Hi, apologies for asking what might be stupid questions, but I've finally selected a tradesman to build me a conservatory, after much deliberation, and now I'm really concerned I'm getting a bad job.
Basically, they started work when I wasn't there, diggging footings and filling with concrete. I hope they went deep enough, I'll never know. They then moved on to building the walls, outer brick to match the house, and inner blocks as we're having plastered internal walls.
They HAVE NOT done the base at all, they're doing that afterwards they said...
Now, I've got a fully built outer wall, which is nicely finished (mortar pointing) from the outside, but inside you can see lots of gaps in the mortar, and some areas with poor mortar spread. They have done the damp course on the outer wall with engineering brick and some membrane over the last engineering brick, though this is simply a strip of membrane, not attached to the floor (which is not started).
The inner block work has some huge gaps in the mortar, some gaps you can see through to the cavity from inside. There is also no engineering bricks, and no damp membrane material at all.
Finally, the cavity is filled with insulation, which is now soaking from the recent rain.
My concerns are basically...
1. Are gaps in the mortar going to cause me a problem, particularly the gaps on the inner block wall?
2. Is the lack of membrane on the inner blocks a huge problem?
3. Is the insulation going to cope with being wet?
4. Can the floor be laid afterwards without compromising the structure or it's damp/thermal seal?
I'm not even paying a small sum for the conservatory, which is my biggest annoyance. I deliberately ruled out the cheapest quotes as being too cheap!
I'd really like a qualified builder or better still, building inspectors opinion, but I can't really get that now they've started. I've unfortunately also paid up a huge sum of money so they can order the roof (glass) and frames - more or less half now, half on completion.
Thanks in advance, Alan
Basically, they started work when I wasn't there, diggging footings and filling with concrete. I hope they went deep enough, I'll never know. They then moved on to building the walls, outer brick to match the house, and inner blocks as we're having plastered internal walls.
They HAVE NOT done the base at all, they're doing that afterwards they said...
Now, I've got a fully built outer wall, which is nicely finished (mortar pointing) from the outside, but inside you can see lots of gaps in the mortar, and some areas with poor mortar spread. They have done the damp course on the outer wall with engineering brick and some membrane over the last engineering brick, though this is simply a strip of membrane, not attached to the floor (which is not started).
The inner block work has some huge gaps in the mortar, some gaps you can see through to the cavity from inside. There is also no engineering bricks, and no damp membrane material at all.
Finally, the cavity is filled with insulation, which is now soaking from the recent rain.
My concerns are basically...
1. Are gaps in the mortar going to cause me a problem, particularly the gaps on the inner block wall?
2. Is the lack of membrane on the inner blocks a huge problem?
3. Is the insulation going to cope with being wet?
4. Can the floor be laid afterwards without compromising the structure or it's damp/thermal seal?
I'm not even paying a small sum for the conservatory, which is my biggest annoyance. I deliberately ruled out the cheapest quotes as being too cheap!
I'd really like a qualified builder or better still, building inspectors opinion, but I can't really get that now they've started. I've unfortunately also paid up a huge sum of money so they can order the roof (glass) and frames - more or less half now, half on completion.
Thanks in advance, Alan
You get that conclusion from a few lines of text?
