DIY retaining walls, part two.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com,  

My other sites; https://sites.google.com/site/menfrancoreconciliation/  

Farming today compared to the old way, My life my struggles, 

Hub Pages, DIY brickwork. and this article at this link, DIY Retaining walls. 

Today is easy to build retaining walls, there are firms that specialize and make it easy for the average bloke to build them like in this photo above. You see, some of these concrete blocks are made to be laid dry, so, the average bloke can lay them, and if it not right the first time you can relay them, since there is no mortar between the joints that sticks them together. 

Welcome to our blog, DIY Retaining walls. part two.

Link Block Mortar-less Walls

Link Block Mortar-less Retaining Wall Blocks

This is a different type of retaining walls made with dry blocks, the mortar is not required, it is a low wall easy to build, so, most people can do it themselves. Now let me tell you this, on the internet I have found this local supplier who has placed a few short videos how to build these walls; the videos are at the bottom of the page, please use the link here-under, I reckon it is worth to watch them, if you want to build any retaining walls. As I have said this is only a local supplier in Brisbane Australia, therefore, the same materials may not be available where you are living, but by watching these videos you are going to learn something useful, if the link works.   

No need for Mortar

http://centenarylandscaping.com.au/product-guides/retaining-walls/firstqualityretainingwallblocks/?gclid=CPOE9-

So, I hope you have used the link above and you have been able to see the videos. Anyhow, whatever you have learned can be helpful one day.

Now, let me describe how to build a garden rock retaining wall.

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I believe that rock retaining walls blend well in the garden, as they are natural, since rocks are found everywhere in the natural state agong trees and grass. So most times is the way to go. 

 Building a garden rock retaining wall

To build a garden rock wall as shown in the picture is a lot harder than you think, and you need to know how to go about it, you see, you need to have a good eye to see how the rocks that you have can fit together to make a wall. There are a few ways how to do this depending how tall the wall is going to be and lots of other things.

You see, if you have only a very low wall you can just lay one single rock one after another, or two rocks one on top of another making sure that you choose the best face to show at the top and at the front, the other part of the rock can be hidden in the ground, or at the back since you are backfilling behind the wall; in this case it is not necessary to use any concrete, as the stones can be laid dry, but if you want you can use concrete.

Before you start the wall, you must dig all the grass and loose soil, even if your wall is going to be low. If the wall is going to be in a place where the ground is slopping down, make sure that you dig at least a few inches into the solid natural ground, so that the wall you are building can sit on firm natural ground, so, your wall is not going to slope down the first heavy rain you have after building.

Now, in this example, we are building a low stone wall and we are not going to use anything to bind the wall together, so, there is no cement or anything else between the stones, in this case because there is nothing to stop the rainwater to run between the stones you don’t need to worry about drainage. You see, one of the greatest problems with retaining walls is the water that can build behind them, the water and wet soil puts pressure on the wall and if the water cannot get out the wall is going to fail.

Now it is helpful to have a look at some stone retaining wall, and for this reason in mind I have found this link in the Internet; so, have a look at the pictures in this link; www.australianrockwalls.com.au/  there are several types of stone walls, now you can start thinking how and why they have been built that way.

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Deciding to build your own rock wall. 

Here let us assume that you need more space, because you want to build a car port, and put a trampoline for the kids. So, you have been digging in the backyard, and finally you are satisfied that they can fit them in the space you have made. But now you have this bank that stands almost vertical in the backyard, it looks ugly, and you know that when the first heavy rain comes it is going to start washing it down, and worse still it may collapse. So, you think of building a retaining wall to hold the soil up. 

For this reason, you have had a couple of quotes and had a good talk to the contractors as you did not want to spend more money that was strictly necessary, they did their best but still you cannot afford to pay the full price, beside that you found that if you lay a dry stone wall, ether you have to use stones that have been cut at the quarry and they cost a lot, or you have to have a rock wall with a wider base and this is going to take away some of the space you created when you dug, so really you need to think about it.

