Opinion on Brickwork

Thomas_C89

Hi all, 

So 2 years ago we had to get the brickwork below our front window replaced/rebuilt due to a "handbrake incident". I'd never really inspected the work in great detail, however after some other issues in the house I'm maybe in overanalysing mode.

Would anyone be able to comment on how this work looks and any areas of concern? Hopefully I'm worrying over nothing but to me some of the work doesn't look straight and from the side angle some of the bricks don't appear to be flush. 

Thanks for any input! 

rob7475

Some of the gaps are inconsistent but it's not the worst I've seen. After 2 years, you'll have no comeback with the builder. It's not bad enough to warrant re-doing and most people won't notice it tbh

Thomas_C89

Cheers Rob, yeah I'm not expecting to have any comeback with the builder. We got messed around waiting on getting it done so at the tone I was just glad to draw a line under it. 

Section62

Thomas_C89 said:

Hi all, 

So 2 years ago we had to get the brickwork below our front window replaced/rebuilt due to a "handbrake incident". I'd never really inspected the work in great detail, however after some other issues in the house I'm maybe in overanalysing mode.

Would anyone be able to comment on how this work looks and any areas of concern? Hopefully I'm worrying over nothing but to me some of the work doesn't look straight and from the side angle some of the bricks don't appear to be flush. 

Thanks for any input!

If you get close enough to anything you'll be able to see defects...  if you hadn't noticed defects in this work during two years of living with it then it is doubtful many other people would.

It isn't perfect, but I'd say it looks tidy, and for a repair it is more than adequate.

casper_gutman

Agreed. Looks fine to me. Not perfect, but wouldn't stand out as worse than general brickwork on any modern house.

stuart45

When you on small private jobs you have to adjust your working methods to those that you use on large housing estates. Most bricklayers are so used to working under pressure to produce the quantity of work, that when doing smaller domestic work they can't seem to change. 
On a large site a few bricks slightly out of place won't be noticed, but on a job like this you have to slow down a bit. 
If the customer isn't happy with the work there could be an issue with the payment. If this job had just been done and the photos were put up on forums there's usually someone who will make a comment like' I'm no brickie mate, but even I could do better than that, I wouldn't be paying him'.
As Section62 said, really close up shots of brickwork will always show up things that you would find on most walls. Brickwork in general is a slightly rustic trade, apart from gauged work.
There are methods, such as tuck pointing, which can make those joints appear all the same size, but it's really expensive. Brickwork matures over the years, and lots of older houses have some quite poor brickwork, which would have looked poor when first done, but now people don't notice.

DullGreyGuy

Its also hard to tell what is the distortion of the lens taking the photos and what may be below than perfect work. It's reasonable good, probably not perfect but nothing is. Seen a lot worse being considered acceptable. 

Section62

stuart45 said:

When you on small private jobs you have to adjust your working methods to those that you use on large housing estates. Most bricklayers are so used to working under pressure to produce the quantity of work, that when doing smaller domestic work they can't seem to change. 

On a large site a few bricks slightly out of place won't be noticed, but on a job like this you have to slow down a bit. 
...

I could envisage that a very high quality repair/extension job on a newbuild estate could stick out like a sore thumb... so the client would need to decide whether they want best quality, or best match for the existing.

stuart45

That's probably a good idea to discuss this with the client first. To be honest I've done work like that on site when up on the scaffold with freezing cold hands and competing to keep my job with a subbie, but I've learnt to produce a slightly higher standard on jobs like this. It's more the joint size differences that most people probably notice, although for me the joints on the cills are too big, and a bit messy. When possible it's best to keep the joints on cills as small as possible. The weather usually takes the bigger joints out quite quickly.

Thomas_C89

Not sure this would warrant a new thread, but another question on this job I had was around DPC. We got a single chipped corner brick replaced and when I've been reading up on brickwork I'm thinking what they may have done about DPC for that one brick. It's an awkward bit to get a look but I can't see an obvious line and it looks like I can see the DPC ending at the join with the previous brick. 

Should that be something I get checked? 

Attached some photos. 

Cheers again! 

stuart45

It would have been better to place a bit of DPC in with the new brick, but I wouldn't be too concerned about it, especially as it's the external skin.