Home improvements - time the house had some TLC!

[Milkfloat]

It to late now, but for the amount of mixing you have done over the last year, did you think on getting a mixer? I bought a secondhand one when laying 60m2 of slate patio and then sold it in after for pretty much the same price. It seems to be fairly common for people to do this.

Mind you, with all that mixing by hand you are getting a free workout.

 

[JhnBssll]

It to late now, but for the amount of mixing you have done over the last year, did you think on getting a mixer? I bought a secondhand one when laying 60m2 of slate patio and then sold it in after for pretty much the same price. It seems to be fairly common for people to do this.

Mind you, with all that mixing by hand you are getting a free workout.

I own one I find if I use the mixer the mortar is starting to go off before I can use it all because I'm so slow at laying bricks and blocks I've used it for all the concreting though A barrow full of hand mixed mortar is the perfect amount for the speed I work at and probably takes less time than getting the mixer out, cleaning it and putting it away again 😄

 

[Milkfloat]

Ha - I used washing up liquid as a plasticiser, but I agree you need to be doing at least 3 or 4 mixes to make it worthwhile. I guess juggling a job, family, bikes, extension, kitchen, van and garden is tricky. Talk about multitasking.

 

[JhnBssll]

I used to use pasticiser when I was mixing as a labourer during uni holidays but havent used any recently, I keep thinking of buying some but the reality is I've done most of the brickwork now so it's a bit late I might treat myself and buy some for the retaining wall

With the bricks several days away I decided to have a play with some fencing. I know it sounds obvious, but crikey those concrete posts and gravel boards are heavy Shifting them around on my own is quite the workout

I managed to find ways of propping them vertically while I poured the postcrete in the hole, really pleased with how it looks. Mrs Bssll just got home and complemented the nice new partial fence - high praise indeed The gravel board heights might need tweaking a little, I'll do that before I pour the concrete to bed the edge blocks down

 

[JhnBssll]

The bricks arrived yesterday but due to work, weather and social commitments I didnt get to play builder during the week Until today 😄 I had a nice electrician over this morning to install this funky little wall charger for new company car, an EO mini pro...

After lunch I set up for some brick laying - I laid out 100 bricks on the neighbours lawn, figuring I'd have done well if I got through half of them

I managed to get through 4 hand mixes of mortar in the end and ended up with just 6 of the original 100 bricks left over, but when I stood back to admire my handiwork I was underwhelmed...

It looks a bit more impressive looking down the wall as the vast majority of the bricks I've laid today are below ground level

I hope to lay some more tomorrow, and then perhaps on Sunday when this mortar has gone off a bit I'll think about backfilling a bit more and putting some more fence posts in I've started some backfilling already, putting soil and rubble down behind the wall and hosing it down so it settles nicely and compacts... I'll carry on like this as it seems to be working quite nicely 😊

 

[Archie_tect]

Damp course on a garden wall????

Needs something to stop salt leaching through the wall- normally 2 or three courses of engineering brick or FL quality brick [150mm above lower finished ground level with a french drain or perforated pipe set in gravel behind to prevent water pressure build-up- though on a wall less than 600mm change in level that's probably overkill... easy alternative is to paint the back of the block wall with bitumen paint before back-filling to stop it absorbing water and staining- [you'd need a weep hole or 25mm pipe every 2m or so to let water through].

Continuous block wall without any staggers in it will need an expansion joint ideally every 6 metres [9 to 12 metres in brickwork].

As with all CC posts... best ask a local friendly engineer for advice who's seen it.

[Edit: just seen JB's photos- vertical joint between exg low wall and the new one'll allow for any movement/ expansion. John are you using galv or stainless ties to tie the block leaf and the brick facing together?]

[Edit 2: just saw the ties set in the blockwork!!- neat job]

 

[JhnBssll]

All good advice, and I did consider drainage, but since the wall slopes down I figured the water level would never be high enough for it to be an issue. Regarding staining of the bricks at least it will then match the existing wall If it needs rebuilding again in future my neighbour can pay for it next time, it's his wall afterall

 

[Archie_tect]

You could put some waterproofer in the mix as a 10mm parge coat between the blocks and bricks... or paint the blocks with bitumen paint before you wall it up with bricks.

