So there are a few brick layers on this thread, what is the professional consensus? Like someone above says, I have always seen brickwork built up at the corners first to get a line across. I suspect this guy doesn’t really know what he is doing & that’s why he is taking so long, I’d be the same. No one’s going to pay me top rate for my skills as a bricky though.

Edit: and seconds before I press post a corner appears. Better progress by the looks

….alternatively he could have bonded the blockwork properly 😯

Also, the general idea is that the piers hold the wall up, not the other way around. Oh dear.

Sod it, i said i was going to stay out of this one.

….alternatively he could have bonded the blockwork properly

I’m nae brickie and i noticed that

Serious question.

Where are you and do you want it doing properly?

The Engineer is on site tomorrow to look through a few things inc some of the pier bondings and RSJ footings etc. He calls the shots, not STW!

Also, the general idea is that the piers hold the wall up, not the other way around

Not sure it will work either way.

…oh and OP is in Cambridge.

Are those vertically stacked blocks supposed to be doing something, or is that what you are talking about in the above couple of posts? I’m not a brickie (at all) but I think I can see a shite job when I look at it!

OK for the non brickies what up with the piers and the bonding.

To me a non brickie bonding looks ok, there’s an overlap BUT maybe should be half a block not the quarter that he has?

Nice Quarter bond too.

Hopefully the passing trains don’t cause too much vibration…

Minimum overlap when bonding blockwork is 100mm which he just has. On a run like this though there is no need/excuse for anything other than half bond.

Presumably the piers are ‘tied in’ by hanging a few wallties out. This is structurally incorrect as he should have tied them in by bonding alternate courses by laying two blocks flat spanning the full 215mm of wall and pier.
Having seen a ‘pier’ fall over and land on a car when the garage door was shut (seriously, and NO i didn’t build it!) i would be pretty concerned about this.

OK for the non brickies what up with the piers and the bonding.

You can’t have a long span of single brick / block wall, it will bow / be too weak. So you have piers every 2m to provide rigidity – all covered by Building Regs.

The middle pier will have an RSJ on it as the roof is suspended on steel work (no A frames), so the bonding on those piers is critical (special fixings). The Structural Engineer is here at 9am to review progress and check out the piers.

Those piers aren’t bonded at all. I’ll have a sniff around for my memory stick for my blockwork lesson powerpoint and see if i can dig up an image or two.

Not my image, but like this

[/url]
blocks by bmclynskey1, on Flickr[/img]

Hmm looks like you could be right (just been googling as well). Will see what the Engineer makes of it all tomorrow.

another +1 for belly blocks in the piers bonding across.

I’m lousy at bricking but even ive learnt better technique than that just watching a mate on a job.

99% of corners are built using this bond so that 1/2 bond is created

On the pier thing, lots of ‘piers’ in garages are built like this on large sites because a) its quick and easy, b) lots of site brickies dont know how to do it correctly c) nor do plenty of forman/site agents and d) it looks ‘better’ from the face side as there are no tying in blocks showing on the outside.

The specs state fully bonded, which it’s not, so I guess it’ll all come down and start again. Engineer can confirm that first thing tomorrow. Partly my fault as I’m PMing it and was really relying on tradespeople a bit too much, still live and learn, only lost a week and a few bags of cement.

Argh! why isnt this picture working!?

😉

😯 I hope you’ve not given this guy any money, and you tell him to bolt when he asks for it.. I’d have words with the neighbour aswell

I’m not a brickie, never have been, but that looks like basic stuff!

Thanks guys appreciate that. Makes perfect sense.

Cheers

I’m not being funny but I did flag his work up straight away. Guarantee the reason he’s only got 1/4 bond is because he’s not got closures on his corners, ie 100mm pieces as the photo above!
Also the floor/dpm design is poor and I didn’t mention this previous but I don’t think the idea of the entire front leaf of brickwork being tied in by furfix/crocodiles is good practice either!
Hate to call other folks work but what I hate more is seeing folk getting turned over!

I don’t think the idea of the entire front leaf of brickwork being tied in by furfix/crocodiles is good practice either!

