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How To Build A Brick Wall

How To Build A Brick Wall

Instructions

Whether you want to build a small wall at the end of your patio or a six-foot wall around your house you'll need to learn the ancient art of bricklaying. Building a wall's a tricky job, and it'll take you all day, but HomeServe are here to show you how it's done. Don't forget, however, if you're planning to build a retaining or load-bearing wall then you'll need to call in a structural engineer before you start, and if it's over 2m tall - you'll need to check your council's building regulations..

You Will Need
You'll need cement, sand and lime for your mortar - see "How to mix mortar" to work out how much, plus bricks, a bucket and a bricklayer's trowel

Step 1: Getting Ready
The quality of your finished wall will depend on the quality of your footings. See "how to lay foundations" to get this bit right. Then you'll need to buy your bricks - a quick rule of thumb is that you'll need 65 of them for every square metre of wall, but remember, if your wall is over 725mm high, you should be building it double thickness - so you'll need double the bricks!

Step 2: Mix Mortar
Once you've got your bricks, you'll need to mix the mortar to hold your bricks together. See "How to mix mortar" to see how it's done. Don't forget that once you've got a mix together you need to use it within two hours.

Step 3: Bricklaying
Start at the ends of your wall and work in. Place a brick at each end and stretch a string between them to give you a line to work to. Then scoop up a load of mortar onto your trowel and spread along the footing. Place your brick on top, with the indented side, or "frog", facing up. Then , get the next brick, spread a load of mortar on the end and stick it next to the first one. Remove any excess mortar from the sides of the bricks and check them with a spirit level to make sure they're straight and true. If they're not - just give them a tap with the end of your trowel to sort them out.

Step 4: The Bond
The bond refers to the pattern of the bricks. All bricks are off-set to avoid one long mortar joint, which could be a weak point. When you are building a wall two bricks thick, you need to place bricks laterally to keep it strong. There are two ways you can do this to keep the whole wall strong, the Flemish bond, which looks like this, and the English bond, that looks like this.

There you go - sorted. And if it all looks like a bit too much hard work or if you've got lots more brickwork to be done, why not call a HomeServe Builder and let us do the job for you.