Brickwork - "Where quality lives?"

[Almost]

I was hoping some people with greater experience than me could comment on the quality of the brickwork in the attached photos and what proper remedial work would involve.

It’s on a one year old David Wilson house. I have to admit I didn’t even notice it until last week, but where it’s situated is sort of hidden unless you walk down the garden and then look back at the house and upwards. I spotted it when I was up a ladder checking out some other dodgy workmanship.

I think it’s pretty poor, but would like a second opinion as we’ve had (and continue to have) so many issues across multiple trades I wonder if I’m being overly harsh. It’s hard to remain objective when you are constantly being fobbed off by DWH and their contractors, who have actually been caught out lying on a few occasions!

As a bit of background, the brickwork issues aren’t limited to the area you see in these first photos. We’ve had fake weep holes with no tray behind, got airbricks at ground level yet to be raised, damaged bricks, lintels that don’t look to be bedded on mortar, the DPC doesn’t look to be bedded and I suspect is too low at least in some places (it’s mostly set back so not visible everywhere), externally the weep holes have been cleared out (took 2 attempts, some were blocked to start) but I’ve checked them with a borescope and most are blocked internally with mortar / or the cavity trays are full of mortar, there’s likely a central heating tank discharge pipe through a cavity tray, pretty visible colour differences in mortar, some very wide perps (20mm+) and some very narrow perps (approx 1-2mm)… If it’s ok to I might post a few more photos for your enjoyment in a later post but I don’t want to fill up the server and get booted off the forum!

Anyways, the attached photos are of the brickwork above a set of kitchen patio doors that have a small GRP roof over them. I think:

The bed joint(s) above are not “reasonably straight” (to quote the NHBC) and/or the bed joint thickness range is too great.
There is a 25mm perp towards the RHS – too big
On the RHS something appears to have been done (maybe at lintel height?) after the wall was built – it’s cracked there now and mortar is smeared across bricks.
The mortar appears to be eroding/receding in places (?)
There’s a missing or completely covered weep hole (towards the right hand end)
There are damaged weep holes, and sealant is half blocking one or more.
I’m not convinced there’s any mortar in the bed where the lead flashing is inserted, there’s certainly a gap underneath.

Do you agree/disagree? What else is there can you spot please?

I’m quite concerned that if someone thought this level of workmanship is good enough, what else lurks beneath the surface (ie in the cavity – ties, insulation etc, what’s the blockwork inner wall like? Half the house is rendered so I can only imagine how much care was taken on those blockwork walls!

Is the only way to check that out to have a full survey done and if required are there (independent) expert assessors for brickwork I could call on?

Thanks in advance.

[New Home Expert]

The bed joint(s) above are not “reasonably straight” (to quote the NHBC) and/or the bed joint thickness range is too great.

I agree it's terrible. Major work involved to make it better though. It may even get done worse and mortar will likely be a different colour as will new bricks.

There is a 25mm perp towards the RHS – too big

I agree it's terrible. Major work involved to make it better though.

On the RHS something appears to have been done (maybe at lintel height?) after the wall was built – it’s cracked there now and mortar is smeared across bricks.

I suspect they may have added a cavity tray or needed to re position the tray as it was too low.

The mortar appears to be eroding/receding in places (?)

If this is an issue with weak mortar mix it can take years to get agreement and resolution. See my three blogs for more on Weak mortar 

There’s a missing or completely covered weep hole (towards the right hand end)
There are damaged weep holes, and sealant is half blocking one or more.

Both easily remediated but a sign of lack of care.

I’m not convinced there’s any mortar in the bed where the lead flashing is inserted, there’s certainly a gap underneath.

It is not practical to bed a lead flashing. It is held in the joint with lead wedges and the joint is pointed later either with 1:3 mortar or a lead flashing sealant.  That said your lead flashing badly needs dressing down properly and clipping as it will lift in winds.

It does appear that the care in the brickwork superstructure is missing and it is a good idea to copy in the NHBC warranty if you haven't already done so. The NHBC will do nothing until there is damage evident internally of externally at which time it is more expensive and work more extensive but that is how their warranty works!

As for an inspector, I would suggest Martyn Maxwell at New Build Inspections.

[Almost]

Thank you for the comments and suggestions. I can't wait to hear what David Wilson Homes think. (meeting next week). There does seem to be a lack of care which is concerning...

I've checked inside about 40 weep holes in total now and all except one are either blocked or full of chunks of mortar (few example pics attached).

The brickwork around an extractor fan is showing numerous issues. Checking out what's behind that from inside the loft did helpfully lead me to identifying a roof leak so that was good. The answer though was a tray formed from 2 pieces of sheet material not welded together/sealed and full of mortar again (surprise!).

Now I'm having a closer look at all the lintels again - would you call this bedded on mortar?

[New Home Expert]

I wouldn't be too worried about any lack of bedding a lintel.
Owing to the thickness of the lintel it may have mean a bigger bed joint/uneven bed joint on the brickwork.
Unless anything is out (ie big gaps under one part, it is not really necessary.