Help and Advice, please...

Now I know I'm female, and some males tend to go with the attitude females haven't got a flippin' clue when it comes to blokey territory, like building walls, but, please can you answer the following question:

Can you build a brick wall in the rain. When I say rain, I mean on- and - off showers and a bit of drizzle in between. AND NOT torrential or prolonged heavy rain??????

I don't want to have a go at my landscaper, as I am not the expert here, and therefore can't tell him how to do his job, but at the SLIGHTEST bit of wet stuff, he disappears for an hour or two, or just packs up totally!!!! We have now lost the best part of a week where it was
1) too hot to work and now
2) too wet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

your views would be very welcomed!!!

Thanks Guys xx

 

Hi honey....my dad has his own building company...
There is really no need to stop building in a drizzle.....but who knows if it will stay a drizzle?????....a couple of things.....
if the rain became quite hard you may get ugly white streaks on your new wall due to running cement...etc.....
and secondly the builder probably doesnt want to get wet and get a bad back...
thirdly he may have a bust blonde waiting down the road

 

And why should it be regarded as 'bloke' territory? The best bricklayer I ever met was female and attractive too (except for her hands!Though that is irrelevant too).

 

I rendered two walls on our shed here as t'other half wasn't coping too well :D :D :D Must say, my Portuguese neighbours were somewhat shocked :rolleyes:

 

Commercially I would build a wall in the rain simply because of the cost of time but i wouldn't if it were my own wall. Like steve says I wouldn't want the mortar staining by running. Does he just have your job on or is he split between jobs?

 

Last home i had i build my own wall as a woman i thought i had done a pretty good job as i had a yard and wanted plants as you do so i build two and even left the drainage holes at the bottom of the walls. It was a laugh as to get the bricks and everything delivered they had to haul it over the yard wall all my neighbours where out to ask, me what i was doing, when it was finished had no help they all thought it was wonderful plants and all. Mind it was hard work i must admit :eek: cant remember it raining.

 

I would take a pretty dim view of building a wall in the rain, though as BM says if it was for someone else I would be worried about time and money and might be prepared to take a chance and just tarp it up if the rain got heavy. If the wall needs to be seriously smart he shouldn't do it though as the weight of the tarp may distort the brick line.

Sounds to me like he is a bit lazy. Too well paid or just not interested in the job perhaps? Watch out...it'll be holidays next!

 

I don't think I have known a builder to do one job at a time!

 

Gosh HoneyBee, you are obviously more patient than I After pussy footing around for a week, I'd have ripped out his spleen and fed it to the dog :D :D

 

apparantly,O/H tells me you shouldnt build a wall in the rain as the mortar turns to mush so you cant get it level?

 

Goodness Rosa!!! You were brave - and WELL DONE!!!!
We would have tackled it ourselves if we had more time (any would be nice!!) and if the project were much smaller.... as it is, we've had something like 5000 blocks delivered to be laid.....

anyway - thanks for your comments - looks like the rain really did give problems.... we are really happy with his work as it is faultless - just the speed!!!!!!

- oh, Jazid - he's off on his hols in two weeks!!!........... :rolleyes: sob....

 

Honey Bee - we've been building our patio and wall in some pretty random conditions the last few weeks, both rain and extremely hot weather. In the rain we stopped for a while (esp with the mortar getting wet) but just covered over what we had done when it tipped it down and carried on when it didn't. It's a bit different doing it for yourself as you tend to work harder and longer (well, I do anyway) but I'm not sure I'd have been leaving him to shoot off for a few hours at a time (unless your weather has been a lot worse, which it doesn't seem to have been!)

Maybe I'm just impatient! My next door neighbours have got some brick layers they use who are superb - fast, neat, polite - and they work in most conditions! Will be using them myself if I ever need to! :D

 

I quite agree Dave.... trouble is as I'm out to work, I rely on the neighbour to keep tabs... anyhow, he's got a surprise comming as Mr HB is working from home on Friday!!!!