So, you have decided to build the stone retaining wall yourself, what you have decided is that you are going to build an hybrid stone wall, which you believe can do the job without costing too much; therefore, you have looked for a rock supplier and ask for prices of the different materials you may need, because you think that you can afford it, if you do the job yourself.

By pure chance you have learned from the blokes that have given you the prices, how many cubic meters of rocks you need and other things that you were not sure before; well done sometimes in the building game things work out this way, you learn a bit from here a bit from there and then you can decide what to do with the information you have collected. There is nothing wrong for doing this, unless you do it purposely to learn something, but if it does not work out, then it is okay to use what you have learned from them.

I have to say that it has been done to me many times and that I have done this myself; not only on quoting but also in buying something new, if I have to buy something that I have never used before, I go to at least three places and inquiry about it, by asking the right questions not only I learn how much it is going to cost me, but I have learned how to use whatever I was going to buy in the first place, of course, I end up buying from one of them what I wanted to buy in the first place; sometimes I call this let me go first to spy and then to buy, I know that some of these people are going to feel a bit hurt, for using their time for nothing, but so what, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, as I have said it has been done to me as well and I have felt a bit hurt, when I had to spend some time working out a price to build something, and at the end I did not get the job, so, I spent all that time for nothing, but that is life and we should accept the outcome whichever way it goes. Anyhow, now let us go back to building the rock wall.

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Start building the hybrid rock wall. 

This hybrid wall that we are going to build is a big job, it starts at the same level, as we have dug the ground approximately level, but because we are building the wall only to the height of the natural ground level, it is going to start from almost nothing and at the highest point will be 1.8 meter, it is really two walls that meet and forms a square at the highest point.

Here we must say that today some people think that this should not be done, as this is neither a rock wall nor a concrete masonry wall, as it mixes about everything, but so what, if it is convenient, why not do it? I must say that in my life time I have built walls like this with whatever was available on the site; and I mean everything in fact I was using stones that were laying in this small creek bed, and pieces of concrete that we had broken to do some alterations and old bricks, some concrete and some mortar, this has happened a few year ago and last time I have seen the owner he said that the wall is still there. So, most things can be done if you know that it has got a good chance to last a long time.

Let us go back to build our hybrid rock wall. Now, to build this wall you need a few cubic meter of rocks, because you want the wall to look as a rock wall, you don’t need very big rocks or special size rocks, because you can use the cement wherever necessary to fill the gaps and this is good, since the cement is less costly, you need a mixer, you need some gravel, sand and cement; and of course, you must have the tools to do the job.

You got all this on site, and you can start to build. First of all, drive a couple of pegs in the ground, exactly where you want the face of the wall to be, tie and stretch a line on these pegs and see any adjustment that you need to do before you start laying the first stone. What you are looking for here is that the bank you are going to build the wall against has been dug straight, it is almost vertical or a few degrees sloping, you have dug a shallow foundation, because you want the wall to be strong and last for a long time, so, you are satisfied that the foundation is going to be solid enough, since it is well below the original natural ground, therefore, it can hold a lot of weight and pressure, because the ground is very compact. 

You have done all this, you have set the pegs again so that your wall is set to be at least 10” thick overall, you have chosen this thickness because most of the large rocks seem to be that thick, so now you are ready to lay the first course of stones, mix a few batches of concrete and lay it in the foundation and then before this concrete sets lay the first course of stones on this concrete making sure that the bottom of the stones are below ground level, so that the entire stone wall seems to start from below the ground; once you have done that you can fill the back of the stone with concrete a bit above ground level but below the full height of the stones, because you want to leave enough room to lay next course of stone easily. Now the wall is all set to go, but we need to reset how we must continue and complete the hybrid rock wall, the right way with the right lean against the bank. You need to lean the wall against the bank, so that the weight of your wall by itself adds strength to the wall. 

This blog is becoming too long, so, we will complete to build the hybrid rock wall, in part three. See you soon. 

To see more, or the entire article click on this link, DIY Retaining walls. 

