Hi all. Would any of the builders on here just take a look at this brickwork that is being done for a new conservatory and say if they think it acceptable. The guy who did the brickwork said that the concreteing wasn't right to start off with, but are the joints a bit too wide? I hope all the images are on.
Right thanks. We've got the boss coming out tomorrow morning. When they did the concreting for the footings, they didn't cut out the concrete path that is surrounding the house, this path has a slope from the house for water to run off. I expected them to cut this and concrete right up to the house wall. My wife boss, who used to be a builder with 40 odd years of experience says "what they have done is bad practice, and because they are building three pillars on it it could be liable to crack> The pillars are to carry an aluminum gutter but this is not heavy.
The whole foundation should be a minimum 600mm deep and 450mm wide, if any of the conservatory walls are higher than the standard 750/900mm above DPC, the foundation should be deeper up to1000mm. To be honest the whole job sounds like a disaster waiting to happen/is happening.
In the first picture the brick look to far to the front of the founds, but also looks like he is building a single skin wall. If it is a double skin wall then the foundations look too narrow What is going on with the DPC especially in the corner ? It needs knocking down and redoing. If the foundations are out then fixing that is going to be fun .....
I don't understand how a hump in the brickwork like that can go unnoticed by the builder. Almost impossible not to notice that at the time! Mr. HandyAndy - Really
When I used to build conservatory bases, the company I did them for insisted we built single skin up to DPC and build the inner wall off the slab, we did fit a vertical 25mm insulating strip around the edge except where the doors were, also 100mm under the slab.
It's not that it goes unnoticed its a case of not knowing any better, its obvious that a spirit level hasn't been any were near that brickwork.
I bet they measured the founds out incorrectly which is why the outer skin is too near the front of the founds
Hi All thanks for you replies. The boss came out this morning and agreed that it wasn't right and it would all be replaced. My wife and her boss came round this afternoon and found this. The guy had just chopped out the path which had the pillar on, to concrete underneath, as you can see the path was only about 80mm thick he wasn't even going to connect the two peices of concrete together so they didn't have a vertical join. Wifes boss was telling him what he needed to do, so he took the hump picked up his tools and went.
Good, you've had a lucky escape, now you just need them to send someone who knows what their doing, that or you send them packing and find a new company.
All of it. Wifes bosses son is in construction and he is coming round at the weekend to see what needs to be done because he hasn't seen it yet but her boss said it all needs to be removed even the concrete footings that they put in.
Against the house wall is there a furfix or similar ??? Courses don't line up. I bet they haven't dressed the DPC into the house one.
Spotted the lack of the starter bars but I thought its just getting too much to mention. With this bricky you almost want to treat him like a when the Police get criminal - how many other crimes on other sites do you want to own up to ? Because you just know there is a trail of bad jobs behind him ..... can you imagine that bricky let loose on a full house
Hi all. Update New builder has been round and is going to remove all the walls and start again. He said the footings are very narrow but the depth is ok. He does need to join the the footings to make up to the house. The brickie should not have built on the path. We can work out what happened. The guys who dug the footings and concreteing didn't do the footings correctly so the brickie had to make up about 40mm to get the joints on the new part to line up with the old part. The top part of the pillar looks quite good. It's the bottom part that looks pants. The top six course of the pillar measures 600mm wereas the bottom six course measures 640mm Thanks for all the comments.