These Materials must be chosen to suit the area in which your home is being built and have to be agreed with the planning officer

Storage

• Always keep your bricks, blocks and sand covered when on your site. Store cement in a dry space, on pallets.

• Stack bricks for use by taking them from a mix of packs in order to avoid problems with slightly different shades or colours.

Types of Brick

• Faced bricks: common clay bricks that have a sand face added to them, providing a weathering surface.

• Stock bricks: dense clay hard fired bricks that are suitable for most applications.

• Handmade bricks: made from clay thrown by hand into a mould to create the desired textures.

• Engineering bricks: very hard bricks used in high load bearing situations and in manhole construction.

• The timber structure is independent of brickwork claddings

Tile Hanging

• When tile hanging, it is highly advisable to carry out the vertical tiling before finishing the roof. This is because access can be very limited after fitting the roof tiling and make for awkward detailing

Roof Finishes

Tiles

May be clay or concrete; plain or profiled

• Interlocking concrete tiles are large format tiles that are generally the most cost effective.

• Plain tiles may be concrete or clay and they cover an average of sixty to the square metre, and so have a consequential increased labour cost. Plain tiles are often used for tile hanging

Slate

May be stone, quarried slate or man made

• Man-made slates are available and are made from either fibre and cement or moulded with a mixture of slate dust and glass fibre resin.

Fixing

• Potton houses can accommodate most types of roof covering. If you intend to use natural or man-made slate it is important that details are agreed prior to the frame construction.

• Tiled roofs will require nailing according to the exposure rating and the manufacturer’s recommendations.

• As soon as the tilers have finished, decorate the facia and fix the guttering prior to the scaffolding coming down.