The problem you have is this Sloping blocks + custom build= high cost per m2 Forget smaller builders as they have bugger all buying power and when things go pear shaped have no depth to fix issues and have no reputation to uphold. Latitude 37 have been around for 10yrs now and have the custom experi...

It's standard although the inside perp joint [vertical mortar joint]should have mortar on it but many don't. Provided the brickwork is laid quite clean and the brickcleaner doesn't blast through the mortar it'll be fine.

I have a few comments regarding the above..... Iron oxide stain = Acid burn. Clay bricks don't cure as they are fired to become like stone, but concrete bricks require a curing time just like any concrete product. Clay bricks do swell over the years and this increasing size is taken up with expansio...

Check your contract drawings and look for "FC Sheet Infill Over" above your windows - if that's there, I believe that means you're getting wood infills. Aluminium isn't standard, so unless you requested it explicitly this would be normal. Less than ideal, I know, but window frames almost ...

Why do builders think that washing bricks again and again will fix every problem? :roll: :roll: Without looking at the pictures you almost certainly have acid burn. Acid has penetrated the brick surface and sisolved the iron in the clay/sand. Everytime the brick is saturated the water on the brick s...

The 'fault' is in the overall dimension of the garage not working to bond. Thanks for your response ausdesign What do you mean by bond? K Bond (pertaining to this) is the brick length plus the perp - i.e 230 brick + 10mm mortar. 10 bricks in a wall is 2400. 10 bricks in a pier is 2390. Peter is cor...

IMO the pictures in your blog show a classic failure by the bricklayer, to protect the brickwork from the elements while the mortar is drying. The high contrast between the brick [it looks like Boral Storm] and the mortar, with the rain hitting the bricks, will almost certainly result in "white...

Building inspectors crack me up! ::hyst:: ::hyst:: They get paid to run around and pick out things that are wrong to justify their existance when most of them have no idea what they are looking at anyway. Back to the point, I'll comment on what I can see 2. Mortar droppings to cavity Bricker layers ...

The sand colour is very important to the final mortar colour. People forget that mortar is almost 20% of the wall and sand is 75% of the mortar. Re colours without using oxides: Off white mortar is white sand and white cement Yellow mortar is yellow sand and white cement Orange mortar [bad sand] is ...

Its a bit of a Captain obvious, but for an issue like this on a forum, some pictures of the problem may shed some light on a solution. EDIT [half an hour later] I just found some of your pics on this thread. https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=38752&start=20 IMO from the pics it...

Any pics? It's hard to offer a solution without them.

I would say some dry natural mortar at the bottom and some fresh natural mortar at the top? Yep, That's what I was thinking.. however I paid for OFF WHITE mortar.... It's bad isn't it, if they have done the whole house the wrong mortar?! IMO it looks like off white sand and standard grey cement so ...

I just found this thread. Looking at the picks IMO it looks like about 20m2 of brickwork is vastly different to the rest of the house. 20m2 at 50 brick per m2 is 1000 bricks. As the front upstairs is usually the last part that is laid I'd ask to see the original callup information on the total quant...

I'm glad you have had the issue solved but I don't understand what they did to do it. A cash payment obviously helped you accept some of the issue. As you said you were reimbursed, has the builder been credited the bricks cheap or free and passed the saving on to you? You said the difference is colo...

IMO bricks are being used as a feature in a rendered house. I think bricks are timeless too, my husband wanted a rendered front so he could change the colour of the house . We live in a rendered house - built in the 60s and the rendered is VERY textured. It catches dirt, and I have to spray it down...

About 2 months ago I also heard a real estate agent discussing the same and he said rendering is going out of fashion. I know its a very personal choice, but have you noticed a trend toward away from rendering to brickwork? K Australia is a last outpost for brick popularity when you look at the res...

I beg to differ. Austral told us that if we ordered directly through them then they would pick up any extra pallets and refund us a % of what we paid. Would have been better than nothing if they hadnt have given our bricks away and then told us they dont know when they're making more when our house...

Hi NcgQ I've been slowly putting together my home theatre setup so, for what it's worth (and depending on your budget/main use), I've gone for: Pioneer SC LX83 AV receiver Having done a fair bit of research and gone back and forth between a number of options, I couldn't be happier with each of thes...

We have a Cannon Fitzroy which we use to heat our home in winter. It's the second one we bought, the last one we put into a house we renovated and sold. [The RE agent said the fire sold the house] The heat doesn't really get down to the bedrooms but thats not been an issue as it can easily heat abou...