Efflorescence on face brick: causes and prevention
The white bloom on new brickwork is salt carried to the surface by moisture. Builders can control most of it by managing where the salts come from and where the water goes during construction.
11 min read
Blog
Building Materials
What the materials in a house are doing: new products, how established ones perform, supply and prices, and the details that decide whether they last.
Efflorescence on face brick: causes and prevention
The white bloom on new brickwork is salt carried to the surface by moisture. Builders can control most of it by managing where the salts come from and where the water goes during construction.
11 min read
Autoclaved aerated concrete walls: what builders get wrong
Autoclaved aerated concrete is light, quick to lay and unforgiving of water. Most of the callbacks on AAC walls come from handling, adhesive and moisture decisions made before the render goes on, not from the blocks themselves.
12 min read
Site classification and choosing a slab on reactive soil
On a reactive site the slab is an engineered response to the ground the engineer classified. This article explains how that classification drives the slab choice, and why a builder cannot substitute a different type without sign-off.
11 min read
Receival inspection: checking building materials before they are installed
A receival inspection is the last moment you can reject a defective delivery cheaply. Once the product is fixed, the argument shifts from the supplier’s problem to yours.
12 min read
Drying out new construction: sequencing and the whole-of-build moisture plan
Every build introduces water and every build has to get rid of it. The difference between a job that dries out and one that does not is usually sequencing, not luck.
11 min read
Material substitution on site: checking equivalence before you swap
Swapping a product on site is a variation to a documented design, not a site convenience. Equivalence has to be assessed against the function the material performs and recorded before the work is covered up.
13 min read
Treated timber: picking the right hazard level, cutting it and storing it on site
Hazard levels describe the biological threat a piece of timber will face in service, not how strong it is. Get the level wrong, leave cut ends exposed or store it badly, and the treatment you paid for will not deliver the life you assumed.
13 min read
Galvanic corrosion between dissimilar metals: isolation detailing that survives the warranty period
Galvanic corrosion is a detailing problem, not a materials problem. It starts wherever two dissimilar metals touch and an electrolyte bridges them, and it is almost always created by a fixing or a flashing decision nobody recorded.
11 min read
Structural anchor selection: verifying the substrate before you drill
Most structural fixing failures are not anchor failures. They are wrong-substrate failures — the anchor was rated for a material the base was never made of, or the material behind the face was not what the drawings assumed.
10 min read
Substrate flatness and moisture checks before floor coverings
Floor coverings fail from underneath. This is how to verify flatness and moisture before you hand over a slab or sheet substrate to the flooring trade.
14 min read
Plasterboard fixing and jointing defects at handover: prevention on the tools
Almost every plasterboard defect a certifier or client picks up at handover was set on the day the sheets went up and the joints were taped. This article deals with fixing and jointing practice rather than lining selection.
11 min read
Metal roof vs tile roof: a builder’s comparison of weight, heat, noise, fire, coast and cost
The metal-or-tile decision is usually made on looks and price. For builders, it is also a structural, thermal, acoustic and durability decision that changes the frame, the tie-down, the sarking and the details. Here is how the two compare.
7 min read