A garden wall I built 4 years ago is crumbling, but should I be the one who foots the bill? Is it really my fault? The music in this video is a track called Last Summer by Iksonmusic Watch part two here: • PART 2! What exactly D...
Oh man. Finally. A video of a tradesman broadcasting their error and publicly admitting their mistakes - the most rewarding and refreshing dividend you will ever earn yourself and viewers. We are all human and make mistakes but it’s just so captivating when someone is honest and upfront. Good on you sir!
This is the best advertisement you could ever do sir. Shows your integrity, pride in your work and your high level of customer service. Great to watch and see a high quality tradesman
he'd lose in court anyway. As a bricklayer he should've been able to assess which brick to use in the first place based on the water coming through the wall and the height difference
I’ve seen this in garden walls before, my old bricky said it’s sulfate attack, sulfate is found in soil, rocks, and if it’s constantly wet it literally eats the cement away, but it’s when it dries out it then has the affect, the only way the bricky sorted it was dig it all out tank the back of the retaining wall, weep vents and then rebuild. Your a good man for going back to fix it.
This happened to me a few years ago. This is where sulphates in the bricks or the soil attack the mortar. It only occurs when a wall get soaking wet, IE retaining or parapet walls. You need to use sulphate resisting cement, this will resolve the issue. If you Google sulphate attack you will be able find out the correct term for this .
@@mrabuilders6723 Yes, like you I had to rebuild the wall mostly at my expense, the customer as a sign of good will made a contribution. I built my retaining wall with concrete blocks, faced with bricks. The sulphates in the bricks when wet attacked the mortar, the mortar in the blockwork was fine.
I have no idea how the algorithm lead me here, but having experienced some of the worst of contractors here in the states, your decision to rectify the issue and at your own expense says a lot about the quality of your character, and I imagine down the line the benefit to your reputation will end up paying for itself. Cheers!
@@samhill9487 I cannot believe you said that! You would need at least and English and Maths GCSEs to get into University as a minimum. I suppose the appalling standard of education since Blair and the Labour party ruined it in the 90s is to blame, people are more stupid coming out of schools these day than when they went in!
@@simonspidercalm down big man. Are people still correct grammatical errors on RU-vid? Are you a 14 year old send from 2005? You’re not original my friend
@@simonspider You have SEVERE mental issues. What the hell is your problem? Are you autistic or something? You are so disrespectful. I PRAY you treat people like this in public and i hope we cross paths one day.
Credit to you for not just going back and fixing this FOC, (as you should), but also for posting a video about it too. I would honestly be FAR more likely to have you do work for you based on how you handled this, (even admitting that you just don't know what happened), than I would be by posting something with a positive spin. You learn far more about people when things go wrong than you do when things go well.
Massive props to you for having the integrity to turn up and rectify it. Customer won’t care going forward that it happened, they’ll just remember how you came back and sorted it without issues! Seeing stuff like this would make me want to use your company, as you stand by your work. Too many clear off and don’t care what happens weeks down the line let alone years.
Use sulphate resisting cement at 4-1 mix. Sulphate resisting will dry slightly bluer rather than grey in colour and costs slightly more than standard OPC. Used it for years when building petrol stations, it’s the go to cement for harsh environments.
