work, what the standard of mortar mixing like? You dont need poorly mixed/weak mortar here.

 

Also if thats the standard or work they can achieve, i cant imagine it would improve later. 

 

Personally, id sack them.

[Tony L]

On 09/12/2024 at 19:53, Roger440 said:

Personally, id sack them.

He was engaged to get us out of the ground & up to DPC on the outer leaf only, so we're there now.  I won't be giving him the opportunity to quote on the next phase of the work, which I'm sure is absolutely fine by him, as he'd rather be working for someone that might be OK with his poor QC.

 

Thanks you everyone for the other comments. I'll not respond to these individually, right now, as I need to do some work ahead of a very early meeting tomorrow, but I will just quickly thank @Russell griffiths for suggesting a laser level survey - I wouldn't have thought of this & I agree, I need to do this before I settle the bill with the builder.