Bad brickwork? pictures.

alex s · 29 Jul 2008

Hi, well the brickie has been here 2 days and I am a worried man.

The quality of work I think is sub standard, and slow(on day rate).
This is a single skin garage with peirs.

Lack of bonding on corners, mortor joints in line, quarter blocks at the corners, bow in wall, bricks in peir not level with wall, amounst others!!

I would just like to make sure I am just not being too fussy and check with you guys before I ask him to leave the site.

Another worry is that he is not building corners up first, so cant see how he is going to keep level round the perimeter.
Any thoughts would be usefull.

Motar joins in line!

Bonding!

No mortar either side of block

Peir bricks not level

corner detail

unlevel blockwork

First 3 courses of blocks just butt joined at corner ( looking down)[/i]

neds · 29 Jul 2008

You see to know what you want, had you not thought about doing it yourself? Seems funny how you are picking up the faults which you could have done right?

alex s · 29 Jul 2008

neds said:
You see to know what you want, had you not thought about doing it yourself? Seems funny how you are picking up the faults which you could have done right?

I have not got the time, or the skill, it is one thing knowing how to do it, another being able to do it.
I am sure I could do it, however it would take me about 10 times longer than a good brickie...
But call me old fashioned but I expect a good job, done well, for a fair price.

^woody^ · 29 Jul 2008

You can't just post pictures without a context for the work.

From the pictures, there does not seem anything drastically wrong.

With work like this, bricks and blocks don't have to be perfect, and you should not expect them to be.

Normally, if you put a level up someone else's work, you could expect the level to be wrapped around your neck. Have you specified a standard by which you are judging this work? How can it be deemed bad if there is nothing to gauge it against. Are you paying top quality rates, does the wall have to achieve a certain structural purpose, does it need to be spot on .... what?

roughcaster · 29 Jul 2008

Woody wrote,

Normally, if you put a level up someone else's work, you could expect the level to be wrapped around your neck.

Hey,teacher,leave that kid alone!!

Roughcaster.

roughcaster · 29 Jul 2008

. It's gettin' late.

Roughcaster.

roughcaster · 29 Jul 2008

All in all, it's just a..nother brick in the wall. Dum Dum.

Roughcaster.

roughcaster · 29 Jul 2008

OOOPS.

Roughcaster

noseall · 29 Jul 2008

alex s said:
I would just like to make sure I am just not being too fussy

does this sort of thing hapen to you a lot alex?

alex s · 29 Jul 2008

^woody^ said:
You can't just post pictures without a context for the work.

From the pictures, there does not seem anything drastically wrong.

With work like this, bricks and blocks don't have to be perfect, and you should not expect them to be.

Normally, if you put a level up someone else's work, you could expect the level to be wrapped around your neck. Have you specified a standard by which you are judging this work? How can it be deemed bad if there is nothing to gauge it against. Are you paying top quality rates, does the wall have to achieve a certain structural purpose, does it need to be spot on .... what?

It is a garage, I am paying £250/day, simple 7m x 4.2m by 2.8 m high to wall plate. With 1200mm door opening on one long side 2300mm garage door opening on short side. I specified it had to be straight plumb and square, to a good standard.
Maybe I am wrong in expecting a full time brickie to want to build to a good quality and standard, I did say I was happy for slower progress if quality was high. But to my untrained eye, I am getting slow progress with bad quality ( 80 blocks today)
Woody, would you build to this standard shown and feel you did a good job?

I am surprised you think it is good work, especially the vertical motar joint in line the whole lenght of the wall.

Guess the best thing would to get a trained eye to have a look, was just hoping for some constructive help here.

alex s · 29 Jul 2008

noseall said:
alex s said:

I would just like to make sure I am just not being too fussy

Click to expand...

does this sort of thing hapen to you a lot alex?

No.
Thanks for the constructive responses.
A simple "yes I am" would do.
Alex

^woody^ · 30 Jul 2008

I did not say that it was good work, but that there was nothing drastically wrong.

I would not normally expect a blockwork garage to be built to the high standard which you seem to be aiming for, but if thats what you have specified and paid for, then the work does fall short.

And yes the productivity does seem low, but who is doing the labouring?

And you should be taking up the issues directly with the bricklayer before you get someone else to nit-pick his work - which is always very easy for someone not involved to do

alex s · 30 Jul 2008

Thanks Woody,
I spoke to him this morning, and pointed out the bits I was not happy with, which also included not putting a pier in the back wall, which I had asked for, and was on the drawings ( for a steel to sit on) and asked if he would be prepared to "make good".
He didnt want to, which is fair enough, but I wanted to give him the chance. So he has left site.
He did admit it wasnt up to his usual standard and muttered something about the heat...
I also offered to pay him for the work done to date. As I dont believe he was just trying to bodge it, just not a very good brickie ( well maybe my expectations are too high wanting a level,plumb, square garage).
Lesson learned about using Yell.com to find a brickie.

Thanks once again for the advice

Alex

noseall · 30 Jul 2008

most brickies would shove the level up your a**e if they saw you doing that!

a wall can be out of plumb particularly where you would be running in to an existing build.

the brickies corner could be true, the existing build out of plumb. the result is a wall in twist. pop the level in the middle of the run and it will read out of true.

alex s · 30 Jul 2008

noseall said:
most brickies would shove the level up your a**e if they saw you doing that!

a wall can be out of plumb particularly where you would be running in to an existing build.

the brickies corner could be true, the existing build out of plumb. the result is a wall in twist. pop the level in the middle of the run and it will read out of true.

It is a detached garage..

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Bad brickwork? pictures.

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