Detached Garage Piers Loose

[aoused]

I live in a new build property. I have a detached garage constructed. It has a single skin brick wall and poured concrete slab.

Along the longest walls are piers constructed of block, two on each side. There is a joint of motar between the blocks and the brickwork, I can't see if there is anything else tying them together.

I've noticed the motar has cracked and when I push on the top brick, it has movement.

My understanding is the piers add stability to the single skin wall. How should they be tied to the wall? Do I need to be worried about this (I'm going to report to the builder but they are fairly sh*t)?

 

[23vc]

Tied either by header bricks (ie bricks going at right angles to the wall) or metal brick ties. You can see if there are any headers by looking at the brickwork from the outside and see if you can see any half bricks where the piers are
The fact that the top brick is loose isn’t necessary a massive issue if there’s nothing above it

 

[aoused]

Tied either by header bricks (ie bricks going at right angles to the wall) or metal brick ties. You can see if there are any headers by looking at the brickwork from the outside and see if you can see any half bricks where the piers are
The fact that the top brick is loose isn’t necessary a massive issue if there’s nothing above it

The brickwork on the outside goes along normally, I can't see any half bricks. I don't believe it's going to be tied in with header bricks. I am assuming they've used brick ties then... Presumably these would be sandwiched between the motar?

I'm not too worried other than the frame for the up and over door is bolted to the loose brick. Perhaps I'll just use some metal angle straps to tie the brick to the pier at the top.

Along the same lines, I have two straps tieing the roof timber to the wall on each of the long wals, each about 40 cm from the corner. A neighbour (chippy) mentioned there should be three. The NHBC talks about having them spaced at '2m centres'. Does this mean there should be one every 2m?

 

[23vc]

Yeah it means that. But unlikely the roofs going to come off, given the number of houses (and garages) built before those straps were a thing

 

[aoused]

Yeah it means that. But unlikely the roofs going to come off, given the number of houses (and garages) built before those straps were a thing

Thought as much. Given the motar layer between the wall and the wood is cracked, I'm fairly sure the four straps at the only thing that attaches the roof!