Browse Forums Building Standards; Getting It Right! 1 Oct 06, 2010 4:44 pm Hi All, New to here and I desperately need help! 10 months ago I ordered bricks for my new home, we selected them from a brochure but also were given addresses of local homes with those bricks. I found a house I absolutely loved and went there entire outdoor colour schedule. 4 months ago my builder put the order through to the supplier (Work on our home has been delayed numerous times for various reasons). Anyways, the bricks have been done on the home and I didn't think they were the right ones. I called the brick supplier to find out which ones they delivered to our block. They said the right name however 5-6months ago there was a quarry change. This results in a change in clay, and colour of brick. We have been in talks with our builder and the brick supplier however both are laying the blame with the other organisation, taking no responsibility and no-one is coming to the party about rectifying the issue. The colour difference is shocking (not just a few shades - I ordered the darkest brown available and received a medium tan colour)and I hate the bricks! What can I do? Please help!!! Re: Brick Issues 2Dec 24, 2010 10:18 pm All manufacturers state that bricks change batch to batch and even pallet to pallet let alone comparing a house that is finished to a delivery you expect to recieve in the future. This is a common mistake of home owners. The clay colours vary in the ground scoop to scoop so brick variation is prone to greater changes than paint. You wouldn't paint your car with two different paint tins because you would expect variation just like bricks. Sorry but IMO if you are that particular on shade you should have rendered your house. Being a builder is more than just having once held a hammer. It's about the trades you hire and ensuring that they give a result that meets the industry standard and the home owners expectations. Re: Brick Issues 3Dec 29, 2010 7:52 pm Having a lot to do with the painting industry (co-owner of one of melbournes largest commercial companies) I am well aware of shade differences and to expect them. This is a little more than a shade difference, it is a full colour difference. To the point the brick supplier said "Oh F###, we f###ed up", our builders had a similar response once they both actually came out on site and saw the differences themselves. They have since reimbursed us as well as fixing the issue to the ordered brick colour. As a consumer, one can only expect to get what you order or close to from a supplier. Shade differences are acceptable, colour differences are not. Do not let tradies and the big companies stand over you! You do have a legal right to get what you signed on the dotted line for and Consumer Affairs were more than happy to take on our case had it not have been satisfactorily reconciled. Re: Brick Issues 4Dec 29, 2010 11:23 pm 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 colour not shade so are they going to: --pull down the brickwork and re brick it? --render your home? --give it a Nawkaw rectification? I'm interested in your case as I know a manufacturer who had some similar problems when they shut a plant and tried to make the same bricks in a different plant [with some difficulty]. In the end from what you have said a few things really went wrong. 1,The manufacturer changed their processes and tried to replicate a brick from a different plant/clay reserve and didn't tell the builder or any home owners who are selecting their bricks in their display centres. -Manufacturer at fault 2,The home owner was not informed/educated about brick variations or the possibility of variation when they rang up to get addresses of other houses built with the brick. - Manufacturer at fault 3,The builder knew of the changes and still got the owner to select from brochures, old brick facing display boards or old houses and didn't educate the owner about possible variations. - Builder at fault The problem is, bricks delivered can and do vary over time, and manufacturers have information in their agreements, contracts, and on their website explaining this. For example: http://www.australbricks.com.au/Others/ ... -variation http://www.australbricks.com.au/Terms-C ... n-of-Trade Home owners also fail to properly understand bricks. They're made of clay, clay varies, kiln temperature varies so brick colour varies [like with clinker bricks]. Consumer Affairs are always willing to go in to bat for the little guy. Thats what they do. I imagine the builder failed to educate you as an owner, about the variations of bricks and when this problem appeared they leaned on the manufacturer and said "What are you going to do about it?" - As the manufacturer has said "Oh f###, We f###ed up", I guess they accepted liability. [thats good for you!] In my opinion the builder should accept some liability as well. The builders will have their supervisor do a call up for the bricks and arrange the bricklayer to turn up and lay them the next day. Half the time the supervisors [ex carpenters] and the bricklayers don't even know what the bricks should look like and only realise there is an problem when they get a call from an angry home owner. The reality is all bricks should be checked for suitability before they are delivered [the manufacturers job] and before they are removed from the pallets [the builders job]. This check for suitability is done by making a 20-30 brick dry stack wall from about 4 packs in about 3 sides of the house. This allows you to see the brick face [impossible in packs] and compare variation between pallets [to prevent one "light/dark" section on the house]. Bricks should also be checked for dimensional tolerances [DW rating], cracking, distorsion [twisting] and exposure rating [near salt water] How many builders do this? In my opinion almost NONE! Unfortunately it's a little late to shut the gate after the horse has bolted. The information is available to builders and the BCA states they should know the products they use in their construction. http://www.thinkbrick.com.au/download.p ... mplete.pdf PS I saw a house 2 years ago that had all of the bricks laid back to front [a stupid bricklayer] and it wasn't noticed until the end of construction. Good luck Being a builder is more than just having once held a hammer. It's about the trades you hire and ensuring that they give a result that meets the industry standard and the home owners expectations. Re: Brick Issues 5Dec 30, 2010 10:04 am The builder refunded 110% of the difference in upgrade in bricks from standard to the premium we ordered. Brick suppliers funded the rectification (we still have bricks and they are the nearest shade possible to what we ordered. Due to quarry change not original ordered brick but very close). CA were not willing to go into bat for us until they saw a photo of colour difference. Like you noted there are disclaimers informing home builders to expect variance and they said we had no case. Saw photo and said we had one (a case, that is). I am looking at building a house. Has anyone used Construkt Homes (based in Adelaide)? Does anyone have experience with this builder? 0 6450 12 5320 Industry type domestic contracts are prepared by industry bodies for the benefit of the builders. This means that if you are the owner watch out. One of the points is… 0 3225 |