We have a contractor building a set of concrete steps outside of our house (will be leading to a new French door whenever we get the door). They are using a bunch of left over bricks as filler they told us, and will rebar between them. They said they are doing this to save us money on filling it up.
Is this just a dumb idea (my gut tells me yes) or is it pretty stable?
I just don't want to get hoodwinked.
The bricks are very dense and make a good fill.
Not having the steps covered does not make them structural. Structural is something that supports something else.
If you don't want the bricks to be used for fill ( I don't understand why not), tell the contractor and ask how much more the job will cost. (You may change your mind when you hear the extra cost.)
To offset the extra cost tell the contractor to leave the bricks and you can sell them. Bricks can bring a good price in some areas.
You can fill the whole void with the concrete but that will be expensive. So hard fill is usually used for this purpose. But it is compacted in layers. If it is not compacted then the floor needs to be a self supporting or floating. This requires extra steel and Engineer's design, which does not save you money.
While bricks are okay, the ground under them should have been compacted first. Reinforcing between them will help. But the danger is that the weight of the concrete may cause the soil to compact/subside, possibly leading to cracks.
It may work out well, if they fill in the gaps with metal (crushed rock or similar) and then compact the whole area on top of the bricks.
Laid flat and level they won't cause an issue , if they're just thrown in then over time materials will find there way into any voids causing things to move
Bricks are a good filler for concrete, but they should be put into the concrete, not piled up then having concrete poured over them.
Right now you will have pile of unstable bricks with concrete cap over them - unless concrete will be very runny, it is not going to fill spaces between.
I don't see any scaffolding outlining the final staircase - are they going to put it up later or just shape concrete by hand?
It would be good to have the ground compacted and levelled first.
Whole bricks should not be used like that, they should be broken up so that they lock together as a rigid base.
Get rid of bricks. Reinforcement in brickwork will achieve nothing. How is the concrete going to flow and to what purpose?? Insist your contractor does the job properly. It shouldn't cost you an additional penny/cent. Your contractor is trying to save money by doing substandard work and leaving you with a long term liability. From a retired civil engineer
This is the worst job I have ever witnessed in my life. Your contractor has no idea how much damage is doing to you. The concrete that he will put on top will crack to pieces, as he will not reinforce it with it with steel mesh and will not be even and with unstable base that will collapse and or move from the rain. When it cracks you will have water penetrating below the surface.
You need to engage a professional concreter. You need to build proper compacted foundations, concrete steel boundaries, use 100 mm thick concrete slab 25 mpa, It's the power of concrete measured and with 10mm thick steel steel mesh.
Take the bricks away and dismiss your builder, if that’s his/her standard of workmanship you don’t want them anywhere near your property, save a penny spend a pound.
