Video summary
The video documents a challenging bricklaying project focused on repairing and extending a wall section above an existing window, complicated by unpredictable weather conditions. The builders arrive to find that the forecast was inaccurate, with rain and cold temperatures preventing work on certain days, but they manage to resume operations once conditions improve. Their primary goal is to install reclaimed bricks up to the damp proof course (DPC) and then continue upwards using block work, eventually setting up scaffolding to reach the top of the window frame. The process involves precise planning to ensure that the new brickwork integrates seamlessly with the original structure while accommodating specific architectural features like a setback on the wall.
A significant portion of the video is dedicated to the technical details of securing the new masonry and preparing for the installation of a steel lintel. The team discusses various types of cavity ties, including stainless steel butterfly ties from the 1990s and modern screw-fix frame ties, explaining how they are bent and installed to ensure structural integrity. They carefully calculate the number of bricks needed, cutting specific sizes like 280mm and 85mm pieces to minimize waste and achieve the required height. The crew also addresses safety concerns regarding working at heights, noting that the scaffolding will need to be extended further because the existing setup does not reach high enough without risking instability or lack of handrails near the guttering.
As the work progresses, the builders encounter the awkward reality of reaching the upper sections of the wall, which requires them to extend their scaffolding platform significantly higher than usual. They plan to remove the top part of the window frame and install an angle iron to support the new lintel, a task that must be done from a secure scaffold position rather than standing on the ground. The team works efficiently to cut bricks, apply mortar, and lay courses while managing the tight space inside the wall cavity. Despite the physical difficulty and the need for extra scaffolding planks to reach the final courses, they maintain a steady pace, ensuring that the internal blockwork is prepared to receive the concrete lintel once the external brickwork is complete.
The video concludes with the team having successfully laid twelve full courses of brickwork and preparing the site for the next phase of construction. They acknowledge that reaching the very top of the wall remains difficult without additional scaffolding, which they intend to bring in for the final touches on Saturday. The builders express satisfaction with their progress despite the "pointless" and awkward nature of the feature they are fixing, highlighting their commitment to finishing the job correctly even when it requires extra effort and equipment. They wrap up the day by tidying up the mess left inside the cavity and planning the removal of the old window frame to install the new steel components, setting the stage for the completion of this complex repair project.
Read the full video transcript
There's the original ones in absolutely
perfect condition.
Oh, he's got news up cuz he can't reach.
So, we can't get that done today.
Which is very annoying.
Back again after
>> Second of July.
>> Yeah, second of July. Now, we
went and did a little job
cuz long story short, the weather
decided to
just be wrong again. We um hoped it was
going to be dry for most of this week
and then wet on Friday. And today it's
very cold, trying to rain this morning.
Yesterday it rained. So, again, you
can't trust the weather up. But, we're
back here.
So, we're going to get some bricks.
>> They're reclaims.
>> Reclaims, so get the get up to damp
course and then block work up to here.
Then we're going to set up a scaffold.
>> Top of the window.
>> We're going to reach
>> Top of the window.
Yeah, we've got we've got four lots.
Yeah.
So, they're going up above the mullion,
going next course up with the angle
iron.
And then brick work up to the timber.
But, obviously as high as we can get it.
We can't really take the block work out
after that. We won't need
That's like freeze two when the scaffold
goes up for the roof.
We need to lift one up to do the top the
top timber. Basically do the same as
this at the top.
>> Once that lintel's in though, he can
then start he can start doing what he
wants then, can't he?
>> Yeah, we'll try and get the inside done
off the scaffold like you said. So, we
need to we need to brick out on the
inside for
come into which has been delivered and
get the block work on the inside of the
roof.
Basically we're doing that that top
portion of the window.
>> Right, I'll go get a mix in.
>> [music]
[music]
>> There you go.
Alex needs a pair of them cuz he's doing
the cuts for me. Cuts are getting done
outside.
So, we're all loaded.
Alex brought the new bricks round so
there's enough bricks there lads to get
us up to DPC.
Um we need a couple of tie wires just to
push across the cavity to the
to um stop the
insulation dropping below DPC.
Cuz you don't want it going damp.
Um that's pretty much it really. We're
all set up. Not a massive job, but just
awkward.
Eight courses and we're going to start
scaffolding it. So, that's when it gets
awkward.
But it's up to up to then it's okay.
We've got these These are from Joseph
Parr's in Bootle.
They're specially These are really good.
Stainless steel we're using on the
chimney job.
Cavity ties.
And then our good old
screw fix.
Frame ties. What I do is bend them.
Bend them like that and then you can
screw them in.
Screw them in, bend them down.
Whereas those we screw them
Screw it yeah. We go a bit higher with
them so they bend down.
I made that mistake once on a video and
I got absolutely slaughtered for it.
Never made that mistake since.
So,
what to do first, get the DPC on
and crack on. And it's a it's a 65 mil
gauge brick work so we just pin into the
original brick work and run it in.
There yes, that All he left us was that.
That, that, and that. That's it.
So, we're all tied in.
So, um
Right, let's get on me knees and get
cracking.
