Building Garden Walls with Brick
Before starting any brick construction work, it is essential to understanding the basics of the brickwork; the layouts, the bonds and the pointing styles that may be used.
Brick Format
Modern bricks in the UK are sized to create a standard metric format of 215 × 102.5 × 65 mm (face × bed × end). When combined with a standard 10 mm wide joint, this gives a working size of 225 mm × 75 mm.
Using stretcher bond (see brick bonds below), there are 60 bricks per square metre in a single skin wall.
Laying Styles
A brick laid with its longest side exposed is called a stretcher, whilst a header is a brick which is laid so that only its short end can be seen.
Bricks can also be laid 'on edge', by placing the brick so that only its short end can be seen (in the same way as a header) but with its end rotated 90 degrees so that it presents a 'portrait' style profile, rather than the 'landscape' style of the header. This is usually used to provide a wall capping or to make up brickwork to a specific height when fixing ironwork.
The thickness of brickwork is often measured using units of length known as the brick. The length of the longest face of a particular brick equals 'one brick'. In this way, a single course of stretchers creates a wall of half a brick thickness, whilst using headers (so the length of the brick comprises the thickness of the wall) will create a wall of one-brick (or a full brick) thickness.
Any wall higher than 1 m (3 ft) should have a strengthening pier every 2. 5 m (8 ft).
Brick Bonds
Brick bonds are the patterns in which bricks are laid, and which bind the whole wall together, to give it strength.
Stretcher or Running Bond
This is the most common bond used nowadays and consists of course entirely comprised of stretchers, offset by half a brick length. As it is easy to lay, it is an ideal bond for beginners to use. As the bond uses no headers, it creates a thin wall of half a brick thickness.
Stretcher bond may also used to build a one-brick-thick wall by using wall ties to hold the two leaves of brickwork together. The main advantage of this technique is that it allows walls to be built with both faces visible, using low-cost bricks that have only two fair faces.
English Bond
This bond is made up of alternating courses of stretchers and headers, producing a strong, solid wall that is a full brick in width. This bond is fairly easy to lay and is the strongest bond for a one-brick-thick wall.
Flemish Bond
Flemish Bond is one of the most decorative bonds, created by alternately laying headers and stretchers in a single course. The next course is laid so that a header lies in the middle of the stretcher in the course below. This creates one-brick-thick wall. However, this bond is quite difficult to lay properly, as all the vertical mortar joints need to be exactly aligned.
Monk Bond
Monk Bond is a variant of Flemish Bond, with two stretchers between the headers in each row, and the headers centred over the join between the two stretchers in the row below.
English Garden Wall Bond
This bond is a simple variation of English bond, where the header courses are separated either 3 or 4 courses of stretchers. There is also a 'Scottish Bond' featuring 5 courses of stretchers between courses of headers. As this style uses a high proportion of stretchers, it requires fewer facing bricks than normal bonds. This makes it cheaper to lay, but less sturdy. As such they are most commonly used in the garden and for other non-load-bearing walls.
Pointing
The joints between the laid bricks will need filling in, or 'pointing', with mortar, to provide added strength, and give weather protection. Good pointing will enhance the visual impact of a finished wall, whereas poor pointing can ruin it.
The mortar mix should be made up from four parts of soft sand and one part of cement, together with the addition of a plasticizer. Bricks can be pointed with a contrasting or matching mortar mix, by using specialist additives.
Pointing can be:
Flush
As the name implies, the mortar is flush with the wall.
Bucket Handle
Flush at the top and bottom of the joints, recessed in the middle.
Recessed
A flat recess, parallel with the wall face.
Weatherstruck
The pointing forms a 45 degree angle, recessed at the top of the joint and becoming flush with the bottom of the joint.
Each of these styles creates a progressively deeper joint between the bricks. The deeper the joint, the more shadow is created, and the more dramatic the effect. The weatherstruck and bucket handle pointing styles offer increased resistance to rain penetration.