I'm glad you did this, it does go wrong sometimes its not always perfect, not many would be prepared to broadcast their mistakes, makes you more trustworthy in my eyes
@@mrabuilders6723 feel free to av a little whine I would certainly too not many would even repair as it's kinda middle ground should be sorta 50/50 on these things as the builder isn't an engineer or a site surveyor most builders build brick on a house that has planning these garden walls should be dry stone water can go where ever it wants then without bother
My dad started a new home construction business with every cent the family had saved their entire life. He built 1 house at a time until yrs later taking a huge risk by building multiple homes at a time. He spent money that most refuse to spend in order for the home to be considered very well built. Most spend on whats flashy. Drywall out. He spent on upgrades inside the drywall and then on what normal people can see. From higher quality insulation to extra power outlets in every room. He averaged 8% profit over 30 yrs compared to most making a min of 15%. My dad had the same character as it seems u do. One time he paid over 100k to fix a water issue that was hidden to us by the developer. Underground spring we didnt know about until after the house was built and customer had lived there 3 yrs. By law, dad didnt have to do anything. Especially considering the wealthy developer hid the spring from everyone. Anyway, dad paid out of pocket. Just one example of the lengths my dad went to in order that his name was golden. Yr question was should u pay? My answer is how do u want yr kids and customers to remember u after yr dead and gone. My dad has taught me no amount of money is worth hurting yr name, yr clear mind, yr ability to sleep at night, yr being able to walk around with yr head high knowing u have something money cant buy. Character. Well done sir
The customer wouldn't have known to use engineering bricks originally, so that only leaves the builder I'm sorry to say. Perhaps try to sell them on the rustic charms of sleepers. Respect to you for having the balls to post this video.👍👍
This video just popped up on my feed and I have to say your integrity alone for returning to the problem after 4 years speaks volumes. It shows you are of high calibre and clearly care about your reputation as a professional. In terms of who should pay ? That's a tough one. People go to builders and tradesmen for their knowledge, skills and abilities and assume that covers all aspects of the work required including in this case, retaining walls withstanding the pressures of land and water given the steep slope. I would say it has to be on the builder. The client may be worried that if the retaining wall has failed after 4 years, could there be problems with the extension ? You've returned to the problem, identified the problem and now have to come up with a solution to avoid this happening again. If I were the client, I would be prepared to pay towards the cost of new materials purely off the back of actually returning to rectify the problem. I would also be very happy to tell anyone who would listen about what a great builder I had who was more than happy to return to resolve a problem 👍 I wish you well and hope there is a healthy outcome for all parties involved. Obviously you're not making profit off this job just now, but their friends who were thinking about doing work will almost certainly be thinking of calling you up after this so see it as a win !
Morning Chris, really appreciate your comment. They paid for a job that should last, and it didn't because of my mistakes so I'll rebuild it. Thanks again mate, have a great day.
What a good bloke you are. I've got to the point in life where I don't trust anyone anymore. Everywhere I go people try and rip you off and short change you. If something needs doing I just research it, study it and do it myself so there's no one else to blame if things go wrong. Why? Because most people revert to dishonesty for self preservation, they don't think about their customer and it's sickening. I applaud you for being so honest... you're a good man 🙏
I'm a contractor as well and I've had similar situations due to company's not getting the mix right. You did the logical thing fixing the wall and I'm sure it will pay off with reputation You have integrity sir and good job.
Need more lads like yourself in our trade and more honest videos like this! Everyone goes through something similar at some point in their career. It’s all part of learning and going forward. Times like these there’s no need arguing with the client about who pays. If you stay honest and put the job right, you never know where it could lead you in the future. You never know they might want a porch or something else building. Well done mate and keep it up!!
Totally appreciate your honesty ,at last ,someone on here that isn’t just bigging themselves up! I’m a bricklayer and have been for 30 yrs .. I’ve only ever seen that reaction with frost damage . I wish I could help ?? Keep up your good work. Ade
Nice looking job. Probs got damp in it from behind/above and blown during winter. Put waterproofer in the mix, and add drainage and vents. Can see your drains from behind block work retainer but cavity probably still getting wet from ground water and can't drain. Maybe put some weep vents/drains in the bottom course of brick, and a dpc, vent the cavity with air bricks top and bottom, and a stepped 600mm dpc tray under your top closers, spanning from block to brick to protect the cavity 👍.
I really admire that you’ve straight off the bat explained the situation and made an effort to put it right, and put the video on RU-vid. It’s clear that you’re an honest guy who is willing to try and find a solution. Obviously not an ideal situation for you or the customer but it takes balls to address it the way you did. This is the first video of yours that I’ve watched but I’ve now subscribed and look forward to seeing your videos as they come out. All the best 👍
@@jonathanmacneil4359 it’s tough to see, being self employed myself I’m thankful that these things have been very rare for me personally, but of course things like this happen at times. Just have to take it on the chin and deal with it. This guy has been proactive and tried to do the right thing, for which he deserves credit. I know a lot of guys who would have just said tough luck, especially after four years. Not that I feel it’s right for them to be like that, quite the opposite, but a lot of tradesmen do that.
Thank you Teddy, really appreciate you subbing, thank you so much. Hopefully you'll watch our previous videos and find out that we do a lot right first time round! Hopefully you'll see that in the up coming videos too!! Thank you again, take care.
