On 3 July, 08:38, Tim S wrote:
John Rumm coughed up some electrons that declared:

Tim S wrote:

I concluded that it *should* have been done out of brick and keyed in
properly with the wall to the left, which is how i would have done it.

Block would have been ok, but he should have used a stainless "starter"
strip. That fixes to the existing wall, and is then tied into the new
blockwork as it is built. Its a strong and accepted way of keying new
stuff to old.

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Stru...alwork/Wall+St...



There's something in there, but not at the top block (cos I can see right
past that), but it's not protecting it much against torsional loads on the
end.

Don't know if it's installed wrong, but I could get +/- 0.5cm movement out
of the column light hand pressure. Heavy hand pressure would have got
more - certainly felt like I could have broken it off it I wanted.

When I've got the acrow in I'll see how much it takes to actually break it.
I certainly can't accept 1/2 the horizontal bonds breaking and the entire
vertical one showing light through - especially on a lintel support.

Cheers

Tim

Yeah, if someone barged into the edge of the opening by accident (2
people passing in doorway etc), I would be concerned the whole thing
could come down. I've seen builders use nails banged into the mortar
courses to hold new additions, which really does a poor job - maybe he
did something like that.
Simon.