Right, just working out the pieces for
Alex to cut. So, there's our half.
There's the bond and then I reckon it's
about a 90 mil piece.
>> Uh 80.
>> 80?
>> 80 85-ish.
>> 73 mil brick we're going to need.
Um so
if we jump up on the block, got tape
here.
So
we should be able to get away with them.
So 280.
Just mark it mark it on the whole block.
So 280 takes you to there.
And then you'll get your your small
piece from the offcut.
Mhm.
So a 280 and an 80.
So that's good. Not much waste.
So how many of each?
Probably half a dozen of each for now.
That gets us 12 courses.
>> Okay.
>> Which is way up there.
In fact, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10.
[clears throat] So five of each.
>> So five 280s, five 80s and 85s.
>> Yeah, the halves I can cut myself with
the hammer.
Right. So 280. I'll tell you what,
just double check the 280 piece out.
>> When you don't sip
it, don't you?
>> Could you double check that?
310.
>> No.
>> big perhaps then.
>> I'll do them like 305 just in case you
question some of it too big.
>> Right. 305 and
>> 85 80.
>> Make it 80. Okay. So 305 and 80.
So two cuts from one block. Always good
news, that.
Yeah. Eight in a minute, please.
>> [snorts]
>> Right, it's currently on me prayer mat.
And then
I work out the bucket for dick at this
first few courses of bricking on the
first course. Got some proper ropey ones
here. We'll just throw them down where
they'll get buried.
This is where the This is where the
block work we step back.
This is where the step the brick work
for the cavity and step the brick work
back for this stupid
setback on the um
on the feature. Pathetic feature.
All right, let's get you set up
somewhere. Get the camera.
Andy's trowel.
>> Rolling.
>> Yeah.
Thanks. Pass the mortar, please, mate.
Made one a little wetter. I just did it
a bit stiff for the bricks. Okay.
>> [snorts]
>> Right.
>> [snorts]
>> I'm going to line them up.
>> [music]
[music]
>> That's actually a bit quicker than the
12 volt.
>> Yeah.
>> A bit more cumbersome.
We always seem to get We always somehow
manage to get the tires on top of like a
piece.
>> What?
>> We always seem to get the tires on top
of like a small piece.
>> Mhm.
>> We do put tires in.
Have we had people Have we had anyone
say that recently?
>> What?
>> That we don't put tire weights in.
>> No, we don't get that anymore.
Yeah.
>> It only took here what? 5 years for
people to get the memo.
>> All right.
Here's our ties.
There's the original ones in absolute
perfect condition. Stainless steel
butterfly ties.
Hands up put in the comments if you
remember those. Some of the people might
be too young for them now. They were
pretty mid to late '90s they got rid of
them.
They went from galvanized like covered
in green stuff to then stainless and
then got rid of them for the rip to the
the modern tie wires.
So, um there's a lot more steel in one
of them than there is in a normal tie
wire. There's probably double the steel
in it cuz they were twisted together.
And there's our frame ties.
They create them things.
Better than putting
studs packs all the way up. And then
these holes here
I've drilled them now
because they've got to go up on an
angle.
So, once your wall's in the way you
can't drill them, especially with the
the big bruiser.
So, then they go up on an angle and then
they twist it back up.
So they come down and across. So you've
got So you've You've ties are falling
and you make sure you twist them in that
way.
So the drip
is in the cavity.
Not that it's ever going to see any
water, but that's just the way it is.
Yeah, and absolutely solid this. There's
our brickwork at the bottom.
Dubbed in
like it never
Like it was always there.
Right, let's crack on. We're We're up
We're up to the window now. So I've put
corner blocks on twi- quicker.
I have to say I put a corner block on
there from the beginning.
Yeah, let's move you over and crack on.
>> There we go.
They're all the all the pieces that we
cut cut.
Precision cut. Ends up too big because
that that brick works.
Coming in coming in one one side of the
other. They got too tight with a perfect
bottom just got wasted waste so actually
we cut a couple.
So we've got two more courses to go in
now.
Put the scaffold up for that and then as
soon as we've done those two, straight
up for that up there.
Just to check if we can reach to be
honest. We haven't even checked if we
reach.
It's going to be touch and go to reach
up there but and the scaffold's going to
get narrower because of the guttering as
well. Which is a pain in the the butt
butt uh
yeah.
All right, let's get this thing cleared
and get the scaffold up.
>> [music]
[music]
>> Right, here we go.
Shows all our ties.
We've got these two to go in.
And then just looking, I don't think
we're going to be struggling to reach
that.
We'll be stood at window sill height.
So, we're going to be stood here.
So, that gives us 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
20 22 24
5 26.
So,
2 4 6 8
12 14 16
22 24 26. It's a bit of a reach that,
isn't it? Off the top of the scaffold.
We might have to bring more scaffold to
this first thing to do this.
Not enough scaffolder?
Not enough scaffold.
That will It's going to get us to there.
Which is 26 courses to the top.
26 is a bit of a reach, isn't it?
And that's on top of the scaffold.
There's no handrails on it or anything,
so we need
extra scaffold put in on really.
We've got another We've got another one
to go up, haven't we?
