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Thinking ahead is always the best. One of the problems in the construction trade is that you can never be sure about how things were built if you can't see them. For example, the original builders could have left out the rebar and just relied on the trimmer joists to wedge it in place. It's...

There's a few different methods of supporting the upper floor hearth. Can be a reinforced slab cantilevered into the brickwork. Older properties sometimes had a brick trimmer arch under it.

It's only 10 years for works that were completed after the new laws were brought in. Ones that were built 9 years ago from today can't be served with an enforcement notice. Building Control can go to the High Court if needed, in which case there is no time limit. You would be talking about a...

Our local farm shop got P/P and regs for an extension. They thought that they would get away adding an extra metre to the width, but the BCO spotted it in the foundations and reported it to the planners. They had to stop work and submit new plans. Since Grenfell Building Control have now got 10...

He would have been better to use weather cut and struck, rather than just weather struck. At least you can get straight lines on the bed joints with a straight edge and frenchman. Using a flush joint finished with a churn brush is quite a popular finish for older rustic brickwork. Toning down...

Weather struck isn't the best style for brickwork like yours.

Pick and dip is quite efficient as you're picking up mortar and a brick at the same time. I knew a trowel years ago that used to prefer working backwards, by picking up a brick, buttering up the end for a full perp, then picking up enough for the bed. He reckoned working backwards was better...

Takes me an hour to drink a coffee and get my tools out. By then it's almost time to go down the cafe for a fry up. That style of bricklaying in the video of just picking up the mortar without rolling it, using the brick to make a shove joint for the perps and making a mess using double the...

Bricklaying is the trade where speed seems to be the most important factor. It's quite common for people not even in the trade to ask you if you can lay 1000 a day, because they've been told that's what a good brickie can do. They wouldn't ask a sparks how many houses he could rewire in a month...

I only work on an hourly rate nowadays, so 400 sounds good to me. The difference with doing an extension is that you need to make sure the quality is good enough for the customer and all his family, mates and people who look at the photos on forums to study and say yeah, not a bad job. On site...

The winner of the Specmix lays around 900. I've been to the competion. The record was 914. The reason it's often in the 750 or 800 region is that most of them get deductions from the total when the quality is checked, so 900 goes down to 700. Most of them lay over 900. Your claim of 1000 a day...

I don't think he'll be doing a 1000 a day on manholes, if he ever gets to build a brick manhole nowadays. The bricklaying championships in Las Vegas every year involve building a 9 inch stretcher bond straight wall. The winner normally averages about 900 in the hour.

I think Ivor is looking for a brickie to help him build a garage, so I'd guess wants someone on a day rate with him doing the labouring. Probably around £250-£350 a day. It's the sort of job I'd take on these days.

They should have liners so the air goes straight into the sub floor.

You need to brush them off, or they can soak back into the wall. Sometimes lime run off is confused with the issue. This can be harder to remove.

I use the law of the Olde Wilde West.

My understanding of them is that the steel is stretched to put into tension before the concrete is set, and the ends cut off later which then try and return and put stress on the concrete. I only lay them, not make them though. Prestressed lintels are likely to display a camber as an inherent...

The rough section on the top of a composite lintel gives a key for the 3 courses of brickwork on top before it can take a point load.

It's not an everyday occurrence, but it can be really serious when it does. The problem is that it's not a great design, and the older it gets the more likely it is to fail. They can go suddenly without any warning. It's also in a place where people are likely to be standing.

You're not being alarmist. Google concrete canopy collapse over house and look at the Cross report.