There’s been a real problem getting second hand red bricks – ours were ordered in December, and they’ve just turned up this week (June) . The builders did suggest that we went with readily available new bricks that are tumbled and painted to look second hand but we didn’t like the look of them. They looked like what they were – fake. We did find some fantastic new bricks made by a company in South Australia, but their lead time was just as bad. And they were more expensive.
Since we first looked at second hand bricks 18 months ago, they’ve gone from $1.1/brick to $1.9/brick. No wonder our house price went up while we were waiting for planning.
We had hoped to be able to pick the bricks (or the building they were to come from), but we had to take anything we were given, if we stayed with the second hand bricks. So we’ve been really worried that they would be bright red clinkers, instead of soft pink tumbled… But the bricks are here and they’re pretty much what we hoped for. Phew. So happy,
And then the builders asked us to supply water during the build – I guess they will need it for the mortar. But they’re supplying the water tank and services for the house – the house roof and shed are up, so the water catchment is in place, so if they installed the water tank, they would have ample water. Some notes on the water tank selection, supply and treatment here.
No one had ever mentioned temporary water supply to us (just temporary power), we objected, and they’ve agreed to supply their own water. But its certainly something to consider – an additional cost for building offgrid or requires some careful scheduling. Install your water tank early!
Off Grid Living - Building the Dream 