 

[JhnBssll]

I've got some sbr, maybe I'll water some down and paint it over the blocks. Gotta be better than nothing

 

[JhnBssll]

I laid out 150 bricks this morning, lets call it a stretched target

I'm 1 mix and 24 bricks in so far and have just stopped for a bite to eat - getting close to the target would mean 5 mixes this afternoon which is quite achievable time-wise but I'm not so sure about energy-wise as I already ache from yesterday

There's rain forecast tomorrow which is a good incentive to get as much done as possible this afternoon as I won't get much of a chance to do more for a while. I need to shift my attention back to the kitchen in the next week or two as the new units are due to arrive and I've got more prep to do - a floor to tile, water pipes to reroute and replace, oven electric supply to move etc etc I don't make life easy for myself sometimes It'll be worth it in the end

 

[Colin Grigson]

I laid out 150 bricks this morning, lets call it a stretched target

View attachment 609795

I'm 1 mix and 24 bricks in so far and have just stopped for a bite to eat - getting close to the target would mean 5 mixes this afternoon which is quite achievable time-wise but I'm not so sure about energy-wise as I already ache from yesterday

View attachment 609796

There's rain forecast tomorrow which is a good incentive to get as much done as possible this afternoon as I won't get much of a chance to do more for a while. I need to shift my attention back to the kitchen in the next week or two as the new units are due to arrive and I've got more prep to do - a floor to tile, water pipes to reroute and replace, oven electric supply to move etc etc I don't make life easy for myself sometimes It'll be worth it in the end

Your bricklaying is considerably better than the ‘bricklayers’ I have on site - love how thorough you are in everything you do

 

[JhnBssll]

Thanks mate, I hold myself to high standards and often fall short so its nice when others point out that actually I'm doing a half decent job of it My neighbour came out today and told me I was doing a good job, and that his dad used to be a bricklayer so thats a pretty good endorsement Trouble is, bricklayers lay upwards of 600 bricks a day and I have completely knackered myself today laying just 158 6 mixes in total today so averaging around 26 bricks per mix 😊

Here is the wall as it stands this evening:

By my calculations I've got 128 bricks left to lay to complete the wall, so that's another 5 mixes of mortar and another full-ish day of bricklaying before I can move on to building my own stuff again

 

[JhnBssll]

The weather forecast has been looking ominous all day but no rain has materialised as yet - I'm super glad I pressed ahead with the bricklaying as I'd be pretty annoyed about now if I had called it off

I didn't set myself a target today, just went mix by mix to see how much I could get done before the heavens opened and I had to cover it all up

Spoiler - I finished it 😄 5 mixes done today 😊 Here's the finished wall!

Very pleased with my weekends work, and pleased to be back at the desk job tomorrow for a bit of a rest after approx 20hrs of bricklaying this weekend including Friday afternoon

It needs topping off so I'll have a look for some coping stones to match those on the original wall it butts up to. It's not a priority but I'm worried if I leave it too long the neighbour will cap it off with something he finds in a hedgerow

 

[Colin Grigson]

The weather forecast has been looking ominous all day but no rain has materialised as yet - I'm super glad I pressed ahead with the bricklaying as I'd be pretty annoyed about now if I had called it off

I didn't set myself a target today, just went mix by mix to see how much I could get done before the heavens opened and I had to cover it all up

View attachment 610028

Spoiler - I finished it 😄 5 mixes done today 😊 Here's the finished wall!

View attachment 610031

View attachment 610030

View attachment 610029

Very pleased with my weekends work, and pleased to be back at the desk job tomorrow for a bit of a rest after approx 20hrs of bricklaying this weekend including Friday afternoon

It needs topping off so I'll have a look for some coping stones to match those on the original wall it butts up to. It's not a priority but I'm worried if I leave it too long the neighbour will cap it off with something he finds in a hedgerow

Great job you’ve done there John

 

[neil_merseyside]

Frogs up where you live then
Still not as controversial as jam or cream first on a scone (sc on or is that a sc own).