So, we'll just bring the extra with us
just to get that top bit.
>> Will we get Will we still get that high
then?
>> Well, easy Well, easy reach to there
with the with more scaffold, but this is
a bit of a reach. And because we've got
it jammed in and we've got the the um
the outriggers on it, it's quite sta-
stable to to go up that high. Could do
with a bit of insulation putting against
the stack cuz it's it's marking the
gutter.
>> And the um
>> But, the window sill as well, yeah.
Right. So, we'll get these two on for
now and cuz you can't reach. So, we
can't get that done today.
Which is very annoying.
>> [music]
[music]
>> Here we go.
As you see, it's a bit awkward inside.
So, um
it's working.
I'll shape that. I would like to get
stuck into that this afternoon, but
maybe just not right now.
I'm only I'm not even eye level there
yet. There's only one one more. I think
two on here.
That's it.
So, where my waist is now.
Or is it Hang on a minute.
1 2 3 4
There's only one to go. Yeah, it only
takes us to there. It still is nine up.
2 4 6 8 Hang on.
That should be one gear.
And we've got small ones to go on yet.
>> Yeah.
>> Right, so
we might be all right.
Might be all right.
Right. Thank you.
You want to have a pie, but um
we're doing some work on two levels of
our scaffolding.
There you go.
We're Yeah, we've got the outriggers on
it. And it's wedged between the house
and the and the extension, so it's
pretty uh
got a bit of a wobble, but no more than
trestles.
I feel very safe up here. I've got uh
extra planks on, so I've only got this
surface here to stand on.
So, I've got um
I'm not I'm if you like.
So.
Now we're up here. We're coming out
here.
>> Is there anything you need for now?
>> No, thanks.
>> Huh?
>> No, all right, thanks.
>> So, that's everything for now?
>> Yeah.
So, this we're going to here.
The reason we're going to that one
particular is because that's where the
mullion is and we can cut the window
through and go above it.
And leave this window intact.
I want the windows to be changed, but
it'll probably need to be shingled at
the top of it eventually.
So.
This has got to come out for
our angle iron.
Taking it out to get the cavity tray in.
And then this is coming out.
Uh this is uh all coming out eventually.
But this is going to have to be done off
a proper scaffold. This is as high as I
can go.
We could probably take
We could go up to that there.
So, I'm going to pop this lot off.
Let's have a look. Let's see what we've
got.
Here you go, there's our window. Top of
our window.
So, we need to cut
top of top of this off.
So, I'm just making sure I get a the
sawzall in
in there.
I'm pretty sure it should be okay.
Mhm.
So.
Yeah, that's the plan.
And then once we've got above the the
window, we can
just cut the top of the window out.
We're not doing that today, but it's
getting up to 1:00.
We've got a lot of um faffing to do with
this, so
I don't want to end up here late.
We want to be able to do it and finish
it in one day.
So, we'll get a lot of prepping done
today. We'll get the
that taken out.
Uh
no mullions are going here and then
there's the internal lintel. So we've
got the block work to pocket out ready
for the concrete that is going to go
across on the inside. So as you get a
few dust sheets down there inside.
>> [music]
>> Right.
There's my reflection. Hello.
Move forward, there's the steel work.
Right.
I've had a look. If I put a plank up
onto this top one,
I can reach
two courses up onto here.
So as you can see, these are only held
on by
panel pins.
And I think they must be they must be
nailed into the tongue.
I haven't seen any nails in them. But
yeah, they're not hard to get off. I'm
surprised they haven't blown off to be
honest.
So we'll we'll bring the circular saw
with us on Saturday. I think we're going
to bring it back.
And so
got up to there.
So we've got one, two.
So we'll just cut it straight across
and then saw those across the block
work.
And
I'm pretty sure it should hold.
But we can always put a couple of
grabbers in the corners
to hold the blocks into the corner cuz
you don't know where the tie wires are.
Like I said, only two tie wires down
there.
So we'll just put a couple of grabbers
in the two corners to hold the block
work up.
By the time we got the block our block
work up underneath it, we can just pack
it up then.
Couple of a couple of packers or a bit
of slate or something, but
a temporary job.
Might even get a bit of foam, just foam
the joint.
But, this is all me thinking aloud.
So, yeah, we we've got all the got the
12 full blocks up.
All covered up.
Um Alex is going to go inside and tidy
up the mess I've made.
And I'm going to get the rest of the
cuts done. So, we've got 12 core six
courses, so we've got three cuts of
each.
Yeah. And then three halves.
Three 85 mils and three 270s.
That's it.
Yeah.
Okay. Yeah.
Hey, my boy.
I'll send you down to him, Alex.
>> Hm?
>> Ready?
Film me.
Break your neck there.
>> So, you you filled them in?
>> What then?
>> You filled them in?
>> Yes.
>> All right. So, that's about it then.
All right. Now, it's just a bit of
tidying up and Dad's going to get a few
cuts done, so I don't know if he's going
to film that or not.
But, I'm sure I'll see you next time.
I'm sure I'm going to If Dad's filming
it, I'll see you then.
>> [music]
[music]