I did discuss this with the engineer and it’s not ideal but we discussed using L plates on the inside to tie both together, so it wouldn’t be a problem. As it is I suspect we’ll be starting again on the whole thing, so might go back to the original plan and overlap bricks and blocks.

Said to myself that I wasn’t posting on this thread but seriously, throw that guy off site now and don’t be paying him a penny.

His block work is totally novice, I am a building control surveyor and if I walked onto that site I’d be telling him to pull that down and start again, the block bonding is just lazy and the piers are not piers at all, just stacks of blocks inside the main wall.

Why don’t you build it cavity? Why aren’t you putting a damp proof membrane and a screed in the floor? You are spending a fortune on a shed that will be damp and cold, especially if you aren’t plastering the blockwork. Please stop wasting money on this, you could have the job done much much cheaper

As for the floor / DPM, it’s only a workshop and pretty dry here, so I doubt there will ever be a damp issue. NB Building Control were quite happy to leave the DPM out as its not habitable so isn’t required to have one, same for U values / insulation, they don’t apply.

I’m getting my bathroom done in a few weeks time.

I’m going to start a thread like this, it’s like having the crew off Cowboy Builders on tap for free! Good work guys, and hopefully the OP will be better off at the end of the day.

Looks like it will be the ultimate man-cave when it’s all done.

I’m going to start a thread like this, it’s like having the crew off Cowboy Builders on tap for free!

There’s a good mixture of responses, some very helpful, some less so.

but for £40 of dpm why wouldn’t you?

the piers are not piers at all, just stacks of blocks inside the main wall.

Yep, but in fairness that was also my interpretation of the plans, so I’m as much to blame as the brickie. Actually more so as I’m ‘in charge’. I’ll just write it off as a lesson learned. No big deal.

but for £40 of dpm why wouldn’t you?

There is a DPC in there as per the plan. It was optional. As for £40, at trade is was something like £15 for 50m, I only needed 8!

I don’t know you but im genuinely trying to help as are some of the others above. The floor detail is shit! You’ve got two course of handmades which will have the same resistance to water as a sponge, you’ve already stated slab level is ground level, you will therefore get water/damp in. it may only be a shed but itd be nice for it to be dry. The piers need sorting, and question again the detailing for the front leaf. I’m sure you’re paying good money for the engineer so make him bloody earn it!!

Pace wise, if i was doing it on my own, then if you had loaded out the blocks that’s not even a days work, even mixing for myself.

Which is saying something, as i spent all day standing around telling other people how to do it now rather than getting my hands dirty myself 🙂

I don’t know you but im genuinely trying to help as are some of the others above.

Your responses are very helpful. I’m 99.9% convinced it will all come down and start again, as I said the Engineer is here at 9, so I’ll add his opinion to the mix (it’s his design). Now I know what a Fully Bonded Pier is, it’s fairly obvious they are (EDIT) not good enough. Esp as the whole roof is hung off four piers on two RSJs.

You are letting him off too easy in my opinion, he is the supposed professional and should have done the job properly for you, consider building it in cavity when you knock it down. You are correct that you don’t need insulation but a cavity wall will be much drier and won’t need internal piers. I know you will loose a bit of internal space but in my opinion it’s worth it. Rain will penetrate 100mm block work pretty quickly.

Your cavity could be reduced down to 50mm if you want to save internal space and you would also have the advantage of being able to insulate at a later date if you chose to.

And the dpc in the walls, get the brickie to use 300mm dpc and leave it long on the inside so it can be lapped with a dpm in the floor

Well seems like a good idea the thread. Great pool of talent here on STW.

Anyway my kitchen, well the Mrs Pingu’s kitchen is getting done in two weeks time, I didn’t know we had one till she said she needed a new one! Obviously wanted the expensive one even though we might move next year but did need doing as it is like a seeping wound on the rest of the house. Think I might post up the progress see what the consensus is as it progresses! Or let everyone tell me the kitchen fitter is shyte.

again, for the minimal cost of 100mm mineral wool bats I’d insulate.

If you want to have the roof design looked at, post the drawing on here, I had just presumed you would be trussing that roof