@@mrabuilders6723 thank you. I look forward to following your progress. And yes I’ve already watched a few and did indeed notice that the vast majority of things you do are spot on first time 😬👍
Exactly. Assuming you were paid for a wall and not your labor then you just are getting less money per hour for your wall construction which seems appropriate since it is taking you two tries (so far). If you really wanted to make it right you would additionally give the client a discount for their inconvenience. That said, good for you for making it right and putting it on video.
I applaud your full transparency. I always tell our customers it's not just about the price or the job but the after-service too. It would be all too easy to point at the clock and say "too late its 4yrs now... could have been frost" blah blah blah but you haven't hidden away or ducked it Fair play to you !
Honestly, this video will get you so much work mate. The honestly, showing that you’re human and these things happen! I’m not in the bricklaying game but I do landscaping etc. Videos like this may actually help out in bringing back some sort of humanity within the building trade. Cracking video mate, honestly I take my hat off to you! - I don’t think I would upload anything like this but maybe now I probably would! Stay safe, I’ve also subbed!
Ventilate the air gap and put in weep slots from the gap You look financially secure. You made a good profit on first build. Make it right for the home owner.
@@grantmurphy7965 good point. Not normally. Its a bigger problem if you have to. I got to thinking the cold air could get in through a vent too big and freeze the back wall causing a big problem. The guy is very respectable
The 400-600 do you have to pay for materials is worth it’s weight in reputation. In that amount you could not get the same response from advertising. I have a situation where I install heated floors in a customers bathroom and the cable failed so I have to go back tear up the floor and fix the heated floor for them. In this case it was a manufacturing defect but I still will bear the brunt of the expense. It’s just something we have to live with as contractors. And like you said you have blue skies could be worse.
You are honest enough to take responsibility and that says a lot about you, a lot of builders run away from things like this and never get work again, well done to you for not leaving a customer in the soup 👍
I'm a surveyor/PM and, unless, they handed you a spec with the specific bricks they wanted, I think the remedial work sits with you. If I'd been the Client I'd have given you the spec for Ibstock etc or had a surveyor/architect sign off the extension and retaining wall. If you can't come to an agreement about new bricks couldn't you consider some bitumen/tanking to the block wall leaf? Fair play to you for acknowledging the problem after 4 years.
Would you say it would be fair that he charged the extra over for the engineering bricks, any additional waterproofing/ tanking works and maybe a little for the extra over on laying engineering vs face (assuming it's not negligible)
Great video as a engineer and working in the service industry I would offer the following. You can re build the wall with existing bricks but explain the same will happen. Or re build with new bricks. As for the cost and who should pay I would suggest that the cost of the original bricks is deducted from the cost of the new bricks. The client paid for the original bricks on your recommendation they did not decide on the type of brick.
As a bricklayer and a surveyor for remiedial treatments, i appreciate you said this was built in April but that looks like it's been affected by frost to me! Natural ground salts can also effect your mortar, Nitrates, Sulphates, Chloride, also being a retaining wall below ground level the wall is subject to hydrostatic pressure, but ground salts have contributed here.
Hello Paul, hope you're well. Appreciate you watching and commenting. I can only assure you that it didn't freeze during the time.of the build. Salts, however, definitely! Totally agree with that. That's again, take care.
I thought that as soon as he started taking the wall down. Get some protection on the customers patio. Fair play not only for fixing the problem, but for taking the time to video and post for all to show tradesmen are all human.
Great video, as said you should have used boards That patio is going to be stretched. I think you should bare the full cost I’m afraid. It’s your mistake, as a builder you should have known what bricks to use.
