Brickwork Defect: Misaligned Mortar Joints - Advice Needed

Hi All

I am currently up to the lock up stage of a double storey home.

The vertical mortar joints in some sections of the brickwork seem to be misaligned.

Builders explained that the brickie had to follow the windows so the bricks in some places are arranged like that. Is that a sufficient explanation? Is this acceptable? If not, what are my options?

Pictures are attached below:

http://s909.photobucket.com/user/Eric_Zheng/media/IMG_3892_zps5bfacb61.jpg.html

http://s909.photobucket.com/user/Eric_Zheng/media/IMG_3895_zps5614d8c8.jpg.html

Any brick experts out there who can tell me whether the misalignment in the photos is acceptable or not...

Yes you have to follow the windows on a modern house which can cause some problems.

Having said that this hasn't been done that well.

The issue will make minimal difference in reality to the overall durability of the wall.

As the only solution is to redo the wall (with delays), or render, the real question for you is -Will you really notice it in the future?

I think it is exhibition of poor bricklaying and in my view unacceptable. Here is why.

1 Window sizes are standardised to match dimensions of brick wall
2 Acceptable tolerances in bricklaying for perpends 10mm +5 or - 5mm
3 Art of building design is to make sure building elements fit properly
4 Art of building is to make sure that windows are correctly positioned so bricklayer does not have to stretch or compress perpend widths.
5 Art and skill in bricklaying is to produce face brick wall of pleasing appearance
6 My rule 1 " Builder is paid to do a pleasing job, there is no excuse(subject only to prevention)"
7 My rule 2 "If it looks wrong it is" Does it look wrong? Yes
8 Who is in charge? The builder
Appearance is part of functionality, durability and structural adequacy are only but a part of functionality.
9 Appearance test " Would a builder have it in his house? I don't think so, appearance=fail. Functionality=fail.
10 Remedy? Demolish and rebuild

I don't think that sub standard workmanship should be accepted and if you do what else will you be pushed to accept?

I don't mean to be unnecessarily harsh on the builder but builder is paid his price and promises to deliver a lot, so it should be.. Appeasement and acceptance off poor workmanship does not work.

Thanks for your advice all. Much appreciated.

Don't stress about it if this is on a dead-ish side of the house. Rather, make them take note that you are unhappy and keep that as an ace in your pocket come bigger issues in the future (but hopefully not).
Although, having said that, not quite sure about perpends being so close on 2 consecutive rows of bricks - purely for longevity and stability if the mortar itself is not the best mix.

Hi Athelas, one day you might be selling this home.

As a pre purchase property inspector I have a scenario for you.
If you are a buyer, if this was you or your child buying a home, what would you expect me to say about the quality of brickwork? Would you still offer your price of would you reduce it to allow for sub standard brick appearance?Or would you walk away?

If you are a vendor, If you accept sub standard workmanship now you are most likely going to be unhappy vendor.

Yes. I thought about that as well. This will no doubt have an impact on resale value of the house.

I am keen to push the builder to pull down both walls and redo it. They may have to pull down the entire wall so the perpends match. It's a bit unfortunate and it's a small builder too so redoing it may eat into their margin and/or damage relations with their brickie.

Family is more inclined to let it slide so opinions are divided even after I told them about your post.

Perhaps we can render it when it comes time to sell. ;-p just joking.

To me, in both cases, they didn't alternate brick courses. Brick should be laid so that each course alternates, but in both cases where there is a problem the courses did not alternate.

That is, if you look along every second corse of normal brickwork, the perpends line up. In the two areas of concern this doesn't happen.

The bricklayers should never have done this.

The two windows are 2 bricks wide and 2.5 bricks wide. The brick layers should have built the wall so that each course alternates and the vertical joints all line up. The more I think about it, the more I would want it redone properly!

No Problem Athelas, you have to do what is best for you however your situation simply highlights that you are a prisoner of the circumstances and are forced into appeasement.

I have seen it many times and highlights the risk of having a small builder without gravity of resources unable to make good if they really stuff it up.

Conversely, over the years I have caused several two storey brick house walls to be demolished and rebuilt for serious defects,only made possible by the fact that builders were volume builders with resources to do it when pushed.(and no I don't get any pleasure out of that)

So, the issue to consider when deciding to go with large or small builder is what if it really goes wrong, what will you do?

