Press help required please

[Colin Jack]

Have you contacted your local authority Building Control department about all this?

Ask the NHBC for sight of the certificate(s). If they can't or won't show you then it is unlikely that they exist and therefore unlikely that any checks have been carried out. Many will say 'How can this be???' but you would be very surprised at the amount of work on these sites that should be checked, but isn't.

I would bet that Persimmon's expert is an expert in nothing and so would be very wary of anything they say.

When a supplier (Baggeridge Brick) turns down a solution you have got to get worried. I had an incident with my favourite builder, Gladedale, whereby the brick supplier's agent slagged off his own company and its products because he was standing next to a Gladedale employee at the time. The problem with the bricks had absolutely nothing to do with the bricks themselves, it was the way they were used in the construction i.e Gladedale's poor workmanship. So this agent made a fool of his company and himself just to please his customer. Funnily enough the problem was no dpc or weep holes which allowed the bricks to be constantly saturated and spalled at the first sight of frost.

All sounds very fishy.

www.abadbett.com

[willyj]

I would be very surprised if a retaining wall was constructed incorporating a DPC and especially if engineering bricks had been used, as it would have consequences for the stroctural integrity of the wall.

The enforcing authority for building control would only be interested in a retaining wall if its location affected the structure of the building. If it is just retaining part or all of the landscaped areas the Building Regulations do not cover it, although Chapter 9 of NHBC Standards applies.

[Maple Lodge]

Willy

the wall has been built incorrectly with FL bricks, and the remedial solution that was proposed was rejected by the brick manufacturer as they recommended a low level dpc was required with engineering bricks being inserted.
Of cousre if they had used engineering bricks in the first place as specified by the engineers design then a low level dpc was not required.
This retaining wall is structurally significant as it is between my property and my neighbours as my plot is is approx 4 foot higher than theirs