Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Thoughts on Construction Quality to Date. 12Feb 21, 2007 12:11 am MMMM...well it will be 7 weeks this Friday and our home would have be sitting there with no work since the poor brick work has been completed...sorry I should say no knew work having been done.
I had a problem with a bulkhead in the laundry that should have been square…. As we paid extra for it…. It was built as a raking bulkhead. So I raised this With our supervisor and he said he would get it fixed. Well I’m pleased to report he was true to his word and I’ll describe how it was fixed…. I saw the new lintel dropped of the other day and it had a measurement written on it (4000mm – 4mtrs). The solution was to involve taking out the shorter lintel that flowed into the bathroom and replace the whole lot with one lintel. You would have thought…. before it was ordered…. that it should have been checked to make sure it will fit…… After all…this was fixing a problem that was already there… I’m no builder but I can read plans and clearly see the space between the walls is 4070mm ….not counting the fact the lintel will have to be supported by brick…. otherwise it will slide down the walls…LOL. So…my theory was as a long-reach brick is 90mm wide…the lintel needs to be supported on both ends…. and according to the makers installation specifications…. the lintel should sit 10mm from the edge of the brick… My maths isn’t that great…but by my calculations….90mm twice makes (both ends) 180mm, minus 10mm twice makes 20mm. So I figured the lintel should be sitting on 160mm of brick (80mm each side), therefore as the replacement lintel ordered was 4000mm to fit between 4070mm of internal wall measurements, plus 160mm to be supported by the bricks, I made the lintel TOO SHORT by at least 230mm. No worries though, cause my builder, Plunkett Homes, has the perfect solution… They cut on site….. I wonder how hard that would have been… and weld a piece onto the existing piece to make it fit…. I wonder if they also got a refund for the 2 metres or so that was left over. Now rather than knock a couple of brickies out and replace in correctly in one piece and rebrick the bricks in…. I’m talking no more than 8-12 from the top courses… They use the wooden strips that are packed within the brick packs.... too hold the lintel up in the correct height… I can see though… that this meant no bricks needed to be taken out so maybe that makes less delay for me….NOT. I’ll post a pic of this… as it needs to be seen to be believed, but I left my camera at work.. In the mean time, here is another pic of the quality joint of face brickwork. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Thoughts on Construction Quality to Date. 13Feb 21, 2007 7:03 am Hi Beaner.
Those last pics - what is that mortar for? I'm no builder (and never built before) but isn't mortar supposed to be between the bricks - not on top of them? And it looks like a pretty cruddy job at that - it's cracked away from one side already. It's a good point you make about the older trades-people doing things out of experience, but creating a problem if they aren't exact. Then again, young tradies may lack the skills for a quality look... so maybe a happy medium would be good. I don't know if I'd like a first timer (like me - ha ha) working on my home... well, without supervision and mentoring anyway. Please keep us up to date - it's making for interesting reading, especially seeing as we may be in the same situation in a few months! Ray. Second Time 'Round Re: Thoughts on Construction Quality to Date. 14Feb 21, 2007 4:21 pm Beaner I certainly hope your glass didn't go in before the plastering.... Yep...all the window frames had the actual glass installed - the windows get delivered complete. And every other builder in the vincinity (& there is a lot of building going on at the moment) was the same. Why is the plastering too difficult if the glass is in the window frame? Sorry - that probably has a really obvious answer but I'm quite intrigued as to the differences in building style...eg I hadn't realised until reading a thread on here the other day that some houses are completely bricked (including internal walls) - no timber frames used at all. So maybe it's just a difference in "the way things are done"? Re: Thoughts on Construction Quality to Date. 15Feb 21, 2007 4:29 pm Hi guys - we had our windows (glass included) installed as well with framing - as did all of the houses in the estate.
Must be a Vic builder thing? Amber http://ourdreamhouse.blogspot.com Re: Thoughts on Construction Quality to Date. 16Feb 22, 2007 5:19 am I noticed that Amber and epiphany are in Melbourne and Beaner is in Perth,so the reason in the different scheduling is probably due to the Vic houses been brick veneer and the Perth houses been solid brick.In brick veneer the carpenters install the windows and in solid brick the frames are installed by the bricklayer as they build the walls.I'm not sure if it is a terrible problem if the glass is in before the plasterers start Beaner.In my experience the windows can be protected (masked and covered by plastic etc)quite easily.Also,I've never seen a bricklayer work with his eye only.In fact I've never seen a bricklayer on a site without a level so you are one in front of me Beaner.I hope you get a better result with the other trades.The work over your way is starting to slow so maybe the cowboys will be out of the game soon.Regards Terry Re: Thoughts on Construction Quality to Date. 17Feb 22, 2007 9:40 pm Re Glass.
It must be an eastern States thing..... very inetresting. I guess the difficiult for the plasterer in this case is they have to set and rule off all your window reveals bby eye. That is, 1 person has t hold a rule 10mm up from the window edge (or drive dutch pins into your brick work....... big pins...big holes....ouch. Whilst another person rules off the window edge..... Can be done but slower more difficult... How many people are there in your plasterer teams??? Without windows, the plasterer can do the job by himself. They clamp the box rules into place on both sides of the brickwork...something you can't do when the windows are in place..... I'm by no means suggesting its a defect to do so... My concern is if it is..... for example a 3 man team... Someone mixingn cement... and two putting in on the walls... When one stops to help the other......with all the other issues I've experienced... I hold grave concerns for any attention to detail.. Did anyone see your plastering teams working whilst doing windows??? Re: Thoughts on Construction Quality to Date. 18Feb 22, 2007 9:51 pm Yes Terry....
That is a good point, I didn't consider the possibility of brick veneer homes...where the process....dry wall plastering is entirely different to wet wall plastering. Another issue with wet wall plastering is when the plasterer has to the window head with brickwork over the top of the window. The window head reveal has to have the mud pushed on HARD. With glass fixed, there is little room for error of the trowel hitting and cracking/breaking the glass. Another is....with the building boom still somewhat in effect in Perth... I reckon there is be a difficulty in getting a team for the job...as they can still pick and choose... So why would they do a job that is harder to do...for the same money.... In short they wouldn't... they'll simply drive to another job where the glass is not fitting.... That’s my thought anyhow.. Re: Thoughts on Construction Quality to Date. 19Feb 23, 2007 7:27 am Hello Beaner,Yes,you are probably right about the reasons for the methods used over your way.The window company would never come onto site to do the glazing here even if it was solid brick (but 99% would be veneer) We don't have the same shortage of trades as you and everyone has to "work in"to a certain extent and we also know each other personally so try to keep things flowing without too much bickering on site.In an ideal world the company would give the plasterers a bit more money for the slow going but I know this probably wouldn't enter their heads as the gap between management and production is about as big as that joint in the brickwork you posted the picture of.I look forward to seeing more progress pics of your house.Regards Terry Were struck with: Colorbond Ironstone Grey roof and cream windows. What color should we render and paint the garage door to tone down the cream windows? Farm House, will… 0 28056 DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair That laser level looks lovely! We bought one for less than a quarter of that price off eBay. It worked really well for us and it's still going now, five years later. After… 1 16843 Hi, My home construction is complete, and the handover is scheduled next week. However the construction has been delayed and I have raised this to the builder. The… 0 5346 |