Twelve Weeks
We chose a black (ish) brick! Hurraaah!
Said black brick has a twelve week lead time…. F$%!!
We’re now into week 7 of the build (does the concept of time still make any sense to you?) and our team is moving a lot smoother and faster than we had anticipated. They have navigated the most risky and unknown part of the build, and managed to dig up the ground and put in a basement without discovering an ancient pond or an undetonated World War II bomb.
Our nemesis right now is lead times.
The pandemic forced the temporary closure of brick manufactures kilns across the UK and Europe and promises of bricks from certain suppliers soon vanished. The kilns now seem to be firing back up, but that still leaves us with these long lead times.
Waiting 12 weeks for bricks could likely mean having to hire scaffolding for significantly longer than we had budgeted… and scaffolding, I’m now learning, is inexplicably expensive. A 12 week delay would also mean that we’d have to extend our party wall agreements with our neighbours and would likely have to fork out more cash for surveyor fees.
As a result we’ve been scrambling for reasonable ‘plan b’ black bricks that match up with our design intent, our bank account and our timings.
‘Brisbane XLDF shaded smooth’, you are the winner.
Recipient of my daughters gold star of approval
