Garden wall, work in progress

I have been putting off building this wall for over three years, but figured that I had better get it started.

It's 30m long, and is going to use approx 322 concrete blocks and 2,900 bricks. With all of my many other projects that are on the go and my desire to concentrate on sculpture, this could be a bit of a long winded project.

I got the footings dug out and concreted approx a week ago, just as the lovely weather changed!





Yesterday wasn't much better, dodging rain showers, but at least it is started.
I had hoped to face in stone, but there is nowhere near enough to do it, so bricks it is.

 

That is a stunning wall, I love to see projects like this..

 

Hear, hear !

 

Me likey very much. Particularly the stone insets.

 

Many thanks for the positive replies.



I should have added the following yesterday in relation to drainage.

What you can't see from these photos, is that directly behind the first course of blocks, is perforated and wrapped 75mm pipe which has been set up to collect the lower levels of water that come out of the bank. This drain runs into an existing land drain that I came across while digging the footings. Above this, is a 150mm x 300m slab of continuous concrete, over which a second land drain system shall be incorporated. I loathe drainage holes in retaining walls, so the system will channel all of the remaining water along its length and out into a trench to feed down into the rest of the garden.

Ah... One thing that I must mention/admit to, which will have you all jumping with joy, is that I messed the levels of footings up with a 25mm miss calculation. With brick courses being 75mm, a 25mm step gave me the undesirable 'pig' in the work, and I have had to make up the 25mm before starting. Bearing in mind that I deal with levels all the time, have an all singing and dancing laser level, how did I get something as simple as setting out my own footings wrong!:(

I have also been told that the gang plank that we have been using for the last three years has to go!!

That's another job then. :(

 

A friend turned up this afternoon to give the job a bit of push.


Not bad for an afternoons work!

 

And after today. :-) Although not a good way to spend a sunny Sunday.









No more progress now until next weekend.

 

I did wonder about those. The other thing was movement joints.

 

Had the wall been much higher, I would have considered expansion joints, but being the height that it is, I'm not concerned about it.

 

Ah yes, I've just spotted that (225mm?) step in the top, so I guess there's only the coping to go on top now?

 

Yep.

I wanted to use stone originally for the top, but rather than run out half way through I have opted for brick, but to give it a bit of extra character, I'm going to put creasing tiles along first.

I'm glad that you mentioned the expansion though, as many wouldn't have noticed or thought about that. I've built many retaining walls over the years without concern or problems, but when it came to doing my own, expansion and drainage were at the top of my list of concern. It's good to see someone mention it though, as had I not given it thought or asked around for certainty, then you comment could have proved invaluable and saved much stress later on.

Thanks.

 

Well that is it for another Saturday afternoon and Sunday.







I have decided to do nothing next weekend, and try and get it finished the weekend after.

During the week my daughter and a neighbours daughter made a time capsule to go into the wall. It made for some very interesting and funny reading! We put it into the wall on Friday evening along with a local news paper and the history of the house etc. A friend is also currently making a small stainless steel engraved plaque to go onto te side of the wall.

 

You could add to the capsule "Wall built and progress posted at gardenerscorner.co.uk!"

Nice project...as usual..am envious of your yellow toys..

Steve...

 

Looks great! Can't wait to see if you eventually plant flowers in the beds!