Is this a bad brickwork/foundation?

[nickopicko]

I'm building an outlet building at the back of the garden (5 by 6 and height is 2.5m), I'm worried about the quality of the work and any feedback would be much appreciated

1. Bad brickwork on the walls? It seems quite messy and also there is two blocks beside each other that have no cement between them.

2. Are AAC "Thermoblocks" suitable for using as a wall in the building? (A single row of AAC thermoblocks are going to be holding the building)

3. Does the foundation look suitable? It is a 1m foundation only at the corners of the building, there is a metal beam on the ground which is nailed into the foundation, and the bricks and AAC thermoblocks are ontop of the beam. This type of foundation was chosen by the builder because we have got big trees in the back.

4. The builder says concrete floor does not need air vent, is this true?

I spoke with the builder about the brickwork and he said he will just cover it all with cement so it's not visible, however doesn't the bad brickwork means bad stability for the building?

Thank you SO much for any opinions and feedback.

== Pictures of brickwork ==

(literally hundreds more of these pictures and some big chips and cracks on some bricks)

== Foundation ==
A metal beam with the bricks ontop, metal beam nailed to 4 corners foundation
(nail looks slightly bent already?! one nail missing?)

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Easy one first- you don't need air bricks under a solid concrete floor BUT why the hell go to all that trouble of essentially pile and beam to support the walls and then groundbearing slab?

The mortar on the brickwork looks as if it hasn't been pointed- did you take the pics while he was working? If that mortar is dry then yes that's pretty poor, he's making work for himself if he points it from dry but the thing is unlikely to fall down. If the mortar was still wet then he'll point it up (usual to do that at the end of the day) and no worries. Actually, looking at those pics again the mortar looks dry and that brickwork is rubbish- bed depths all over the place and smears all over the blocks.

AAC Thermoblock- no idea. I Googled them, found the Indonesian supplier and lost interest. Try it yourself, sure there'll be a spec sheet on there somewhere. When you find and translate the spec, see how well they resist frost and what the recommended mortar mix is (might be something odd)

Oh your foundations by the way- they're not nails, they're bolts. There shouldn't be much sideways loading on them so don't get too worked up about the missing one.

Presumably you've gone for 5 x 6 at 2.5 to avoid the need for building regs? Pity, a BCO would be able to put your mind at rest re the foundation and block suitability.

 

[nickopicko]

The mortar on the brickwork looks as if it hasn't been pointed- did you take the pics while he was working? If that mortar is dry then yes that's pretty poor, he's making work for himself if he points it from dry but the thing is unlikely to fall down. If the mortar was still wet then he'll point it up (usual to do that at the end of the day) and no worries. Actually, looking at those pics again the mortar looks dry and that brickwork is rubbish- bed depths all over the place and smears all over the blocks.

AAC Thermoblock- no idea. I Googled them, found the Indonesian supplier and lost interest. Try it yourself, sure there'll be a spec sheet on there somewhere. When you find and translate the spec, see how well they resist frost and what the recommended mortar mix is (might be something odd)

Oh your foundations by the way- they're not nails, they're bolts. There shouldn't be much sideways loading on them so don't get too worked up about the missing one.

Presumably you've gone for 5 x 6 at 2.5 to avoid the need for building regs? Pity, a BCO would be able to put your mind at rest re the foundation and block suitability.

Thanks for your feedback, if the builder goes all over it with a layer of cement will it help the condition?

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Aaah, lightbulb moment- are you having the outside rendered? If so then that'll keep the rain and the creepycrawlies out (which are the main problems with crap pointing). Internally are you covering the walls at all or leaving them bare?

 

[^woody^]

That's baaaad. Shalmon.

 

[tomfe]

Uhmm
Yes a 215mm acc is fine as long as it's rendered.
Ring beam is fine in practice but why?
You won't see the internal brick work and the external is not great.
I hope you did not pay too much money for it.

 

[Doggit]

They sound (and look) like thermolite blocks, so would need rendering on the outside, but I susect it might crack, so a mesh reinforced render might be better than a cement render. The pointing and finishing are crap, but the blocks look large enough not to worry about, but the builders being slapdash, so make sure you hold back some of the money for a few weeks to determine any problems.

 

[^woody^]

If they can't get something basic right like laying bricks, blocks and the dpc, then I'd question their ability to do the other stuff correctly.

Btw, has that beam in that location been agreed by building control?

 

[noseall]

The cheap thin DPC they are using requires a mortar bed beneath the plastic layer. Seems they haven't bothered. They haven't trimmed it off either. Amazing smudging on the engineers.

Who ever renders that building is gonna love those chalky absorbent blocks - not.

 

[tomfe]

Who ever renders that building is gonna love those chalky absorbent blocks - not.

If you use a good render product like Jub or Johnstones with primer, base, mesh and top it'll be fine.

 

[nickopicko]

Uhmm
Yes a 215mm acc is fine as long as it's rendered.
Ring beam is fine in practice but why?
You won't see the internal brick work and the external is not great.
I hope you did not pay too much money for it.

Thank everyone so much for their feedback and time.

I have to pay £30,000 for this, I'm withholding £5,000 for the last payment. (30k including the bathroom, toilet, kitchen)

We did a ring beam not to damage the roots of the big trees in the back garden, the build is 3m away from the big trees

I told the builders I don't want a "cosmetic" job, we trusted them because we saw his builders working very professionally on another project, but I guess it was probably his own home and we thought we were going to get the same quality of work.

I saw these blocks seem to have no mortar between them?

Am I within my rights to take some money away from the final £5,000 from this work?

 

[John D v2.0]

Apparently to take money off legitimately you need valuations for work not done or receipts for remedial work. You can't really just take it off randomly for things you don't like the look of.
In our case we had to get the builders redo things including the whole outer leaf on the ground floor and insulation. But that only happened because the architect and SE gave a list of faults with the wall so long that was the most economical thing to do.
Either way you always have to give them a chance to do it as per the contract before you take anything off.

 

[tomfe]

Yeah the quality of the brick and block work is poor. I'd expect this from maybe the first or second time someone tried to lay them, most 'real' brickies would struggle to do this bad a job.

This sounds like a habitable room to me and as such you should have building control involved.

Going forward I would keep a very careful eye on them.

 

[^woody^]

What is to stop that steel beam corroding in that location?

You can only stop money if you incur costs that you deem the builder responsible for. Not just because you think their work is crap - even if it is.

 

[nickopicko]

What is to stop that steel beam corroding in that location?

You can only stop money if you incur costs that you deem the builder responsible for. Not just because you think their work is crap - even if it is.

He said he would put a layer of cement around it, should that be okay?

if it was you, would take off some money for the bad brickwork? (assuming you could) or just ignore it?

The cheap thin DPC they are using requires a mortar bed beneath the plastic layer. Seems they haven't bothered. They haven't trimmed it off either. Amazing smudging on the engineers.

Checked it, some parts seem to have a tiny amount of motar and others dont

looking at the cracks in the blocks, looks like a bubbly texture

By the way is it suitable for the builders to mix rocks for the cement? they did that with the foundations, looking closely at the foundations and you can see some rocks slightly sticking out. Is that alright? (rocks are medium sized)


Thanks for everyones comments