stuart45

1,000 a day building piers? You're are hard taskmaster DIY Guy:D

The lime in the merchants is usually hydrated non hydrauilic lime, which is calcium hydroxide powder. This is normally used as an additive to cement mortar. It is basically the same as lime putty, although it is not considered as good a quality as lime putty which has been left for months, or even years to mature. Hydraulic lime is generally considered to be much better for re-pointing as non hydraulic has been found to fail many times in the past. Recent analysis of old lime mortars has shown that the mix was often 2/1 or 1 1/2 /1 sand/ lime rather than the 3/1 that many builders thought was used. It is thought that 3/1 was done by weight and not volume. If using lime putty you also have to consider the amount of water already in the lime in its volume and allow for that.

CoW is short for Clerk of the Works, who are quite rare on site nowadays but are responsible for the quality of workmanship of all trades on site. They generally kept standards quite high, although were not always popular with sub-contractors.

The depth and width of a strip foundation will depend on the type of ground and how much weight is going on top of it. There are tables in the Building Regs which give you a rough guide.

I am not suggesting that he should produce poor quality work and concentrate on clearing up, but the general public are often not aware of the difference between a high quality brick wall and one built to a just about acceptable standard. I would advise anyone to build to the highest standard but to be aware that you are working for customers who look for different things than the CoW on site would look for.

The first thing to remember is that a similar job on site can usually be done in half the time. On site everything is already on site, whereas even when you think you have got all the materials there is often something that you have to shoot off down the merchants for. There is also a lot more cleaning at the end of each day. Leaving the site really clean and tidy often impresses the customers more than the quality of workmanship.

That's a really good job for your first attempt. You can see a great improvement on the top piece. When you lay bricks, don't worry about trying to get them level across the wall, just make sure that the face is plumb and the top edge is laid to the line or to the level. Bricks are not normally a perfect shape so it's not possible to get every face right.