On Tuesday we were enjoying the fruits of another English summer, i.e., it was raining as usual!  We are working with engineering bricks as face bricks, and the last thing engineering bricks like is water. So after a few false starts and with no sign of the rain shifting, we decided to call it quits and take a half day.  On Wednesday we put the door and a very large side window profile into place to build the brick work around.  Most of the day was cloudy and sunny, but from 2pm onwards the temperature dropped and the cloud went from blue to black.  Just as I finished my last course of bricks and we took the decision to pack up and not take the risk of getting caught in more rain, the heavens opened and it absolutely chucked it down with rain.  We got the brick work covered up just in time to protect it from the rain.

On Thursday morning the client and I had a discussion about the window and doors.  Due to the way the brick course ran I made the door opening slightly larger than the plans.  The client had given this some thought but preferred to go back to the slightly smaller opening.  The client also wanted the window profile changed and reduced in height because as things stood the bottom of the window came up to his knees, and he is only a small bloke!  This set us back and we lost a mornings work altering things and getting things back on track.  It was my own fault, but it could have been far worse. But at the end of the day we are here to build what the client wants, and I would much prefer we did what we did to put things right and the client then ends up with a finished piece of work that they are totally happy and satisfied with.

Friday was a right old dull day.  The sand and bricks were still wet from earlier in the week because of the amount of rain fall we had.  There was a fine drizzle in the air, and the air was also damp.  I layed a couple of courses of bricks, but the engineering bricks don’t absorb the water so they were really difficult to lay.  As the weather looked set in for the day, we decided not to proceed with things.  So we waited for the muck to go off so we could point them up before calling it a day.  But we didn’t realise how long this would take.  The muck was not drying out very quick at all, and in the end I had no choice but to point up otherwise we could have been waiting all day.  After laying the first course of bricks at 08.30, the muck was nearly as fresh at 12 noon as when I laid it first thing in the morning!  Doing half days and keeping our fingers crossed for better weather is happening a little bit too much for my liking, especially as its August!