Some advice on a renovation needed.

Holy cow! Don’t mean to cast aspersion on your guy but that ain’t xactly fine homebuilding.
What did he charge you for that? Maybe you paid a subpar price for equivalent work.
“Let’s get crack-a-lackin” — Adam Carolla
Replies
Your right Adam it isn't a great job. Unfortunately I'm stuck with it and just have to do the best I can to get it up to scratch. I'm happy with the rock work and windows etc for the main structure, its just the door framing that needs to be redone and that rock that is coming away from the wall.
To be fair he quoted $12k for the whole thing and collected $7k, he just never turned up to do the finishing touches and didn't ask for the remainder of the money. I called him the other day about the rock coming away from the wall and he said he would come and fix it but never turned up, I'm going to take it further until he fixes it.
Otherwise, I reasonably content with the amount of work and materials I received for the price and am willing to let him off with the door frame because I can do that myself with some guidence.
Regards,
William
I sure wouldn't call him back, but you do need a GOOD stone mason to deal with the stone pulling away. I'm no mason, but even I know that the masonary needs to be tied to the wall. - lol
Reminds me of a tv commercial from many years ago. "I always wanted to fix a trans-missy-ion."
That door trim looks like krap. In the "stormdoor" pic it looks like the lower part of the trim is narrower than the right side. The stone pulling away from the jamb is normal ... for a 100 year old house on a rubble foundation. The excess mortar can by removed with a stainless steel brush and elbow grease. Dilute muriatic acid or vinegar might help.
My guess is he didn't come back for the 5k retainer cuz he realized how bad it is.
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
The muriatic acid only works when the mortar is relatively fresh. Worth a try I guess, but I wouldn't be hopeful. A stainless steel wire brush will work eventually.
I use a 4 1/2" grinder with a knotted wire wheel for problems like this- it takes a careful touch, "do no harm".
It looks to me like the stone wasn't tied to the house well, and wasn't on a good foundation (the stone needs it's own footing, which should be tied to the house footing). That's real hard to fix now without taking it down. Not outright impossible, but you'd need to hold the stone up and against the wall while pouring a good footing under it. I would say that it will never be as good as if it was done right originally.My prefered way of sealing a door in a stone wall is to build the wall around the door, keeping the stone back a little way but mortaring in the gap, and anchoring the jamb in with J bolts or carriage bolts ground flat that are set in between rock courses. If the fit of the stone is close to the door jamb, it can be caulked, or if you leave a bit more room, you can cope trim to fit against the stone.zak
By the way, look at this thread to see stonework done right:
http://forums.taunton.com/n/find/findRedir.asp?webtag=tp-breaktime&mg=128E0F5D-95C4-4663-B96A-06DB569C217Dzak
Edited 4/2/2006 8:04 pm by zak
Zak,
I like the idea of the grinder with a wire brush, i'll give it a try. The excess mortar is mainly smeared around the edges of the stone near the mortar joints, i'll take it slowly.
I am able to get to the back of the stone that has moved away from the wall because it backs onto the garage and its not finished inside. I'm wondering whether its possible to bolt some screws into the rocks and using a bracket fix it to the wooden wall frame inside the garage, that particular rock wall is actually quite small and I can push it back quite easily. It really beats me why he didn't fix it properly because all the others have been fixed correctly, maybe it was one of his offsiders when he was away.
Building the stone around the frames seems like the better approach, he actually did it the other way, first built the stone wall then put in the door frame which explains why its been cut to fit around the rock and looks very uneven. Once I remove the frame I guess I will have to cut the rock so I can install a proper frame for the door then fill the gap with mortar. SHould there be any material between the mortar and the wooden door frame, I can imagine that the wood would soak up water from the mortar and cause it to shrink and crack.
William
ps. thanks for that link, I only wish I had that guy doing my walls...
Count me amoung those who consider this substandard. Thjaat rock wall pulling out says to me tht he knew less about quality maasonry than about any kind of carpentry. He missed the basics....
If there were a proper footing or brickledge supporting the wall it would not try to pull away.
and
if he had bothered to use ties, the frame wall behind it would have held it in place. 50% chance that masonry wall needs to be totaally rebuilt to save it
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