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You can refuse to answer any questions. If you read the bit about misrepresentation you can't claim you don't know or physically hide an issue, but can refuse to give any answers...

You can refuse to give any information about a house. It's not even law to fill out the TA6. You can't answer 'I don't know' when asked if you know the answer, but you can refuse to answer any questions. However, this won't inspire a lot of confidence in the buyers.

Most builders are not legal experts, so our job is to create the problems, not help people take their case to the High court.

The issue with selling a new build soon after moving in is that you have paid a premium for the house, and will take a hit on the sale.

A friend of mine said the same thing about his new build. Said if it was a new car he'd have taken it back and demanded a replacement. Car manufacturers have a different mindset. They need to keep their reputation, otherwise people won't buy their cars. Major house builders don't have that...

As noseall said, the initial set starts as soon as the water mixes with the OPC. It's normally 12-24 hours before it reaches it's final set, and then it starts hardening. It's tested at 28 days, as it's reached most of it's strength by then, but will continue over the years to get harder. In...

What happened when they got to the gable ends? Use spiral boards?

To be realistic, on hot days the mortar will often be knocked up again. Years ago, the CoW might moan if it was knocked up when close to it's final set, but generally it's done because so much would get dumped if it wasn't.

I think he means that when the mortar is fully cured it will be weaker because extra water was added during the initial set.

Some of the really old bricks are highly absorbent, so you need to damp them down before laying. Ideally you need a bit of suction to keep the face work clean without it sucking all the water out before you can get the jointer on it.

Brickies will do the job if the money's right. Sometimes people live in. I worked on some 30's Council houses in Moulscoomb, Brighton years ago renewing the outer skin, but they were terraced houses and done one house at a time, and then the gables, so the people stayed in. As yours is only to...

They can be. I've done it on a few jobs. The NHBC will do their best to avoid it if they can get away with a repoint.

It's possible to renew wall ties by fixing through the centre of the face bricks. Is it timber frame or brick/block?

All that can be done without total demolition is to rake out and repoint. A weak mortar isn't a massive issue for it's compressive strength, as many older buildings survive well with much weaker mortars. The main problem is that the surface is more affected by the weather and moisture...

3mm is a bit small for a shadow gap. You normally need at least 10mm.

It's less likely to be timber framed if there's no weep vents at DPC level.

Has it got weep vents at DPC level?

A rule of thumb for a lintel of that size is a minimum of 100mm bearing on each end. Longer lintels need 150mm. However, I've seen plenty of lintels like yours that seen to survive with only a couple of inches each end. Would agree with Alastair though, it's probably worth sticking a longer one...

Cut some out and stick it in a container with brick acid. This will leave you with a sample of the sand.

A 9 inch retaining wall can fail in certain ground conditions. Here's one I priced up about that height in heavy clay and the the ground running up from it. The traffic control made it really expensive.