Building a breeze block wall

[mo]

Hi All

Wondering if anyone can give me tips with a small project.

I have an issue in my garden whereby I had a patio laid down, then had a small brick wall built and then had some turf laid.

The issue is that the wall itself is a bit rubbish and is starting to fall apart. Having spoken to a bricklayer by chance today he was explaining to me about using breezeblocks to build a wall and then covering with proper bricks or just rendering the whole thing.

I have decided I want to build a breezeblock wall that is maybe 2 -3 blocks high and 2 blocks out - which can then be used as seating

Current wall picture here:

do not believe the grass/mud is putting any pressure on the wall because it was filled in afterwards and is actually sloping away from the wall.

My questions are:

a) what is the best type of breeze block to use for this job? There are so many

b) the bricklayer was explaining that you leave a gap beteen the blocks (so sort of 2 walls) but you can put something in between them to make it stronger - any ideas?

c) One problem I have with the patio is drainage, as you can see with the current wall I have drilled a couple of holes on the floor level which allows some water to go behind the wall into the mud. I would like to make a better job of it this time - any ideas? I was thinking of drilling some bigger holes into the bottom of the breezeblock and having plastic piping going into the mud...

d) I plan to render the wall whe nfinished - any part that is visible - but what about the back facing the mud - will it be OK left untouched or will it need somesort of weatherproofing? bearing in my it could be wet a lot of the time!

Any other things I should consider?

[sm_jamieson]

Forget the term breeze block - it means different things to different people. I would use dense concrete blocks - they are pretty heavy. They are a light grey colour. Definitely do NOT use aircrete (thermalite, celcon etc).

Build it like a narrow bathtub, and fill with concrete.

If you are draining from the patio through the wall onto the grass, you can build in some square ducting (e.g. square drainpipe) right though the wall. Or put a drain on the patio side of the wall and pipe it to a soakaway etc. Whatever, make sure the patio slopes slightly towards the drain.

Dense blocks will be fine and can just be painted. Render is OK but will not last forever with freeze / thaw cycles in the winter. Make sure a coping stone is on top, to stop water running down behind the render.

I still think a brick wall can look better. Use engineering bricks and a coping stone on top.

Either way, foundations are required. Dig a trench and fill with concrete and build off that. Really deeper the better. Down a foot would be nice. If doing it with 2 sides and concrete infill, you can even build in some rebar to link with the concrete centre of the wall.

Many other possibilities.

Simon.

[Tabby]

is this because it was built on top of the slabs? It needs a foundation if its to last.

You can do, but its never going to look as good as bricks. Pick your bricks with care, appearance makse all the difference.

ditto, any dense blocks.

yup. Or to be cheap you could bung in alternate layers of concrete and hardcore.

just leave some vertical joints unfilled. Much easier. Also putting gravel behind the wall helps with drainage. But with a double skin 3 brick high wall I dont see this being much of an issue.

Honestly I'd avoid render. Render means ongoing maintenance, both painting and occasionally rerendering. Brick doesnt need this. If you're determined to save time & money by using blocks, you could just flush point them and paint. Its lightweight blocks that must be rendered outside.

yes, but I cant see that being needed.

NT

[Tabby]

One other point: if using brick, you can use a bond that interlinks the 2 wall leaves using bricks. You only need use a small number of bricks that connect the leaves together.

Its also possible to do this using block for the rear leaf, just filling the resulting holes in the block leaf with mortar.

NT

[dennis]

Its only 12" high and you say the ground slopes away at the rear so its not actually retaining much.

I would be tempted to dig a trench behind it, build you new skin behind the existing one and then fill with concrete using the existing brick work as the facing.

If you want higher seating you can always raise it up using timber which is much nicer to sit on than concrete blocks.

While you are digging the trench put some soakaways in to stop the grass being mud.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Real breeze blocks haven't been used since 1920-1930's. Both breeze blocks and clinker blocks which replaced them can leach out nasty chemicals when they get wet. Breeze eventually fall to bits if kept wet (depends what particular chemical process ash/effluent was used to make them, and how much soluable material was present).