I anticipate a lot of resistance if I push for both walls to be pulled down and redone. So it's going to be a fight with both teeth and nails from both sides. I cracked the shts at the builder few days ago and told them I am not gonna let this go. They said they will find a solution in the new year, they haven't told me what yet altho I hinted a free render may be a solution (it's going to cost them $20k approx for the full render job so their profit out of the whole job is easily halved if they went down this path.

Problem is tho family loves the brick look altho sections of the wall are cosmetically defective. I actually prefer rendering but is cautious of the maintenance involved... Dilemma dilemma...

Would you be able to tell me that apart from building commission tolerance guidelines, is this problem so severe that the walls must be redone? What I mean by that is apart from the misalignment mortar perpends, the walls are straight, the bricks are level and the mortar mix is solid (hard and won't come off easily). I've deliberately checked out a few houses around the area and some of them have the same misalignment issues on close inspection. It probably means this issue is more common than first thought and is often missed by the owners (seriously who is gonna spend hours checking every perpend around the house like I did. lol)

I saw a post with a similar misalignment issue where the owner took the matter to the building commission but the building commission while recognising this as a cosmetic defect, recommended no rectification. If that's the outcome I am gonna get then there is really no point spending too much energy pursuing the matter.

Arguing poor workmanship may be an alternative solution but it goes into issues with interpretations of the law and may mean we have to navigate the legal system and likely outcome is end up in some arbitration process which may take "x" months if not years.

Anthelas,

A building inspector will be able to tell you if the brickwork is acceptable. They will quote the appropriate standard and there will be no ifs or buts about it.

I'm not a fan of render since it can crack and is a maintenance issue since it needs repaint every 15 years or so. If you have a two storey hose, you'll need scaffolding etc and that can get expensive.

For the first picture, why not just render the 1.3 metre wide wall and make it a feature wall (find a nice paint colour to enhance it). Not sure if the windows will allow render as the frame is very thin. You will need to allow at least 10 mm for render.

For the second picture, the defects are high up and less likely to be a concern. If the building inspector says it is a defect I would expect the builder to provide compensation equal to the likely amount that the defect reduces the sale of the property. Something like $1,000. However, you want to keep in your builder's good books. I would say to the builder, "as long as there are no more defects, I'd let it go". This is good on two fronts. Firstly, it keeps the builder happier and secondly it means he'll put extra effort into making everything else good since then he won't have to pay compensation for the defect.

Cheers,
Casa

Reading this thread inspired me to "inspect" our walls for the first time in the 18 months we have been in. Yep you guessed it, somewhere on each wall there is a misalignment.

First time I've noticed and probably the last I suspect.... nobody is going to get off a galloping horse to look at it.

I think one can worry about too many things in life, and I certainly won't be losing any sleep tonight, or worrying about resale in 10+ years.

jj1, are your brick defects as bad as Anthelas?

Look very similar Casa2...the only difference in my favour I think, is our bricks are a lot lighter in colour and are closer to our mortar colour than Anthelas.

Just getting back to square one

The difference between common brick wall and face brick wall is the appearance.
Therefore the most important part of face brick wall functionality is the appearance (durability and structural adequacy are given)
You pay more for face bricks and more for skilled labour to lay face brick wall. Why should you not get good brickwork?

It is not too much to expect skilled bricklayer to know haw to set out bricks and to care about the work. It is not too much to expect builder to have a quality system in place that will monitor workmanship at pre determined stages and correct if required before bad workmanship gets out of hand.

Builders and tradies that get away with poor workmanship will just keep doing it.

I agree with Casa2 that render has significant maintenance issues which will hit your pocket further down the line

Whilst I agree that it is important to have good working relationship with the builder I don't agree with appeasement because that will just give signal that you are soft.

That's just my opinion

The builder has washed the bricks again and the mortar perpends in some places are not just misaligned but there are many sections throughout the double storey home with mortar perpends wider than 20mm.

I've made up my mind that I am not letting this issue go lightly. In fact, thanks building-expert, I've just called your company and organised a building inspection for tomorrow. Thank you for agreeing to come out to have a look so quickly as I need to be prepared for a site meeting with the builder tomorrow afternoon to work out a "solution". Look forward to meeting you on site.

If the perpends are 20 mm that is a defect. Clear and simple.

Good luck.