DIY Brickwork

woody7777

First post. I was thinking about building a garden wall in the rear garden. A good friend has offered to give me some old bricks which she has in her garden.
Has anybody on here done any DIY bricklaying and is it difficult? I am interested in learning a new skill. The wall will be about 6 meters long and 1 meter tall.

Grenage

I built a brick BBQ with no experience; it looks pretty good.

Getting the mix right is the first hurdle; I think the main difference between DIY and professional is speed.  A professional brickie is very quick.

woody7777

Thank you for the prompt reply. What is the correct mix? Also what tools would I buy?

Grenage

Well it's 4 parts sand to one cement normally, but if the bricks are softer then you might use 5 parts.  I'm sure one of the more seasoned fellows will chime in.

When I say getting the mix right, I mean the right amount of water so that the mortar handles well.  There are plenty of videos online.

Obviously you'd need to sort the footings before you even started the wall, and decide if it was going to be half or full brick depth.  Then there are the piers.

Tools wise you don't need much; you could use a paddle mixer in a drill (or mix with a spade).  A trowel is your main tool.

I'd highly recommend reading up and watching a few videos online.  The laying of bricks is not too complicated if you aren't in a hurry.

tacpot12

You could try a Bricky from https://bricky.com/    There are some good videos of how to use them on YouTube. 

woody7777

Thank you for the link tacpot12. Have you used this tool?

grumbler

Grenage said:

Tools wise you don't need much; you could use a paddle mixer in a drill (or mix with a spade).  A trowel is your main tool.

IMO, paddle mixer doesn't work well for mortar. And for a beginner it's worth starting with mixing smaller amounts with a trowel. Say, 5 trowels of sand.

If bricks are very absorbent and your speed is low, it's easier to work if you wet them well.

Good foundation is needed if you want the wall to last. And for a 6m wall I'd make at least one movement gap with sliding movement ties.

A pillar or a corner is needed at each side of the wall or a wall starter kit if the wall starts from another one.

What's the purpose of 1m high wall in the rear garden? Any chance it has to retain something? In this case it's a different story.

shinytop

woody7777 said:

First post. I was thinking about building a garden wall in the rear garden. A good friend has offered to give me some old bricks which she has in her garden.
Has anybody on here done any DIY bricklaying and is it difficult? I am interested in learning a new skill. The wall will be about 6 meters long and 1 meter tall.

In my experience I find the bricklaying bit isn't too hard (although I'm very slow) but the pointing is an absolute burger to get right. 

tacpot12

woody7777 said:

Thank you for the link tacpot12. Have you used this tool?

I've not used the tool, but the videos do seem to show that even amateurs can get a decent result. I do quite a bit of DIY, but have never been good at bricklaying. If I had to build a wall from scratch it's the only way I would consider doing it.

woody7777

grumbler, it is not a retaining wall, just one at the end of the garden where the fence is falling apart. 
What is that movement gap for?

neilmcl

tacpot12 said:

woody7777 said:

Thank you for the link tacpot12. Have you used this tool?

I've not used the tool, but the videos do seem to show that even amateurs can get a decent result. I do quite a bit of DIY, but have never been good at bricklaying. If I had to build a wall from scratch it's the only way I would consider doing it.

A "decent" result would be pushing it. You simply don't get a decent mortar bond with this tool despite what the videos show. I've seen a few garden walls, my neighbour's being one good example, that have been built using the bricky tool and have failed within a year.