GROUND FARCE - Pastures new: STAGE III

As the pile of snotty tissues around my bedside increases, the brick and block henges dotted about the garden have slowly decreased in a strange kind of Covid synchronicity.

Brick henges are getting smaller

It’s day 8 since Covid came to stay and finally a negative test!

At last, its goodbye Covid

Although that isn’t quite the end of the story because whilst the test may have come up trumps, the fact is I still have a lingering chesty cough and about as much energy as a wrung-out dishcloth. When the media said Covid was like a bad cold what they meant is that it’s like a really, really, really bad cold. It’s so bad I can’t even smell Bertie’s stinky poops which while you might think this is a benefit, it just means his litter tray doesn’t get emptied as promptly as when you get a full force nasal attack of cat crap. Phew!!

But less of this sickness self-pity and more about the extension.

To tooth out or not to tooth out the brickwork? Well, it seems that for us toothing in the brickwork so that the extension appears to have always been part of the existing house is not really an option thanks to the very poor workmanship displayed in the original bricklaying.

Not that I’ve ever paid a great deal of attention to the exterior walls of the house but our builder was very quick to point out that almost every course of bricks laid has different heights of mortar, some so thin they’re barely noticeable and others almost an inch or more thick almost as if laid by Stevie Wonder. Imagine if you ripped open a packet of custard creams to find that some had no filling whilst others had a huge slab of buttercream in the middle – it's unthinkable. In bricklaying, the mortar layers should all be the same around 10mm or so.

Uneven mortar joints

Toothing in the new bricks to match the existing courses would perpetuate these errors and perhaps lead to greater ones thus we’ve been given little choice but to go down the wall tie way. According to the internet, this seems to be the modern way of doing things and undoubtedly easier (for the builder) to join the extension walls to the back of the house.

Unable to tooth in the bricks

Wall starter kits consisting of parallel metal bars are first secured to the original wall then a small metallic tie is laid on the mortar between the brick courses to butt the bricks to the wall.

Wall starter kit

Horizontal ties to secure blocks to the wall starter kit

Whilst this may not necessarily look attractive when finished as you’ll have a tell-tale vertical mortar join running the height of the wall plus uneven matching of mortar layers between both walls, the appeal of this method is that not only is it quick but if you have movement between the two buildings then the bricks are not likely to crack. Not ideal but hey, life never is.

Mortar joints out of kilter with main wall

As the courses get higher, a protruding metal wall tie is added to the internal blocks. This is used to secure sheets of insulating EcoTherm in place close to the inside wall plus allow an air gap in the filled cavity. Again, this is the modern way of insulating cavities. No more foam squirted through holes in a wall.