Driveways York – Create a Garden Feature to Compliment Your Patio.
A great way to dress your outdoor paving is to create a garden wall for your driveways York. It will break up the different areas of your garden, making a more interesting space. The time to compliment your driveways York will only be a couple of weekends and you can create this from as little as 60p per brick. So it’s well worth investing in.
Driveways York should be planned carefully. If you are planning to build your wall next to a footpath or highway, then 1m is the max height possible. This way you won’t have to apply for planning permission. 2m is acceptable when building anywhere else. But for clarification, see the government’s planning portal which will give you exact details for your build.
How many bricks will you need
How many bricks you will need, depends on the number of courses or rows you plan to build and how the bricks will be laid out. These can be done as either headers which are bricks laid out with their shorted end facing out, or stretchers, which are bricks long side facing long side out.
The foundations need to be strong, to make the wall as strong as possible and you must take your time in getting it right. The width and height of the wall will decide the foundations depth. A one layer skin wall which stands up to 1m will need a footing of 6″ deep and 12″ wide. You will need to allow an extra 4″ if the soil it is sitting on is clay because with water, the ground may swell up. To make sure the subsoil is not too loose, dig a little deeper and put down some compacted hardcore to create a sturdy base. Walls which are only 3 or 4 courses/levels in height, prepared concrete bricks or a shallower footing are just fine.
When laying the concrete footing, make sure you mark an area out which outlines the wall on the ground, using a string attached to poles. You can then dig the area out directly under the string. Watch out for drain covers and be careful about removing any tree roots you may find.
Now it’s time to mix the concrete, which will be five parts sand and gravel (ballast) and one part cement. When you add water you will create a rich consistency of the concrete. You can alternatively use a ready-made concrete mixture. Pour your concrete into the area, making sure it sits at the correct height. Drying time will be a few days and remember to always wear protective gear, like goggles, mask or gloves.
Driveways York
When laying that first course of bricks, to ensure that they are completely level. If not, then the wall will be really unstable. The process is as follows:
- At each end of the area footing, you will need to fix some profile boards. You can do this by hammering 2 pegs in the ground with a horizontal pole put in at about 2 block courses high between them both. Now you need to pull the two strings tightly from one board to the other, measuring a brick width apart.
- The bricks can then be laid in place without any mortar to check on their positioning. When you need to create a ‘pier’, you need to start with the first course by laying each brick at right angles to the header, with one of the ends flush with the face of the wall. You will see that the end pier is a square section of two bricks laid side by side with the main area flush with one side of that pier. Cut off a half brick to lay in the area between the pier header and the main wall on the first course. This will create a squared section.
- Using a brick trowel, put an amount of the mortar at the end of the footing of the pier. Layer with 10mm of mortar to each of the first five bricks. Make sure any ‘frog’ you may lay is facing upwards.
- Continually check your work with a spirit level and that the strings of the boards are straight. Continue this along the course edging one brick to another. Bond each brick with the previous one.
- Scrape away the excess mortar.
- You can remove the profile boards and strings, once the course is perfectly level and straight.
Great tips for bricklaying
A great tip is to practise your bricklaying with a mortar, which breaks away, such as sand-lime mortar.
When cutting bricks, place them on a hard surface and hammer away a shallow groove around the brick.Then use a bolster to hit the brick at right angles to create the grooves. Use the hammer until the brick eventually breaks in two. Whatever you do, don’t rush it or you will end up breaking up too many bricks!
Pointing is necessary to fill in any areas you have missed. It will also give a better appearance and enhance the joints, making them waterproof. The key with pointing is with the mortar, which needs to be just right. Different effects can be created, depending on how you use your trowel. After the pointing has been done, use a stiff brush. This will remove any excess before it fully dries.
MD Paving cover driveways York and block paving too!