Is this shoddy brickwork/pointing?

[littlealex]

Hi,

Any advice appreciated please. My builder has taken 10 months now for an extension that was quoted as being a 3 month job. He started out really well with the brickwork and it looked good, seemed to have been done properly with string line and looked great but as the walls have progressed it looks to me like he has rushed/or not been as careful or something - if you look at the attached image, there is cement all over the bricks. Is this shoddy work, it doesn't look good but should I be more concerned? Am I being unreasonable? Any advice appreciated!

 

[mrrusty]

It's carp, you know it is, but getting something done about it is another matter. If you owe him more money than the work done so far, then you have a lever, if you've paid him more than the work done he could decide to walk away.

Brickwork by a professional should be clean. My brickwork by DIYer is far cleaner than that.

 

[^woody^]

A bit messy, but not shoddy.

It can be cleaned with a weak acid wash, but follow the instructions.

 

[mikeey84]

Compared with some of the recent examples on here, that is not bad at all.

 

[catlad]

Standards must be dropping if that is now considered acceptable.

 

[^woody^]

Standards must be dropping if that is now considered acceptable.

The right bricks with the right sand in the wrong weather and they stain just like that and there's nothing anyone can do about it, except clean them afterwards.