Save YOUR bricks

Rodda · Oct 23, 2007 9:07 am

I just thought I'd mention this for the benefit of anyone who hadn't given this any thought:

When the brickwork had been finished at our place (this is 3 years ago now) our builder advised me that if I wanted to I could go out to the house and salvage any/all of the unused bricks. He said all I needed to do was pile them up in the back corner of the block so they'd be left alone when the site clean was done. They were my bricks, according to him (as you specifically choose the bricks you want for your house and the builder has to buy them in pallets, any leftovers are not much use to the builder - he'd have to store them all (from each job) until he had another house/use for the same bricks - and then there's the risk of not being able to get any more of the same to match them), so I could choose to salvage them or leave them to be removed with the rest of the rubish.

I chose to salvage them. It took a few hours but I ended up with what looked like about 1.5 pallets of red/brown and .5 of a pallet of cream bricks - approx. 700 in total.

When I later (2 years later) decided to do all of the brickwork for my new outdoor area - BBQ, bench, raised garden beds, we had all of the bricks we needed (even down to having the right quantity of each colour

), and when it was all finished I think we had about 20 of the 700 bricks left! Perfect:

I recommend saving as many of YOUR bricks as you can...

commodorenut · Oct 23, 2007 10:40 am

And the same with tiles - keep every single one you can (even if you stash them in the ceiling cavity on a couple of boards with the weight of them taken by a wall).

In our old place (built in 1970) I had to scrounge 2nd hand yards to get roof tiles that matched the profile to repair broken ones. I actually had more success finding locals doing a 2nd story addiion, or KDR, and got roof tiles from them (same era, same profiles).

Amber · Oct 23, 2007 11:11 am

Good advice except for when your supervisor sells them on the back of his trailer!!!!

We learnt with the tiles however and locked them up.

BBQ area looks great Rodda.

devank · Oct 23, 2007 1:54 pm

Builder is charging us extra for a feature which we wanted in a different colour. Their excuse for the extra charge is “We pay for the pallets.. not each brick”. Then what ever left over is ours!

- devank

off2theburbs · Oct 23, 2007 2:22 pm

Our CSR was really good she told us where to stack the bricks and they we could keep what ever was left over even before the bricks were delivered, we hadn't even thought of it but it works out perfectly for what we want to do when we move in.

aaurora · Oct 23, 2007 2:27 pm

I told our CSR that we wanted the extra bricks and tiles that were left over, and they agreed to this. But they were actually taken away by the builder! I don't know what they would do with them, but we never saw them again.

vanderlay · Oct 23, 2007 2:30 pm

Our supervisor rang to see if we wanted the bricks - we had a 1 and 1/2 pallets left over. We said yes - but at the moment the it looks like the brickie will be using them to fix some problems

There were quite a few tiles left over too - but they were taken away....

Catty · Oct 23, 2007 2:39 pm

My husband suggested that we move the brick stack from the side of our house to the back so that they wouldn't take them away and i said 'Nahh! she'll be right!' maybe we should? our final inspection is on Thursday though so i hope i haven't left it too late!

We had roof tiles (which i think are the most important things to keep) which were stacked up neatly in the garage, and the electrician made a little path for himself (from the crossover to the garage) and cracked them all. Not happy about that! :roll:

Rodda · Oct 23, 2007 4:34 pm

Hi Catty.

Geez some tradies are just inconsiderate morons, aren't they?

What idiot would have looked at a pile of leftover roof tiles and said to himself "hmmmm, they don't look useful at all. Won't matter if I use them and just happen to break them all..."?

And these people drive on the same roads as you and I......

Catty · Oct 24, 2007 2:36 pm

I know!!

And there were piles of chipboard and planks and various other path-making materials ****** around as well. SO not impressed!

Ah, tradies

ahuang · Oct 26, 2007 11:28 pm

devank

Builder is charging us extra for a feature which we wanted in a different colour. Their excuse for the extra charge is “We pay for the pallets.. not each brick”. Then what ever left over is ours!

- devank

Devank, you can save $ if you chose a brick that has different colours and then ask the brick layer to pick those different colour ones for your feature as required. We chose POA from CSR which was a mix of red & brown, after "bribing" them with beers, cokes & cigarets every week, they did he extra feature for us around the windows...

uncle_ant · Oct 27, 2007 7:51 am

Hi Rodda

Good idea, we did the same with our left overs. I could see at least a brick BBQ and maybe letterbox being made.

I asked our supervisor and was told that it actually costs them to take away so they were mine. But, about half the pile disappeared on me before hand-over. I also have about three boxes of left over tiles.

Middy · Oct 28, 2007 12:29 am

Hi Everyone,
Check your Building Contracts you signed - it will clearly state that any unfixed materials remain the property of the builder. Most supervisors will let you keep bricks / tiles etc. Normally if a pallet of bricks has been untouched it can be returned to the brick manufacturer for a refund to the builder - Builders will over order bricks to allow for "touching ups" or the pallet or two that goes missing (coinsiding with your neighbour getting a new feature brick BBQ!) - if a house is made up of 15,000 bricks the builder will order additional. Remember you only pay for the materials that make up your actual house it doesn't include the 5-10% wastage the builder allows.

Also (hate being the miss goody 2 shoes) check your Building Contracts again - there will be a note stating that the Owner is not to direct the builders tradespeople. All the people complaining that things are not done right on their homes, is this because you are out on site giving BEER! to the tradies - you know I think there may be a law about using a Nail gun while throwing back a coldie.

Talinsmum · Oct 28, 2007 7:38 am

Middy

All the people complaining that things are not done right on their homes, is this because you are out on site giving BEER! to the tradies - you know I think there may be a law about using a Nail gun while throwing back a coldie.

Middy, I think you might find that when people talk about going onsite and bringing some beer to the tradies, the idea is that it is for the end ot the day after they have finished working and not for a smoko break at 9am in the morning...

Rodda · Oct 28, 2007 9:14 am

Also Middy, I think you'll find - like pretty much everything regarding bulding - stuff like this is ultimately up to the discretion of the builder.

If your contract said you had no rights to any of this material and you didn't want to persue it with your builder, that's you choice.

My builder offered them to me and I chose to take them.

People, it can't hurt to ask.

3timesbuilda · Nov 05, 2007 9:52 am

Middy is right on this one, most contracts include a clause that all left over materials are the property of the builder.

On the other hand, most site supervisors will let you keep the leftover bricks if you ask and don't make a big thing of it. Usually you will need to move the left over bricks to the back somewhere.

Spent the weekend moving about 650 bricks to the back. BBQ, letterbox and mini walls by the driveway I reckon.

wcai · Apr 04, 2020 5:34 pm

I had a fight with builder , he said he over ordered the bricks and tilts , more than $ 2000, but he stated that is his property , so he can take away and sale tham , I paid for these materials

what is the law and now to complain ?

chippy · Apr 04, 2020 7:39 pm

You have contracted (and paid) the builder to build you a house not provide you with extra bricks.
If they offer the bricks to you as the builder did with the OP then you are welcome to them otherwise they remain the builders property and you can't claim them.

aussieta · Apr 04, 2020 7:44 pm

in the good old days builders were not interested in keeping bricks
now with many rendered houses the builder can use mismatched bricks as they will be covered

Sparkyf · Apr 15, 2020 9:55 pm

When we built our house 20 years ago, after it was complete, they got a bobcat in and were scraping the rubbish and spare bricks that were half buried in the surrounding soil. My wife and I were running around collecting the bricks before the bobcat took them (they were going to dump it all somewhere), we ended up with almost a cubic metre of bricks, enough to build something small!