Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jan 28, 2012 1:20 am My house is being built by UE, have been advised by them that pre-handover inspection can happen next week, I have already noted down a few defects even though we haven't been able to go inside the house since lockup stage. The biggest concern to me is the bricks, a lot of the bricks look horrible, either have cracks or are chipped, and the motar area have holes and uneven, I have choosen off-white motar, but it looks yellowish, the brick layer's workmenship is really bad. How do I go about this with the builder, they havn't been responding to this so far. Is this something covered by the Victorian building code? Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Bricks are chipped and have cracks - what to do? 2Jan 28, 2012 5:52 am First tell them what the problem is, then if they just give you the run around, get an independent inspection report and go to VCAT... then hopefully you can get to sleep earlier BTW Colorbond Surfmist is off-white if you need a benchmark, grab a sample. Me, I am colourblind... maybe your brickie is too... Ed "ECOECO" At 'EcoEco', we design windows, we design the best windows, we do it for you, so that when you’re happy we are happy. Tel. 1800 326 326 Re: Bricks are chipped and have cracks - what to do? 4Jan 28, 2012 1:44 pm It's unusual to see many cracked bricks. And you have so many. I wonder what is going on. Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Re: Bricks are chipped and have cracks - what to do? 5Feb 06, 2012 7:49 am hello, Im just wondering what approach you took about the chipped bricks and how you got on with it? Building at the moment and have only had the base brickwork done and it is of a similar standard of the photos you posted. (note that we are on a slope so at some points our 'base brickwork' is 2m+ high). We upgragded our bricks to a more expensive range and there are alot with chips and cracks etc. Not sure why we bothered. Im not sure how to approach the subject without annoying the builder too much given we are at an early stage? Any advice would be appreciated. Re: Bricks are chipped and have cracks - what to do? 6Feb 06, 2012 11:21 am @ BB-2011; I would never worry about "annoying" a builder. Remember you are the customer and are spending a significant amount of money on this building so you should be able to have questions/concerns addressed. Of course it is always better to approach things in a non-confrontational way. In many cases where there are defects the builder has already noticed and is doing something to rectify the mistake. But if they aren't proactive then you need to be. I know I had to keep right on top of my builder throughout the build - I'm sure they thought I was a major PITA but I don't care about being liked; I care about my house being built properly! @citystop; IMHO that brickwork is pretty average. The bricky simply should not be using chipped/cracked bricks. I was lucky enough to have the bricky who worked on display homes do my house and he was completely anal-renentive about the look of his work; he had the builder square up the slab (with a concrete saw) and straighten all the windows before he even started as he didn't want his work to look bad because of the poor craftmanship of others. In your case the bricky should have demanded bricks that were of a proper standard and not put the chipped/cracked ones into the wall. You may even want to get in contact with the brick supplier (Austral/Boral etc) and see what they have to say about it. Have a look at this thread for someone else who had (and resolved) brick issues: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=36662 Re: Bricks are chipped and have cracks - what to do? 7Feb 10, 2012 8:45 am @ grom40; thanks for the advice, your right, time to firm up, stop worrying about getting them on the wrong side and voice our opinion! We met with our construction supervisor who agreed that our site was a mess and that there was any wonder the bricks were chipped with the way they have been thrown around. Unfortunatly he is new to the home construction game and has to seek advice from someone else as to what to do. He seems to think it might be the style of brick, which i can agree to an extent but it's pretty obvious that the brick layer is not very good. Has anyone had experience with Borals Nuvo range? Are they particularly fragile? I will try put some pics up over the weekend and see if others think im being fussy or it's unacceptable. Re: Bricks are chipped and have cracks - what to do? 8Feb 12, 2012 12:15 am @grom40; thanks for your advise. I did the pre-handover inspection with the SS last week, pointed out quite a few defects and missing items, chipped and hairline-cracked bricks is the most serious defect. The SS is very patient and understanding, he is happy to fix all other defects but was reluctant to replace so many damaged bricks initially, the building inspector I hired was on site too, he doesn't think those bricks are defects because hairline cracks are not considered defects unless a credit card can be inserted into the gap. At the end the SS is ok to replace those bricks that are chipped and have hariline cracks across the whole brick face, but he warned me that the next batch of bricks could be of slightly different colour and the motar colour might differ too depending on the sand to be used. I am glad I stayed firm on all the defects and nobody wants their single biggest investment to go wrong, the builder is supposed to serve you and make you happy, not the other way around. Re: Bricks are chipped and have cracks - what to do? 9Feb 14, 2012 2:17 pm We currently have this issue as well. We have chipped bricks all over the house, cracked mortar with holes. It looks terrible. The builder is refusing to take any responsibility and everyone keeps blaming the brick - they all say the bricks were chipped when they arrived on site and keep saying it is the type of brick (a slurry brick they call it). We even had the brick company come out and they even said it was the nature of clay bricks to chip. Well they don't display them for sale with chips on them. We are getting an independent inspection done as we really have been hitting a brick wall with our argument. So far all they have agreed to do is to get Naw Kaw to paint some of the bigger chips - not all of them. They still claim the chips are acceptable. But we definitely will not be settling on our house until we are satisfied with the look of the bricks. It is a terrible problem to have to encounter Re: Bricks are chipped and have cracks - what to do? 10Feb 15, 2012 8:01 am "The builder is refusing to take any responsibility and everyone keeps blaming the brick". Well the builder is responsible for the bricks. Everything about the house is the builder's responsibility. It's up to the builder to take it up with the brick company. Everything about the house build should be acceptable to an independant building inpsector. If not, the builder must fix it. Simple as that. and after it's fixed, get it inpsected again. Keep doing this until the house is done right. Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Building Standards; Getting It Right! These can be easily filled and repaired and it doesn't cost them much to do. Id get the builder to do this first and if the repair is not suitable then a replacement is… 12 31279 get them to replace the chipped tiles. It will stick out like a sore thumb overwise. Also tiler will be siliconing the miters rather than grouting. Grouted miters crack… 1 4043 The spacing of the studs looks pretty large especially for a load bearing wall. 3 11122 |