Good day mr a builders, just watched your video about the crumbling wall, bloody hell there’s allot going on here!, im thinking of writing a thesis about it and going on a university tour! I’m only a humble plumber but iv been around the block a few times!,36 years to be precise so Iv got some knowledge about building practices, ok let’s talk about clip bate and RU-vid firstly and not the wall, this video apart apart from the subject matter has so much going on I might have to do 2 thesis’s!!, I quite fancy stood behind a lecturne!, first impression s,the thumb nail is intriguing and drew me in which is good, there drama! A wall has failed but who’s fault is it and who’s going to pay!!! Im hooked so carry on watching,within a few minutes iv sussed out that (obviously it’s only my opinion) that you have made a mistake!, going back to the filming of you talking about the problem with what seems like sad face I need sympathy sort of approach and I don’t feel like it’s my fault and I don’t want to pay to fix the problem which In my opinion is obviously yours, makes great content for your channel and you have huge amounts of comments and views for a video about you talking about a problem on a job!, you asked straight to camera for comments and advise about the problem! Hence here is my 10 pence worth!, as far as I can tell you seem like a fairly decent chap (I truly mean that) and going off the main extension job the quality of your work seems really good and you know what your doing, here lies one of the problems, it seems pretty obvious where you went wrong even to me (I’m not going to go over this technical side of things it’s been covered multiple times in the comments) this leads me to the next question?, is it honestly, stupidity or a way to gain more views on your channel that made you do this video? Told you there was allot going on in this video isn’t it great!!!, let’s flip it a minute for the crack, let’s say your video was still with you doing your poor me sad face but instead of making excuses you say iv fucked up! I took my eye of the ball and I’m going to show you what I did wrong! (Sorry I don’t buy the story you told about not knowing this would happen, I think deep down you suspected this would happen) and then you could show rectificing the problem and standing the costs, you make it seem like it’s going to bankrupt you but your only talking £100’s of pounds and a bit of weekend work, any decent building firm will have some contingencies for problem jobs, you and your video are an enigma! There’s you playing the victim after a mistake which you should have known better,theres you dumbing yourself down by claiming ignorance about the problem which like I said I don’t buy, you seem like quite a intelligent chap, wow perhaps you knew exactly what you were going and knew this video would get loads of views and comments all along and I’m feeding into that!! Well whatever the truth is iv got to say “bravo”
First video I've ever seen of yours. I don't know jack about building but enjoy watching talented tradesmen. It's not arrogance and showing off - it's pride in your work. You seem like a great bloke and if you have to pay £500 for a lesson so be it. Reputation and word of mouth is worth much more.
Thank you Thomas, really appreciate that mate and you're right, I should pay the money and get it right for them, they trusted, and paid me too in the first place so I'll sort it.
Nothing better than an honest man,,too many today pass blame, it refreshing too see,,an honest man,. Hope your business grows, 🙏 to come back after 4 years, hats off that man,,most would of said jog on..
You find out how good anyone is in any trade when something goes wrong and how they deal with it. I reckon you'll get loads of work out of this because you'll have a name of a good honest fair builder. With this you have just showed everyone that you are .
Builder myself, you sound like a fellow Midlander. I’ve always had good success with having a membrane behind and a pea gravel buffer, where I live in wales now I’ve had to build a 4ft high retaining wall (15 linear metres) out of 9” hollow blocks, I’ve put rebar down the middle of them then filled with concrete, membrane down the back, 18” wide gravel buffer 1m high, land drain at the bottom going out to stream, took a lot of work but hopefully will outlast me. Give the collecting water somewhere to go, you’ll never stop the water but you can control where it goes, it’s frightening how much shift energy the frost can produce, I’ve seen some huge walls shift because of improper control of water. Fair play to you for going back and standing by your work.
Fascinating and really appreciate the honest approach. I'm not a builder but yeah it's effectively underground and there will be hydrostatic pressure forcing water through the soil and down that hill. I'm looking forward to part 2!
Hello mate, hope you're well. The link to part 2 is in the description to this video mate so feel free to have a look! Appreciate you watching and commenting, take care.
@@mrabuilders6723 Watched it, really enjoyed it mate. I love this sort of content from people who take pride in what they do. Be great if there was a part 3 with the finished final wall!
First time on your channel, but I just want to say thank you. A lot of workers in my are tend to run off after they've finished and half the time it's not a job well done. But you seem so genuine, so a massive thank you from me :)
The measure of a good company should always be confirmed when things go wrong. Your doing the right thing, a proper example to all tradesmen when it goes wrong. I would ask the customer to cover the cost of the bricks or split the cost by getting you to redo the single skin leaning wall before it goes. Great video, big respect 👍
Should have waterproofed the block wall behind Also a flashing so water didn't rise up the wall. extra reinforcement chicken wire every 4 courses Where was you tie's to stop movement Cavity should be 50mm air flow. Your wall is touching inner wall Last solid bricks need to be layed wet not dry it absorbs and bonds better (not too wet)
Any waste mortar dropped into the gap/cavity between your wall and the existing wall will create a bridge for moisture. As you know, there should be weep holes at both walls and perhaps an impermeable membrane between them. I have dealt with a similar problem with a double brick cavity wall in an old house in N.Z. I used a 30mm pvc pipe extension to vacuum out the old fallen mortar. It was ancient lime mortar possibly from burnt crushed sea-shells. Best of luck mate, and great that you're taking it on the chin.
