BasedYate, Bristol Coveringup to 40 miles

Brickwork in Bristol,
laid to the line

Garden walls, piers, arches, chimney stacks and the facing skin of a house — laid in the bond the job calls for and pointed before the mortar goes off.

Facing brickPiers & archesAny bond

Get a price → Call 07915 607362

Bonds: Stretcher, Flemish, English, header
Scale: Garden wall to full elevation
Covering: Bristol and 40 miles

Through the wall

What you are paying for
is mostly inside

A brick wall is a set of decisions made before the first brick goes down: where it sits, what it is made of, how it is tied, and where the water goes. Most of what fails on a wall was decided at that stage, not laid badly afterwards.

A cavity wall in section, drawn at 1.6 px to the millimetre.

Outer leaf102.5 mmFacing brick, laid in stretcher bond. This is the face anyone sees, and the only part that is weathered.
Cavity100 mmThe gap that stops water crossing. Kept clear of mortar droppings — a bridged cavity is the most common cause of damp on an inner wall.
Inner leaf100 mmBlockwork, carrying the floor and roof loads. Plastered on the room side.

In the right order

What brickwork actually involves

1 Set outLines and levels off the datum, every corner squared with the 3-4-5, and the first course dry-bonded so the perps land where they should.
2 Damp courseThe DPC bedded at least 150 mm above finished ground, lapped at joints and never bridged by mortar droppings or render.
3 Raise the cornersCorners built first and racked back, plumbed on every course. The corners carry the wall — everything between them follows a line.
4 Run the linePin to pin, course by course, each brick bedded and tapped down to the line rather than knocked about afterwards.
5 Ties and cavityWall ties at the spacing the detail calls for, laid to fall outwards, and the cavity kept clean so water cannot cross it.
6 Point and cleanJoints finished before the mortar goes off, then the face brushed down. A wall is pointed on the day it is laid, not later.

Which bond it is laid in is its own decision — the five bonds are drawn to scale on the home page.

Asked often

Brickwork, answered

If yours is not here, ring and ask it.

Can you match my existing brick?

Usually. It is matched on size, colour, texture and the bond it was laid in — and on an older house the mortar matters as much as the brick. Send a photograph of the wall and it is normally obvious what it is.

How high can a garden wall go?

A half-brick wall needs piers and a decent foundation past about 600 mm, and anything over a metre is usually a one-brick wall. It depends on exposure and what is behind it, which is why it is worth a look rather than a number over the phone.

Do I need building regulations approval?

A free-standing garden wall usually does not. Anything structural — a wall carrying floor or roof load, an opening, an extension — does. If it is not obvious, he will tell you before anything starts.

What is the white staining on my brickwork?

Efflorescence: salts drawn out of the brick as it dries, usually in the first year. It brushes off dry and comes back less each time. It is not damage, and washing it with water makes it worse.

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