DIY Garden bed brick wall

Fwarder

Hi All,

at the moment I'm redoing my small back garden here in Cork. In it, I have two raised garden beds. Since the wooden sleepers are completely rotten and barely hanging out there, I've decided to replace them with a small foot high (~30-35cm of the ground level) brick wall.

Of course as it goes, I've never done it myself so this one would be the first one so I'm looking for an instructions and help (i.e. advice, maybe where to source mortar, sand etc cheaper etc.).

At the moment I was thinking about getting a concrete type of a brick (more precisely Roadstone's Huntstown brick). From what I've read I would also need a 1ft x 1ft foundation for that made out of concrete. And If I understood correctly it would be advisable to start with a corners first (and build between them then? In addition to that, would I need a0nything else (well except for the trowel, rope, rubber hammer, chisel for cutting those bricks, sledgehammer and spirit lever).

Thanks for all your help It is definitely appreciated

May Contain Small Parts

Just keep in mind that you're building a retaining wall here!

Calahonda52

OP: IMO stick with the timber option, lots of heartache if you don't know what you are about.

Fwarder

Hi all.

In the end I went with the brick wall. If I would have to do it again, I probably wouldn't Digging out the trench for the foundation, mixing the concrete by hand, levelling the first row of bricks...let's just say I had fun with it.

The end result is really really nice, but the hassle of doing it, and especially since I hadn't done it before...that's something else.

Now the second garden bed awaits

I would post pictures but I still don't have 5 replys

maxamillius

I’d be interested in seeing this

wait4me

:Me too - that's 4

GrumpyMe

Mambo No. 5
https://youtu.be/EK_LN3XEcnw

Lumen

I built three x one foot high "retaining" walls from oak sleepers. Took an hour or so.

I'm sure your brick one is much nicer though. Looking forward to pics.

vicwatson

Lumen wrote: »

I built three x one foot high "retaining" walls from oak sleepers. Took an hour or so.

I'm sure your brick one is much nicer though. Looking forward to pics.

How much the oak sleepers?

Lumen

vicwatson wrote: »

How much the oak sleepers?

€23.50 each (2000mm x 200mm x 100mm) incl. VAT but before discounts and shipping.

Worked out at €800 for 30 delivered. The 9 I used for the "walls" were using up the leftovers from another project.

They are arranged as a sort of partial terrace across a slope. I plan to eventually raise the ground level but needed to get some trees planted at the final level since they can't easily be raised.

Eventually I hope to re-do the walls using brick or dry stone. It's on my list...

On the subject of brick walls, I was going to build some myself but was talked out of it by my civil engineer/builder uncle who reckoned I'd mess it up. :rolleyes:

edit: pic..

Fwarder

I attached pictures to this reply...I hope

P.s. whole garden is one big work in progress...painting the shed, fence, garden bed, invisible slabs, refreshing the lawn...everything

Dr Turk Turkelton

Fwarder wrote: »

I attached the pictures to this reply...I hope

P.s. whole garden is one big work in progress...painting the shed, fence, garden bed, invisible slabs, refreshing the lawn...everything

Wow that brickwork looks really good. Take a bow son.

cletus

Very tasty work there

Alkers

Care to post the guide you followed? Looks really well!

Fwarder

Thanks all!

Simona1986 wrote: »

Care to post the guide you followed? Looks really well!

Regarding the guide I didn't follow any of them to the letter. There is I guess "Brickwork for apprentices" book and numerous Youtube videos. With the first one being really really thorough for your average DIY job, and the latter one being a bit too simple (i.e. take concrete, pour it, take brick, put it in a straight line and ta-daaa you've got yourself a brick wall). So some balance between them would be ideal.

Basically, foundation trench should be 3 times the width of the wall and ~2bricks deep. Concrete (foundations) should be mixed in 1:2:3 cement/sand/aggregate ratio. My mortar mix ("brick glue") was 1:3 cement/sand + tiny amounts of plasticizer (instructions on the plasticizer itself). Regarding the water for all of that: just enough so the mix is workable. Not too dry, not too watery. That water ratio takes practice to figure out. Good starting point for water would be ~0.4 times the cement. And you pour it 2/3 immediately and then just work the mix and add slowly the last 1/3 as necessary. If you over do it (water), add some additional dry ingredients to the mix

Two main tools are trowel and bubble level. And rubber hammer to get bricks aligned nicely And shovel/pickaxe for the trench (I did it with homestore 1e small gardening tools and wouldnt recommend that method). Of course bolster and club hammer as well for splitting bricks in half.

Between the foundation and bricklaying wait a day or two or three for foundation to harden up. When you're done with the brickwork, wait just a bit (in a matter of minutes, not days) for mortar to settle down a bit, scrape off some mortar with the pointer or screwdriver or spoon or whatever, and brush the whole wall to get those indentations between the bricks and remove the mortar particles.

I guess that would be it. This is not a official guide nor is it probably the way to do it by the book but it worked for me. I'm not a professional nor an apprentice brickworker so probably they would have a better set of instructions and how to do it, what (not) to do, how to mix etc. Especially since up until last week I didn't work with a brick or cement at all

dok_golf

Fwarder wrote: »

I attached pictures to this reply...I hope

P.s. whole garden is one big work in progress...painting the shed, fence, garden bed, invisible slabs, refreshing the lawn...everything

looks great, well done!