I am no lawyer but If I were you I would not touch their work in any way.

At least not until you have informed them of your concerns and asked them to rectify - including any weather protection you feel is necessary.

Otherwise they may say that you have contributed in same way to the perceived problems/issues and grey the waters should this become a legal dispute.

If they refuse or ignore you then you will have a legitimate reason to intervene yourself (probably)

Always better to try and resolve amicably though - is that not possible?

Posted By: malakoffeehaving seen blunders with the walls.

You talk of blunders with the walls, might be worth elaborating, a blunder to one person could be a normal trades practice to another, so if you intend to get rid of the builder you may need to be sure you wont leave yourself open to a counter claim of some sort.

... typical for UK builders...?

Triassic said >>
So the next question is will the next builder be any better?, or do you work with the current one, now he knows you are on his case? <<

Here is the problem :
This builder came highly recommended - he did just about all of brickwork for a friend's new build.
In addition, he did a lot of de facto project management on that house without being asked.
My friend was very interested in keeping tabs on the quality of his build and was pleased with everything that he checked.

Four years later the builder is the boss of his company, using teams of self-employed tradesmen to do the actual work.
His main project at the moment appears to be involvement in a commercial build for a certain discount supermarket.
I have no doubt where his main focus is.

I have to say that I was rather bewildered on the first day of my build when four blokes who I had never seen before just wandered up the drive.
The boss turned up for one half day of the build and did a couple of hours bricklaying. The inner brick faces were noticeably visible and clean for that brief period.

Anyhow, I don't intend to let another bunch of the builder's mates start chopping in to the existing roof.
The integrity of the existing house is then at risk.

My confidence is somewhat dented.

It is not the strips of DPM on the top of the wall that I am asking about - but thanks for the advice.

I'm really asking if in longer term I should consider protecting the exposed VERTICAL faces of the blockwork if there is no roof over for a number of weeks. The blocks appear to be very porous.

I will ask the builder his opinion, but he now knows that he won't be extending the roof so I'm not sure if he will take any further interest in the walls.

PS. I am actively maintaining the protection on top. More bricks on top are definitely necessary as is trimming the DPM strips to prevent excessive flapping and pulling of the anchor bricks. Not just reasonable, but absolutely necessary, especially as it is the Xmas holiday period.

Blocks will be OK, think how many thousands of houses have been built lots in the winter.

Posted By: malakoffee'm still a bit concerned that the insulation will get wet via the porous blockwork.

Full fill rockwool is designed to get wet. It shouldn't be a problem for any of the structure as built to get wet really. If it was timber frame then that would be a very different story.

At the age of nearly 60 this is my first close encounter with builders.

I have learnt some hard lesson :-
I was the only agent of quality control on the build.
I should have stepped-in as soon as the first clues emerged.

However, it took me couple of days to evaluate the situation :-
No foreman or leader to the team.
Nobody looking out for health & safety or quality control.
I wasn't being consulted or informed about . . . . anything really . . . hence them mucking up the debonding . . .
Reactive management = I had to complain to the ( offsite ) builder, who would then phone the workers and try to modify or fix.

Anyhow, now I have received an invoice ( as requested ) for the work to date.
The amount is not unreasonable - by my naive judgement.
There is VAT component.
There is no VAT registration number.

I am minded to ask to see the company VAT Registration Certificate.
What would you do ??

Posted By: willie.macleod

Posted By: malakoffee'm still a bit concerned that the insulation will get wet via the porous blockwork.

Full fill rockwool is designed to get wet. It shouldn't be a problem for any of the structure as built to get wet really. If it was timber frame then that would be a very different story.

Not heard that one Willie. Is it something Rockwool are saying?

Water will certainly change the insulation value hugely making it virtually useless. I have also yet to see a flexibe bat that will not slump if in the air in it is replaced with water.

Another vote for planks on top then - thanks.

I have seen rockwool in two conditions when wet :-
1) Surface wetting and still resisting water penetration.

2) The fibre matrix completely soaked where water can be freely squeezed from it.
When in a confined space, without airflow, it cannot dry out and will bridge damp to surrounding materials.

I'm looking to avoid ( and minimise the risk of ) the later.

The snots, ledges and intrusions are extensive. The bucket-load was all I could reach.
My plan is to treat the new wall with silicone treatment next autumn - after the long, hot summer - and carry this on as a regular maintenance task.
When I get fed up with that I'll have it tile hung or covered with EWI.
Not an impressive start for a new wall.
After the winter storms of 2013/14 one might have thought that the building industry would be aware.
It would seem that some part of it wants to continue with shoddy workmanship.

Posted By: tonySilicone would not in my opinion be a positive move. It is important that moisture can breathe out of the wall outwards

Tony - there are waterproofing products that allow masonry to "breathe" e.g. Stormdry, Smartseal. Not cheap though!

I'm still trying to understand why you want to put an additional waterproofing course on a new brick wall (once the roof is on). Experience shows that it'll be ok for about 200-300 years at last as it is. Or am I missing something?

The dodgy builders have created the new wall with little or no regard to a known risk factor for cavity walls with full-fill rockwool -type insulation :-
The cavity-side face of the brickwork has extensive mortar ledges, overhangs and intrusions.

This MAY trap penetrating water in extreme weather instead of letting gravity assist it down the inner face of the brickwork.

I don't have direct evidence whether they cleared mortar from the wall ties, but I think it is reasonable to assume that they did not bother.

I'd be very happy to be persuaded that I'm over-reacting.

Anyhow I have called in a local surveyor to evaluate to situation and help me to plan forwards.

Attached schematic is borrowed from a commercial website, but corresponds others from non-biased sources.

Now that is what I call a WIDE cavity.

Tony >> I wouldn't let anyone else place the insulation. <<

My summary advice to anyone else having a full-fill wall would be DON'T unless . . . .
- You trust the bricklayer(s) completely OR
- You are familiar with managing bricklayers and can constantly monitor the construction OR
- You are doing the brick-laying yourself.

The big risks with full-fill are :-
- You have no free cavity as a default weatherbreak OR to permit inspection of the brickwork OR to permit any rectification activity.
- The bricklayers have an opportunity to swiftly hide shoddy work and/or that they don't actually understand the additional quality requirements for full-fill construction.

In the attached you cannot see many mortar problems because they are mainly hidden under the insulation. Strangely enough the brickwork that is visible is all pretty clean. One might assume that this is not accidental.

Tony,

Why did you not offset the 3 layers of insulation, to reduce risk of gaps?