graybird

any qualified bricklayers near lake balaton ? hungury

Jack_Russells4ever

There may well be but if their are expect them to be very busy (as in they are booked well over a year in advance), very expensive and difficult to find. You could try Facebook Marketplace if your on there. If you are expecting the UK standard of quality masonry here in Hungary you will likely be left disappointed. Most of the brick work being done I have seen is at about the level I would expect from a couple of young kids playing around with their fathers equipment. I call it the daub and stack method, forget about uniform mortar joints and pointing their work. Sorry to be a pessimist but the standards here are lacking. Most of the best tradesmen are working around the Budapest area.

Peter_in_Hungary

Welcome
How is your Hungarian? What do you mean by 'near lake Balaton' ?
The trade you are looking for is a kőműves
What Jack said is about right, having said that most of the building here is done in block work which is then rendered. Generally people don't use UK standard type of bricks (Hungarian = kis méretű tégla) because of expense and where they are used they will also be rendered over so the need for precise (decorative?) brick laying is not generally there. Don't expect you average Hungarian brick layer to be versed in the various brick bonds you see in the UK because they are just not used.
Perhaps some clarification - What are you planning to do that needs a bricklayer?

duztee

Ah! Jack I didn't know you had seen the bare walls in my attic space!
Fair bet all the rest of the house is of the same quality you mentioned, all covered with a thick coat of plaster, which would be ok if the quality of plaster wasn't just as poor. Most of mine is now not much better than dried toothpaste.

But this seems to be the norm in this country, like the joke of a guarantee.
I had 14 new windows and 4 doors fitted (very cheap even tho' they were quality) German made - 10 year guarantee. Pointless since the company packed up the following year.
New roof 2 years ago, they also stopped trading shortly after.
Fitted kitchen, - shop now closed.
Or am I just a Jonas that bankrupts all the people who come to do work here?

Jack_Russells4ever

I feel your pain Duztee, I also seem to attract tradesmen on the verge of collapse or outright criminal in behaviour. I had a so called contractor last year scam me out of almost 950K forint for materials and no one wants to do anything about it. I had a contract and the Rendorszeg wouldn't help, several attorneys said they would take the case but be prepared to upfront pay almost 400K forint and also told me the contractor had a reputation for doing this and I would probably never get my money back even if I prevailed . I am handicapped now and my handicap is progressively getting worse and I struggle now to even keep my house clean. I love Hungary and do not regret moving here but getting anything done and it turning out right is 50/50 at best.

Peter_in_Hungary

I have never paid upfront for either materials or labour. If a tradesman wants the materials on site before they commit to starting then I buy the materials and have them delivered. The labour, I always pay in arrears sometimes at agreed points if it is a long job and sometimes at the end but never in advance of the work.
And Builders here are no different to builders in the UK, they will cut corners where they think they can get away with it and as long as the top layer looks OK then no one is bothered what is underneath - except I do and watch what they are doing to make sure it is done properly. (But that assumes you know what should be done and luckily I do)

Jack_Russells4ever

The only reason I gave the contractor money up front was to pay for some expensive custom made oak doors and windows for my barn and the builder of them would not make them without the money up front. My mistake was trusting the contractor to order the windows and doors from the money I gave him up front. He did not. I will not make that mistake again. ANY tradesman I hire in the future gets NO money upfront for materials or labor. I will order the material myself and insist they be delivered to me and the contractor will not be allowed to pick up anything or order materials and charge them to me. Unfortunately I still have to purrchase the doors and windows again. So that job probably is not going to happen for a couple more years now. I am having other projects done now. You live and learn sometimes the hard way.

wolfi

This can of course happen anywhere so being a bit cautious is necessary. Paying only for the materials in advance is a good idea and then maybe paying more of the agreed sum as the work progresses.
We also ask our neighbours which tradesmen to trust, since we have very good relations with them at our new home too this has helped us to avoid costly mistakes.
Only directly after we moved here near Esztergom did we have a problem with one of those "ezermesters".
On the other hand you have to understand the tradesmen.
Near Hévíz we had a total idiot of a neighbour (a Hungarian). He would have people do some projects and when they were finished he wouldn't pay the agreed price - subtract 10 or 20% or more ...
After some time he was known for this so no one in the village would work for him, he had to get people from afar and that cost him extra money, paying for travel time etc.
I still remember when he came one day asking for help, really desperate because there of an electric fault, fridge no longer working, no phone ...
So my wife called our electrician and he asked about the fault. When she said it was a problem of our neighbour he laughed and said:
Tell him I'll come in the afternoon - but only if he pays me the difference of the last work I did and he also has to pay for this work in advance ...
So of course he had to get someone else.

mandst1499

Where about's on Balaton? What is the job?
I know a VERY reliable, English builder on the south side, who works to English standards and does everything from fitting kitchens/ bathrooms / tiling / plumbing / decking/ summer houses / extensions etc.

xavierx

I have seen a lot of unfinished expensive properties for sale. The brickwork is hilarious! The walls are not even close to being flat, and you should not be able to see daylight through a wall surely? 😂🤣

Jack_Russells4ever

Compared to some the work in this photo looks pretty good. Definitely not up to standards in the UK and elsewhere but there is much worse out there.

I am no mason but some I have seen are so bad even I could have at least matched their work. I am now disabled but when I was still able to work I could have done as well as many I see here. Anyone just about can do daub and stack here and call themself a mason. Most of these clowns would not be allowed in the UK to be a fetch it boy on a worksite.

Peter_in_Hungary

Walls should be acceptably flat but mortar is not always necessary between the blocks (but needed between the courses. In fact the Porotherm blocks (the most popular in use here) are actually designed not to have mortar between the blocks however proper rendering is needed, not 5mm of plaster but 15 - 20mm cement/sand render.

In UK houses I have seen cavity walls where the inner leaf blocks had big gaps in the mortar right through to the cavity and when you combine this with ventilated cavities and dot and dab plaster board finish then the thermal properties of such a wall are beyond a joke. Luckily Hungary doesn't have cavity walls.

The wall in the photo looks like B30 blocks which could mean it was built some time ago or by a self builder. Builders today don't use B30 (30cm thick) but bigger blocks because they are quicker to lay and get closer to the thermal demands for a modern building. The ceiling by the way looks to be a standard concrete beam and block which will have (should have) 5cm of concrete screed on top. This is the standard way of doing a ceiling/floor. Ground floors are usually insulated slabs.

There is and always has been far more self build happening here than in the UK. Time was when self build was almost the norm and a plot would be bought and then the house built by family and friends as funds allowed often with the structure up, roof on and ground floor made habitable, then people moved in and the outside rendering and first floor done as money was found - often years later.

Self build accounts for a lot of the bad brickwork done here. (Rendering was often done by a professional as it hides a multitude of sins).

duztee

The other important thing to check is how square or more likely unsquare the rooms are.
Gets annoying quickly when a tile floor is laid and the grout line can never be matched to a wall, either gradually getting closer or farther away. The sneaky solution often used is to lay tiles in a diagonal pattern. so if you go into a room with this pattern then you can bet it is not totally square without even measuring.
Also a pain when large items of furniture will not fit properly into a corner, or have a gap at the top or bottom of high cabinets because the wall leans.

Manel

Hello, could I have the contact of the builder, please?

Cheers
Jordi

mandst1499

I've sent you a PM