Bricks pulling off dwarf wall

[88v8]

The simplest things.... Never really stopped to think about how the builders of old fixed the sole plate to the dwarf walls. Not with screws n plugs, given that they had neither. Did they fix it at all??

Perhaps they had the right idea....

So, here's the start of the timber frame of our double garage, 4x2s on a 4x2 or 9x2 sole plate, fixed to a brick & Bradstone & block wall with 130 x 8mm coach screws in 12mm plugs.
Treated, graded, timber, was quite fresh when the frames were made up. I made two of the frames, the builder so far made two.

Fixed about 3/4 days ago, by packing it up, with the intention of pointing in later.

Today, I noticed that some of the bricks and Bradstone have pulled off.







I guess.... the builder may have overtightened the fixings, given there is no mortar bed yet.
Especially as most of the fixings have no packing directly beneath.

Or, perhaps we should have put it on a wet mortar bed as he first proposed - if so, that was my fault as the packing up was my idea because I thought it would be easier and I'd done it before. But that wasn't with newly treated timber.

Or perhaps some of their bricklaying was careless, they didn't seem that particular about brushing off dust & debris before laying the bricks.
I could also nitpick about their mortar, which they sometimes mix starting with wet sand, and have on occasion gone on using most of the day by knocking it back, a practice I eventually forbade. One hesitates to criticise one's builders, mostly, and he came highly recommended.

The mortar is cement + soft, some of it is white cement but only for colour.

Anyway, we have more framing to put up - is there a 'best way' to go about fixing the frames to the walls? Or should we just loosen off the fixings, reattach the loose bricks, and point under the frame before continuing?

Ivor

 

[middi]

The elevation walls would have been better if they were pre-built and then lifted onto a suitable mortar bedded onto the base walls, including dpc if required,
The joining corners the locked and pulled together with suitable screws, some galvanised steel straps every 2 meters or so screwed onto the base plates and built into the base wall , if of a double brick construction, or, overlapping the internal part of the base wall with a suitable 90 deg bend that could be incorporated into the floor slab ( if of a single base wall construction.
If you repoint correctly the existing base plate displacement it should stabilise in that position as long as the mortar is pushed under the plate with no air gaps left. Unfortunately it is a lot more fiddly work that could have been eliminated if the pre-built walls method was used.

Middi

 

[Penners]

When we built a timber-frame garage at our last house, the technique described by Middi was exactly how we proceeded. The wall frames were fixed by some vertical rag bolts mortared into the top of the plinth, matching up with holes in the sole plate. The bolts had washers and nuts run on to them once the wall frame was in place. Steel straps taken up the inside face of the plinth and over the top of the sole plate supplemented the rag bolts.

I'm convinced that your failed mortar joints are the result of (a) poor bricklaying, and (b) stresses caused by the expansion fixings used to screw down the plate. Given that the sole plate was laid dry, if the screws happened to be passed down through the plate into a brick that was even a millimetre or two below its neighbours, that brick would be pulled off its mortar with ease. Mortar joints are meant to be strong in compression, not tension.

It's a shame, because the framing work looks pretty good.

 

[88v8]

Hmmm, we did pre-assemble all the frame sections so far, but omitted to build any fixings into the dwarf walls. The floor slab (8") was put in with a concrete pump, quite fraught enough without trying to build in fixings. Such refinements were far away from our thoughts at that time, alas.

We've slacked the coach bolts, which he had done up tight with an impact driver.... doh.... and we'll retighten them, gently, after the mortar is put in.
Also, we'll add some hammer-through fixings into other bricks to spread the load.

Have also been advised that the C24 timber we used is prone to warping, which could exert an upwards pull.

Oh well, if I build another garage it will be in the next life, have to try and remember how to do.

Ivor.

 

[Zebra]

Always the way, by the time you've done it you've learned how to do it.

 

[Penners]

the coach bolts, which he had done up tight with an impact driver

Good grief! :roll:

I presume "he" is a professional builder? If so, then quite frankly he should be taking the thing apart and doing it again properly.

 

[plasticpigeon]

As far as I can tell, the term professional is not a description of the standard that someone works to.

 

[88v8]

As far as I can tell, the term professional is not a description of the standard that someone works to.

I guess all general builders have their weak points.
I believe in ten years he might be very good, he's certainly not a botcher by intent. Unfortunately at age 27 he's still a work in progress, as one might say.

Reverting to the matter of anchorage, I'm thinking that on the back corners of the garage I could put a hook Rawlbolt into the slab, and attach it to the ends of the trimmers with a stainless rigging wire and a strainer, then that will ensure the wind can't blow it over. At the front, the frame is already bolted to a pair of I-beams cast into the footings. Always some solution, if not quite the ideal.

Ivor

 

[plasticpigeon]

Not really a comment on the work at your place Ivor, and although the bits you have shown don't look too clever, I'm sure they are not the best bits. It was more a comment on my personal experience, where I can honestly say that with the exception of a gas fitter who installed my boiler, I have been able to do a better job at my first attempt than the "professionals" that have worked on my place, and that includes masons, bricklayers, and plasterers. The problem is most trades I've had in don't even know what they are doing wrong so there is no hope. I am going to have a go at rebuilding the terrible mess the bricklayers made of my bay window base next week, including having to cut down some very dodgy and probably unnecessary underpinning. I hope I won't have to eat my words.

 

[Penners]

As far as I can tell, the term professional is not a description of the standard that someone works to.

Indeed it's not, PP. I used the word simply to mean someone who earns his living as a builder.

Professionals can't always be counted on for professionalism, in my experience.