you seem like a genuinely nice guy. not much into construction videos but im subscribing just for the honest video and for you being a nice guy. not many builders upload their mistakes.
Think you've hit the nail on the head with the water theory, personally i would forget rebuilding in brick, i'd go for the sleepers or maybe even gabion cages, maybe have a chat with the client, and if they are reasonable they will pay for the materials, with you supplying the labour. hopefully they will appreciate that you are an honest tradesman.
Very brave of you to show when things go wrong. Everyone makes a mistake at least once in a while and anyone who says they don't is a liar. How we react to a deal with mistakes is what defines us to the customer. No excuses, no blaming something else, just "This is wrong, I'm going to put it right". Well done mate!
Respect mate for being honest shows integrity 👍 I guess I never used cavities on my garden wall's but they were always solid and left plenty of drainage holes to compensate for added pressure 👍
Well if I was going to have a wall built I would expect the company building it know the potential issues of the wall being built. But those bricks are more expensive so they should pay part of the cost towards the bricks I think halfway would be a fair deal.
For piece of mind, I’d recommend painting the existing wall with a waterproof bitumen paint and then as you’ve said use a 4/1 ratio and engineering bricks. Wish you luck and trust me this video will increase your work orders 👊🏼
Considering 6-12 months used to be the standard guarantee for building work like this,well done for going back. I agree with your assessment re:-drainage wrong bricks etc. Few builders would do this at shared cost or free. You certainly misread the ground conditions the first time, you recognise that and your solution is correct class A engineering brick will work, however, your just masking the problem. If both properties were up for it the proper solution is a land drain on next doors property behind the wall as well as as a rebuild of party wall with weep holes. Your solution is the cheapest and you shouldn't have to ever go back. all credit to you shows good character and professionalism. I do think in this case that the client should meet you part way and pay for materials. Well done 👍 I would definitely recommend considering your work ethic.
We have carried out a good number of basement conversions over the years, the solution is to isolate the wet blockwork from the facing work with a wall membrane and use your cavity space at the bottom of the wall to form a water run off, probably exiting were you are going to maintain a air gap at next doors retaining wall. You could then reuse the existing bricks and sulphate resistant cement as mentioned before. Hope this helps.
Mayby drainpipe /gravel and ventilated " nob "barrier (does with a air gap ) begind the back wall , but the question is were to lead the water from the drains. Konstant water absorbing may not be very good for the back wall eider. With that kind of water pressure will a glued membrane on the back wall Front face alone ,Remain in place over time?
I fully respect this guy… I’m a racing technician for a living but I do loads of diy builds with my team on weekends off, and the confidence and the knowledge of the person doing all the work and the ways of dealing with it… I wish I knew more builders / Labors like this.. will give you a hands on any day just let me know if your near Bedfordshire 👍
Charlie, that's amazing buddy, I really appreciate it. We're never too far away from where the work is mate so if ever you need anything, our email address is in our bio. Thanks again fella.
Ayup mate, brilliant video. I think everyone appreciates your honesty! Looking forward to see what happens next 💪 I'd say it's "just one of them" hard to predict something like this. Best of luck buddy
Hello mate! Hope you're well. It's my mistake mate so I'll sort it. While you're on Izzy...where can I get one of them buff labourers like you've got??? I can't find one anywhere!!! Hope you're well mate, keep up the great work on your channel. Take care.
What I do for retaining walls is I build just how you have done but on the backside of the wall I’ll dig a 200mm strip right down to ground/patio level all along the wall then weep holes at the bottom and fill the strip behind the wall (earth side) with 20mm gravel which acts like bit of a soak away. This allows the water in the ground to seep down to the weep holes alot easier and quicker meaning the water is less likely to penetrate the wall as much. The bricks you’ve used was fine in first place but you got to prevent the water coming through in the first place.👍
4 years later... you are definitely a man amongst children. I can say as someone who has worked with my hands for most of my life.. so few builders would do this, your integrity is without question as builder here.
