Acceptable!?

[CIE]

Hello,

I'm not sure whether I'm being to critical of this brickwork which I've come home to today, and was wondering if others can give me their opinion please.

To put you in the picture, I'm having a porch built. The concrete base and damp course was added years ago when the driveway was put in.

The base however needed extended out from the house, so the current builder took out the brick edging, and as shown in the picture, has used a small piece of damp course brick to extend out.

The other pictures show the join to the existing brickwork with the unequal mortar gap which in places is over 1" and slightly non-aligned brickwork.

He has also chipped a brick and attempted to fill in.

Any advice, or feedback would be appreciated.

Thank you!

 

[Mobo_14]

Looks to me he’s started a bit lower than the original building and is trying to bed up to catch the height....if he’s just built that corner I can’t see why he’s not just removed the broken brick and replaced it?? Would be a 5 min job.....kind of rough are you paying him top rate???​

 

[CIE]

The brickwork is £480 +VAT. To extend the base is £380 +VAT.

 

[Mobo_14]

Size is the porch?

It’s Easy for people to criticise others work online with no context of price spec tradesman's ability etc...

 

[CIE]

The porch is around 1x2.5m.

The thing is, as you said, the chipped brick could have been replaced in five minutes. The broken damp course brick used to extend the base is rough and has not even been pointed. How hard is it to align the brickwork to the house, and lay bricks close enough to prevent that uneven gap where the new meets the existing?

Surely, whatever the cost, these are simple enough skills, or is it me just being to critical?

 

[Mobo_14]

Aye as I said it looks kinda rough an for nearly £1000 I would be asking him to sort it out it’s not a big job to fix out

good luck telling him your not happy though

 

[CIE]

Cheers mate!

 

[^woody^]

It's a bit crap.

The thing is, if the bricklayer was capable of doing it better be would have done so. It's very difficult for a good bricklayer to do poor work.

 

[sparkwright]

It's a bit crap.

The thing is, if the bricklayer was capable of doing it better be would have done so. It's very difficult for a good bricklayer to do poor work.

Spot on comment.

It looks like the bricklayer has tried, but he's just not up to it.

If you was to ask him to re-do it, it still wouldn't be particularly great.

Best get someone else, if you want a very good job.

Refusing to pay your current bricklayer probably won't go down to well, though he may knock it down for you!

 

[Ian H]

My bicklayer built my porch different to the house even though I matched the 73mm bricks. He told me before he built it but i can’t remember what he said. I trust him though and don’t notice now.

I’m sure if he picked up a chipped brick he would have put it to one side ready for when he needed a 1/2.

 

[23vc]

He told me before he built it but i can’t remember what he said.

might have been because he didn’t fancy matching what looks like a very thin bed joint on the existing wall

 

[Ian H]

might have been because he didn’t fancy matching what looks like a very thin bed joint on the existing wall

Yes, you might be right there

 

[noseall]

Even if the house gauge says one thing, the brickie should not slavishly follow the coursing. Rather he should measure the whole elevation and divide by the courses to get an average and gauge to that.

What it means is, that whilst there may be the odd few mill discrepancy between new and old, the new will have even bed joints whilst ignoring tight joints or ball-breaking mahoosive joints, on the existing.

You will often see bigger fatter bed joints leading up to the tops of the windows/doors, in older houses. This is because wooden window/door frames were bought in pre-set sizes and the brickies would often have to gain a bit, as they get to the top of the window or door.

 

[stuart45]

That was common years ago. The Foreman making up the storey rods would usually mark down 4 to the ft or 4 to 300mm and then leave an inch or minus an inch at the bottom, and tell the trowels to either bump up or grind down. Problem was that some would try and gain in a couple of courses and then feel safe, and some would leave it to the end.
Very few foremen would divide up the courses on the rods equally.
I got hold of an American brick spacing tape years ago, which is just numbers on one side. Can be really useful to get equal courses.
https://themasonrystore.com/products/brick-rule-by-lufkin-a-ruler-for-spacing-brick