I'm struggling on a basic brickwork design to replace an old boundary fence. The wall I wish to build would be stretcher bond double skin, comprising of double attach piers and end piers. The part I'm I having problem with is the brickwork for the piers, as I wish for the stretcher main part of the wall to join the piers in the middle and the piers must be 327mm (1.5 bricks)
got it! Reverse this pattern every course and it'll all bond nicely. Not one of the easier puzzles. I might use a fill of mortar where the half brick is.
Thanks for the reply, looking through my notes (A load of A4 sheets taken from the printer !) that was one idea. I've updated the URL with a new pic. It's just that I wished for the double skin stretcher to join the pier in the middle. i.e. central to it This is purely for design though, so if I were to build your suggestion I'd build the piers pointing towards my own land. This is so I'm able to add some fancing coping to the stretcher wall inbetween.
The only way youre going to do that is if you slice bricks in half down the middle, and use those half bricks all over the place. A recipe for instability I'd imagine, not how I'd want to build a supporting pier. Ss eml could be included in the piers to resist brick shift and thus improve stability.
The other way would be to use cast concrete piers. Making them pretty is a challenge, but perfectly doable if youre willing to spend some extra time on them.
The final option would be to use stone cut for the job, but not cheap. Or possibly concrete blocks sawn to fit, but more work and hard to make them look good, uneles you just go for a lime plaster finish on the piers.
I'm here, sorry for the lack of feedback. Whilst reading up on people's comments I've also been canvassing peoples views in the office. I'll provide and fuller update and review of suggestions tonight.
The metal ties option maybe a goer, but just with a slight modification as a friends Dad mentioned Wickes sell something that is bolted to the pier and has ties attached to that.
A further review and yet more poxy sketches to come :-)
First thought is why the wall's stretcher bond - is it to match existing brickwork? I'm probably going to be replacing a fence with a 1/2 wall, 1/2 fence, with piers arrangement this year & I'm going with english bond or english wall bond & 1 1/2 brick piers. I've planned to build the piers hollow & then fill with mortar & reinforcing rod for additional strenght.
From memory,
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has some guidance on wall construction which may be of some use.
yep, thats an option, the use of ss EML on each layer might also be an optoin. Those adjustable metal things seem a lot of dough for what little they are. Some 2-3mm ss wire would be way less.
Briefly...
the only ways to do it with bricks are:
to slice bricks in half long ways, and use them all over the place in the piers. This would lead to instability in the brickwork. This could be countered to a probably satisfactory extent by including full width EML between every layer, to tie everything together. Must be ss, not galv. But all this would not be my choice.
to just butt the bricks up and use ss eml at every mortar layer. Cant say Im overly keen on that either.
as 2 but using 2-3mm ss wire: strong and stable. Use the wire cross ply style to prevent movement. Ready made ss wall ties might fit the bill.
To use cast crete piers. The challenge is then how to make them look good. Lime plastering the piers would be the simplest option, with decorative stone inlay being a fancier one: terrazzo being its finest incarnation.
to use stones cut to fit everything - not cheap I assume.
or to make life easy and do 18" brick piers instead of 13.
I'm liking the metal wall plate / ties idea (ss EML), and now also a fence fill
o Loads less cuts (Tidier, more stable) o Less cuts = less mistakes = less money ;-)
Yet more details at : (Scroll to the foot of the page)
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for various subscribers to the "Brick wall design" uk.d-i-y Team ! o I'm Ok with ss being Stainless Steel, but what does EML stand for ? o For the height I'm working to (See URL above) 13 bricks (~1 metre) what would the cost of 4 ss EMLs be ?
-> Note, it's now ~1 metre due to a fence filler panel - Diagram at the foot of the URL o Filling a hollow pier, what's the detail on performing this ?
-> E.g. Is it still a 1:5 ratio, does the mortar mix need to have more water mixed in so to make sure it fills up nicely ?
...and to share some of the more useful URLs I found on the web :
1 metre high? EML comes in sheet 2.5m x .7m, cut it with tinsnips. You can work out how many pier and a bit sized pieces you can cut out of a sheet, and thus how many courses up a sheet wil take you. My idea was to put a flat piece of it in each mortar course to bond wall to pier, the eml piece would be the size of the pier cross section plus 8" into the walls.
I'd use 3 sand, 1 cement, 8 stone. 1:5 would be much weaker. Stiffer mixes would shrink during setting, which is no good in contact with a solid brick wall. Its also an opportunity to put some ss metal in there if you want the wall bombproof.
If you just want to use whatever mortar youre doing the wall with, and cant be --ed to mix a separate batch, 3:1 is good for everything, no stone.
Why use a bolted-on metal plate when you can just sandwich some EML or wire ties between the courses of the pier and the wall? Surely the bolt-on stuff is for tying a new wall to an existing one, when it would be difficult to fix normal ties in the old brickwork?
Hi, Another round of replies, thanks for all your help. Looking at the times they came through, does anyone sleep ?
bigcat : less cuts of what?
-> God, you don't follow my chain of thought when I don't explain myself ? jj
-> The less cuts thought was in relation to the building of the pier.
bigcat : My idea was to put a flat piece of it in each mortar course to bond wall to pier, the eml piece would be the size of the pier cross section plus 8" into the walls.
-> A very good idea, it might have been mentioned before, but I'd not thought it through by that time.
bigcat : Thanks for the ratios on the pier mortar fills. Bombproof might not be a necessity,
but I like the sound of it. :-)
Rob : Surely the bolt-on stuff is for tying a new wall to an existing one, when it would be difficult to fix normal ties in the old brickwork?
-> Fair point, bigcat's idea above covers this one.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Thanks to everyone that has entertained my questions and crappie sketches. But without the sketches showing what I intended to do, it would have taken up a fair few lines of text. I was planning to start next week but laying bricks at 5C (If we're lucky) just wouldn't suite my soft office keyboard hands. That and the confidence to order up 700+ bricks and materials.
If it's ok with everyone ... I'll grab your email address and then send you all an email at a later date with a URL that'll hopefully show you my masterpiece.
if its vulnerable to a car hit, bombproof can be useful. Only needs a steel rod up each column. But dont make the mistake of using anything less than ss.
Really not recommended. Suggest posting pic on site, and link here.
Now, quit moaning about the cold and go build! Its very satisfying you know, once you start seeing progress. Good gloves should keep you warm.
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