Any advice on brick walls please?

[JMC]

Hello...

In front of one side of my house is a rectangle of soil, about 10x12 feet in size, on very slightly rising ground (rising as you go away from the house, that is).

The soil is bounded on one side by my house, on one side by a path to my front door, and on the other 2 sides by a row of thin "edging bricks" (just one deep) set into the hard stony ground. These bricks barely protrude above the surface. On the other side of these bricks is a shared gravel drive.

I would like to build a 5'5" wall on top of the edging bricks to enclose 2 sides of the rectangle of soil. This is just a privacy thing; the wall would not be supporting anything (except a few plant pots on the top).

A few questions for anyone out there please:

1. I would need to get "old bricks", because my house, although not old, was made of really nice old mellow bricks recovered (I think) from the really old building it replaced. I think brand-new bricks for the wall would clash with the bricks of the rest of the house, but where can I get more of these old bricks? Is there a market for them?

1. Because the edging bricks are thinner than the standard bricks I want to build on top of them, the brickie would have to lay a bit of cement or something next to the edging bricks - but otherwise would the edging bricks be sufficient foundation? The wall would only be one brick thick, and would not need to support a roof, etc.

2. Very roughly how much should the whole thing cost - the bricks, hiring a brickie, and bearing in mind that the rectangle of soil is actually slighly irregurlary shaped, so the wall would have to be as well, and that the soil is on slightly rising ground.

1. Am I right in thinking that I don't need planning permission for this if the wall is under 6 feet, even though I am in a conservation area?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

[N. Thornton]

I couldnt figure that out at all. Perhaps a diagram would help.

reclamation yards, architectural salvage, yes theyre readily available

- take along a brick you want to match them to, I would not suggest going by memory.

no

Regards, NT

[Andrew Gabriel]

It's most unlikely this row of edging bricks has any footings, unless it was once a tall wall. A 5'5" brick wall with no footings (foundations) will crack and eventually fall over. I would assume you have to start from scratch, digging up the existing wall, digging a trench of appropriate depth and pouring in concrete, and then building the new wall on that.

[The Natural Philosopher]

You can try a recalim yard. They specialise in very expensive old brocks.

However there are many modern bricka made that are good enough and pretty enough and cheap enough to dop the job. You can also mix various colours for interesting effects. Ive got reclaimed tudor bricks (£1 each)in the house, but I used something called Essex reds for the chimneys, and some rather nice bricks my father in law had left over from a house he built in 1956, for a garden wall. The foundations are stock cheapo bricks and concrete block is sued wherever its below ground as well.

I would strongly advise you dig down at least 3-4 inches, and lay a cement foundation. And build double brick. It simply look better and is less prone to falling over if you lean hard on it. And you can croiss bond it. My garden wall reatins soli, and is double, and although I used concrete block below ground, teh result is as strong as if it ghad ben doule brijk throughout, cos I tied every course togeher and tied across the two courses with steel ties.

With dounble brck you van lay the top course on edge across the wall to show faces all round. It looks good.

Dunno. Did mine myself. Sounds like 2-3 days all in all, so probably

300-500 wuid.

Matrials will not be vast. Lesds than £100 I'd say

I think you are correct.

I would say this is a highly doa-ble DIY project tho.

wwww.pavingexpert.com is your friend.

[Nick Brooks]

JMC wrote: snip

snip

As others have said you will be able to get old bricks from a reclamation yard. I use the one in Frome, Somerset BUT expect at least

30% of the ones they deliver to be useless.

Many will be soft/frost damaged and when build up into a wall will spall at the first sign of frost.

Nick Brooks

[IMM]

New bricks are available that have the old weathered look. I see no point in using old bricks at all, when a cheaper less hassle method is available that gives the same look. Use lime mortar with old looking new bricks. Very few can tell the difference.