Brickwork joints

[Tedlyscott]

Hi all,
Just a bit of advice, are 30mm mortar joints acceptable within tolerance. It’s a new build and I am concerned about the safety of building.

 

[Bonni]

Nothing structurally wrong with 30mm perps. Perps are normally 10mm because half a brick 102.5mm, plus, 10mm perp, plus, half a brick 102.5mm again is the length of a brick 215mm. Minimum bond is 1/4 brick, which you still get with 30mm perps.

Visually, 30mm is not pleasing on the eye. If the design of the house didn't work brick, then the bricklayer couldn't be bothered to cut bricks to say 3/4 length to achieve 10 mm perps. The other thing is, it could have been set out wrong and/or not gone up plumb so the perps set off wider, or got wider as the wall went up.

Rule of thumb is, NHBC = New Houses Built Crap.

 

[Tedlyscott]

Hi thanks for that, the area that has the 30mm gaps span almost the whole of the building, also I have a bathroom windows that we discovered wasn’t in front of the brickwork.

 

[opps]

Hi thanks for that, the area that has the 30mm gaps span almost the whole of the building, also I have a bathroom windows that we discovered wasn’t in front of the brickwork.

To be fair, someone has replaced the window though (as is evidenced by the old silicone line.

In the interim period, squirt some expanding foam in to the gap to make it waterproof. You might want to use blue UV resistant tape to prevent any foam ending up on the uPVC.

 

[Tedlyscott]

It’s a new build and I discovered this after someone told me that there shouldn’t be any trim on the outside and it’s a timber frame.

 

[Bonni]

Hi thanks for that, the area that has the 30mm gaps span almost the whole of the building, also I have a bathroom windows that we discovered wasn’t in front of the brickwork.

Well 10mm is the standard, you could pick any perp size you want. Old terraced houses with 80mm bricks were often rubbed together giving barely 3 to 4 mm beds and perps.

30mm is a bit extreme, maybe not visually pleasing to most but not a safety issue.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Bloody hell, is that what the window is like now?

 

[Tedlyscott]

I think the brickyard must have used his trowel handle joint the mortar, brickwork is horrendous.

 

[Tedlyscott]

Bricky

 

[Tedlyscott]

Yes that’s how it is.
Apparently the fit the windows first then brick up , god knows what happened there,