Fair play mate for rebuilding it Looking at it there is 2 problems here ,damp coming through the blockwork and rainwater running down the face as you have used a coping with no drip which will result in freeze,thaw action during the winter , this is why the top half of the wall is worse . My advice is to leave a cavity when you rebuild it , the existing blockwork should be strong enough to retain the load ,( best to use 9 inch hollows though next time ) by putting a cavity (30 mm is ok )there’s no way the damp from the blockwork can travel through to the face work . I would still use and engineered brick and a proper coping stone with a drip , the wall will then remain dry then for the most part Good luck 👍
All retaining walls should have a waterproof membrane, Bithuthene or similar stuck to it to prevent water penetration, do not use Visqueen water always finds a way behind it.Also as well as weep holes a French drain should be installed. In this case after time not only would the joints fail as they have but the faces would blow of the faces of the LBC bricks due to saturation and freeze thaw. Rebuilding it in Engineering bricks isn't going to solve the problem of water ingress into the mortar joints all I can suggest is adding a waterproofer to the mix. Ideal the back of the wall needs excavating and a Membrane and French drain installed.
I've just gone through the comments and seen people saying black jack the blockwork as a tanking, I would think this would fail in time , read up on positive and negative tanking and you will see what I mean.
This is the only solution that will work long term.. the retaining wall needs dug out on the other side then tanked.. If you do the tanking on clients side the water will just build up behind the retaining wall and work its way through eventually..
Cheers Andy, sorry that it's taken so long to get back to you mate, I've had a few more comments than I was expecting! Thank you for your advice mate, hope you're well.
Well done for posting this - having had a few conundrums face me in the past regarding failures within materials, I am convinced that some form of contaminant has got into the mix that went into that wall. My immediate suspect is the plasticiser. Whilst errors are very rare, it has happened that the wrong/contaminated product has been put in the wrong container - as a contractor, you use it in good faith because it looks the same but I suspect whatever was in those bottles was faulty and has retarded the lime reaction causing the degradation of the mix. I came across a job in London where a tiler had installed African slates using a well known manufacturers adhesives and grout. Tiles started lifting within days - turns out that grout had been bagged into adhesive bags! Manufacturer accepted the blame and paid for a complete refit.
Sounds abit harsh but you should pay as you never used right bricks in the first place. I think it's brilliant your doing it and wish more was like you. After four years a lot would have said tough but fair play to you 👍
I did I bit of labouring back in the day. I'm no expert but I hope this helps. The thing that stands out is when you scrape the pointing off a joint at one stage (3:41 which seem OKish) but the beds are just sand. It reminds me of demolishing stuff that's been standing for a few hundred yrs. Lateral ground pressure isn't to blame as this would push the lot over as a slab. You said that it went up in April so you can rule bad frost out. And you used 4:1 with no plastisizer at all so that should be fine. You would have laid the blues a day of two before so you can't really include them into what happened. Something has destroyed the cohesive and adhesiveness of the cement. I'm sure you know that cement is alkali but as you will also be aware it would take a lot of brick acid to damage the amount of compo used on a bed. How about testing the pH of the damp? I'm down to three possibles 1/Duff cement. 2/Not enough cement (The labourer you sacked coz he was useless). 3/Something in the bricks? They do look like they have been damp with salt on them. (9:41 gives credence to acid minerals). If it happened to be leeching from groundwater it would have destroyed the compo in the blocks first? I'm not sure about water as this would have destroyed the blues too? I would have definitely used a solid wall using engineering bricks against any soil but that would have put an extra £1k or so on the job and they wouldn't match the extension. I would reuse the old bricks with a DPM and waterproofer in the mix like used in fishponds etc. Talking of matching, spot on with the comment about not joining the old brickwork with toothing. Alway, always set the new brickwork back, even 10mm makes it look right👌 I'm sorry you have to bite the bullet as the rest looks like a 'job in the town' but you are doing the right thing sorting it out. I don't think you stand a chance of any comeback on the duff cement or acidic mineral salts leeching from the bricks. You're obviously a genuine builder and hopefully 'spilling the beans' on RU-vid gets you more work - good luck🍀
Was on a job that got red tagged. We came back over 2 months later. I decided to mix one bag of concrete from the two pallets that had been sitting in a cool dry covered area. That is when I learned concrete has a shelf life.
