Brick and Block walls - 9 Mistakes in masonry to avoid

the most common mistakes and shortcuts that I see builders making why they're easy to avoid yet difficult to fix the reason they're so awful for you the homeowner the house Builder the property developer standard excuses you can expect to hear and why these mistakes kill your value and the reason we build is to unlock that potential value to realize our Equity you're leaving equity on the table when you Penny pinch and I hope this video will give you the bigger picture so you can avoid death buy a thousand small cuts and let me say I'm not saying this to be a smart alec most of what I'm about to share I've learned from working with fantastic Builders and Tradesmen telling me what not to do and I'm telling you this stuff as well because I've learned the hard way the long way I've made many of these mistakes and Penny pinches myself over the years through just wanting to GM with it and then I've had to rectify them or I've sat here regretting my haste as it's been too difficult to undo and I'm not just picking on Builders I've also made videos about issues with Architects and Engineers I'll leave some links for those I just don't want you to make these same mistakes bad judgments that either I've made myself or I've seen made continuously because I want you to enjoy the building because I love building makes me happy let's talk about brick work and the types of things you're likely to come across in your own projects Builder mistake number one a simple thing you can do when your brickie is working is to look down the cavity every few few hours or at least once a day or so as they build their brick courses up if there's dollops and mortar that have dropped down the Gap and we call these dropping snots you need to get them to take the courses back down and take out these snots otherwise you'll enter a world of misery months later when the Builder is long gone as your house is freezing eventually you'll get some patches of condensation as the dam has the perfect route to transfer through the cavity of brick work where all these snots have collected either by building up on the wall ties or at the base and into your warm house sucking the warmth out depending on how and when they installed the cavity insulation during the buildup the constant gold bridging can also wreck these cavity insulation bats it's a workmanship issue all brickies when they're doing their apprenticeship are talk about snots but it's easy to get lazy in these jobs and not bother with that level of quality control if a builder complains that you're being too nosy demand video and photo footage every day or just get rid of them next Builder's mistake scrimping on insulation within the cavity I'll specify kingspan 80 mm board for example and I'll submit my u values on this makeup to comply with building regulations I'll use kingspan where I need the narrowest profile where spaces are premium which is often because space is very valuable and because of its much higher performance kingspan is the the most expensive cavity bats out there by a country mile and the Builder will without telling anyone happily substitute it for a different brand of the same thickness I've actually seen builders in the build groups are helped with and even the moderators of these groups arguing that is totally okay to substitute Brands and they are clueless the Lambda value is different on these cheaper boards which in turn creates a lower U value and which means you will not comply with your building Reg regulations approval but more importantly your house will be chilly forever more and photos are often good enough for your building control inspector so the opportunity to use a substitute 80 mm cheaper board instead of the required higher spec 80 mm board they'll save a bit of cash at the merchants it sounds like a good idea if you're the Builder that is until you factor in the comfort and long-term payback you as the homeowners get from the correct specification as well as the thing of the insulation the builders are trying to save themselves money at your expense because that saving never gets passed on to you no cavity vents I can't tell you how many times I've come to a job and seen no vents in the brick work the cavity has to be ventilated despite what your Builder says this guy told me he had 40 years experience no less and that you never V the cavity and if you're not sure why or if you need to vent your cavity check out my video here and worry more about whether you've got the right contractor working on your site if they're saying the same as this guy you need to make sure your inner Leaf is airtight and your insulation is hard against it I don't recommend these 10 mm cavity spaces which have evolved due to increases in cavity insulation thickness and it's much harder in my opinion for a brick layer to get quality control using a 10 mm cave than a 50 mm one because it's much more likely that the snots are going to block that and bridge that cavity and following on from the cavity vents no wheat poles for the cavity trays and dpcs where is the water going to go if it can't weep out as any residual cavity moisture runs off the cavity tree yep more cold bridging and damp damage potential even if you're venting your cavities properly you still need to allow weeping DPC now no stop ends and not lap properly you need to check this as they're building it otherwise you no chance once it's covered up forever and see my video on DPC quality control here when Builders demolish walls like here when there's another story above you need to use needles but loads of Builders will congratulate themselves by shortcutting and using strong boys see nothing went wrong I was right fuss about nothing they even brag about their ID say check out my video here for why you never ever do this and still on Steel make sure that your steel beams are on pad stones and not directly on the block or brick and that they've used the correct cover usually 150 mm both sides neither block work nor brick work is designed for these Point loads occasionally you'll see engineering bricks specified by your engineer but usually there's still padstones as well once you've installed your steel work the wheel skill is the bit that sometimes is forgotten about shimming to eliminate movement before you remove your props and then some pain staking dry packing which is a kind of structural mortar that you jam into these 10 mm gaps between the bricks with some special tools so just because the beam is in don't relax instead pay a lot more attention to your Builder and how they deal with these bits here hold some cash back as it should always be included as part of their installation price check before they start asking the question and always confirm these things by email now most extensions are monop pictures with with a roof abutment and it's a real hassle a lot of work to put a c Tree in these situations where the wall already exists you need to do it in sections cutting out the wall above a brick at a time and many Builders and roofers they don't even know how to do it and from my own direct experience when I brought it up at pricing stage the bad Builder solution is just don't bother don't need it forget the cavity tree everything will be okay I've been doing this for years no cavity tray means damp and cold bridging later on inside your extension as the moisture will find its way down the outer Leaf which has now become the inner Leaf below the abutment and when the type of Builder who doesn't care about cavity trays is gone from your job 12 months later when that damp finally comes through he's not ever coming back and you're on your own enough about brick work if you check out this video here you can see my tips and warnings about timber frame and carpentry mistakes I see all the time and the types of build you'll be involved in with your home improvement project Garden rooms extensions and home builds and meantime please give me a thumbs up it it really does help me and I hope to see you next time

Channel: Build Better Things

Views: 9,765

Keywords: builders mistakes, brickwork mistakes, cavity walls, blockwork mistakes, DPC, Cavity tray, pad stones, dry packing, shimming steel, build better things, Jerry Anderson architect builder

Id: ljYjvVVtH9w

Length: 8min 11sec (491 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 30 2024