Total respect to you sir. So nice to see a proper professional who cares for his customers and the quality of the workmanship.Even after years of completing the job. Hats off to you sir.
The most elite professionals I have worked with have always left their egos at the door and been quite open about their mistakes - not just so they can learn but so others can as well. The outcomes from this mindset are actually results in world class outcomes few would be able to imitate. In my experience this is a prerequisite for elite teams. I know there would be people who would've said you were stupid for putting this up but you are actually the opposite. Well done for demonstrating that there are still some people who have the humility to learn and for others to learn from them. As for the problem at hand, I haven't the first clue - I probably couldn't lay two Bricks straight even if I tried.
You definitely can get frosts in April… the way the outer near the pointing is going, but the inner joint is ok looks like it may have had some environmental/elemental factor like a flash frost involved.
Good on you m8 for doing this, you can still use the bricks just as been stated put a black membrane between the wet wall to keep moisture from penatrating the nice brickwork ☺
If you suggested the bricks to match the house then you should pay. If they insisted on it, as the professional knowing about retaining walls, slope, water levels, qualities of engineering brick vs normal brick then it was also your place to advise them. If you didn't then you should pay. The client is already going through the difficulty of having to re-do the work so for the sake of the relationship and reputation you should consider paying for it.
Who ever built the block retaining wall should have had the back of it damp proofed with either a sheet damp proof membrane or liquid bitumen paint and drainage gravel behind so the water behind is forced to come out the weep holes
I have not been building very long but have always been weary of mortars drying to quick or not curing in general. I always add a good gulp of SBR as well as plasticiser to my mix for a retaining wall or anything that i want to be strong and cure well, and never drop below a 4 in 1 mix Not sure if it actually does anything but SBR is in expensive. You seem like a well experienced tradesman hats off to you going back and doing it for free exactly what i would have done 👍 keep up the good work Just to add should have watched the whole video, drainage is key give water some where to go always come across walls like this. You got it 👍
My deceased uncle was an architect. There was never a job he put out for tender that wasn't a contract with a full specification attached. I've watched builders, double glazing, plumbers etc squeal when he pulled them for breaking the contract by non-compliance. It's the only way for all parties. If he'd messed up, then that was his responsibility, but he never did. Watched him once design a contract with full specification of double glazing materials and parameters etc on CAD, then Emailed it to 17 double glazing companies. He got a super cheap job at HIS specifications complied with. If they didn’t like the contract aspect, he’d simply award it to someone else. A very shrewd man and a builder’s nightmare.
Never seen any of your videos BUT hats off to you sir for doing such a video. It’s clear that you have pride in your work. It’s clear that this was a genuine mistake/overlooked somewhat. It’s clear that your not a cowboy builder. Well done I’m sure this will be settled amicably. I know follow you and look forward to a follow up video. 👍
Top man for fixing it. Black jack the blockwork and don't use those bricks. LBC are code F1 you need to be using an F2 which is it's frost rating and weather resistance. F2 bricks are like semi engineerings so perfect for garden walls. Also add some water proofer to your mix
Hats off for putting this up, makes a nice and more realistic change from all the " I've laid a million bricks today on site and it's not even lunch time " stuff that is normally flung up to watch. Personally, if you go for the brickwork rebuild, I would get a semi engineering brick like the ones in the boundary wall with the neighbours. I'd also think about maybe bitumen painting the existing block on flat wall behind your brickwork, it should help to keep some of that water from soaking through from next doors property. Who pays for it all is, of course, the real biggie. As your supplying labour and part materials free of charge, maybe they'll split the cost of the new bricks 50/50? Good luck anyway, I hope you let us all know how it ends up.
Hello Walesdad, appreciate the comment mate. Yeah, all the "look how quick we are" stuff can get a bit tiresome can't it, fair play to them though as they are earning the money. Which is a lot more than I can say on this job!
It could have easily been far worse - it could have been the extension! I just wish more builders had integrity and pride in their work. Well done for owing the job and putting it right. That's a beautiful extension and patio you did!