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DIY Retaining walls, part one.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com,  

My other sites; https://sites.google.com/site/menfrancoreconciliation/  

Farming today compared to the old way, My life my struggles, 

Hub Pages, DIY brickwork. and this article at this link, DIY Retaining walls. 

Talking about retaining walls, most retaining walls these days are made of Besser-blocks. The walls are made with hollow concrete blocks 190 X 190 X 390 laid with mortar 10mm thick joints, steel reinforcement bars are placed in the hollow part of the blocks, then they are filled with concrete, once the walles are dry enough. 

Welcome to our article,  DIY Retaining walls, Part one of three. 

Dear readers, in our previous articles, we have talked about how to build houses, now, let us talk about retaining walls. There are several reasons why people want to build retaining walls. If  you own a standalone house, you may want to improve your property by doing a few things in the yard, so, you can stay outside and have a garden, or have a barbecue with your family and friends. But there are times when it is not easy to stay outside, because the yard is not level and, in some places, it is hard even to stand up straight, so, something needs to be done to improve the situation. In this case retaining walls can help solve that problem. But how do we build retaining walls one may ask? 

LET US START BY LOOKING AT THIS STONE RETAINING WALL BELOW. 

There are many types of retaining walls, this above is a masonry stone wall, these types of stone walls last for a very long time, when they are built well, like the one above, but they cost a lot more than other types of retaining walls. 

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Anyhow, let us see what we can learn from this stone wall picture above, just by looking at it and trying to imagine how this wall has been built. What we can note from the picture is that the retaining wall has been built leaning towards the bank it is holding up, we can see this at the right end of the wall where the wall goes around the corner,  the stones are laid dry as there is no sign of any mortar around, the stones are not all the same size, and they are longer and shorter stones, but they are all the same thickness and they are laid the same way as we lay a course of bricks, but at the same time the mason has made sure that the vertical join are not setting one above the other, and this is a hard thing to do with stones all different size, everything is so tidy, the wall thickness is not shown anywhere, but because there is a very low wall started near, it seems that the wall has been built like a double brick wall, we can also guess that perhaps some of the short stones are not really short, but they have been laid like a header brick to tie the front with the back of the wall, at the top the last course of stone, the stones are longer and as wide as the whole wall itself, so that they would tie everything together. These are the main features that we can learn from looking at this stonewall picture.

Now that we have explained that, let us write how to do it yourself retaining walls. You know, there are many types of retaining walls, some are easy to build others are hard to build, and there are many reasons for building them. So, this article is going to be a long article, because we want to tell you about them, as much as we can.   

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How to build retaining walls. 

Okay, there are several ways how to build a retaining wall, and there are several types of retaining walls that we can build. Therefore, first we must see what we gain by building this type of retaining wall, or that type of retaining wall, and above all how much it could cost, before we can decide what type of retaining wall to build. Now we want to build our retaining walls with building materials that are easily available, to avoid extra cost. So, look what local materials are available, where you are. You see, if you are in a place where stones or rocks are plentiful, and you may even have some of them in your yard, then it is cheaper to build your retaining wall with these materials, and even if you have to buy the lot they are cheap anyhow; but if you are in a place where there are plenty of trees and there is even a sawmill nearby, then it is more appropriate to build it with timber.    

Having said that, it is obvious that for you to decide, what is the best retaining wall to build; we need to explain to you what could be done and how can it be done. Therefore, hereunder we will try to do that. Let us start with a very easy and cheap retaining wall that most people can do themselves, even if they don’t know much about building, as long as they have a few tools and know how to use them; here we are saying that anyone of us can dig a few holes in the ground to place a few short posts and place a couple of sleeper timber planks against those posts, then secure them by nailing or screwing them to the posts. It sounds and is simple, isn’t it? But this is not the only retaining wall that we want to show you, so, keep reading this article, while we add more descriptions, because you can even learn how to build them.  

Timber sleeper retaining walls. 

Building a low timber sleeper retaining wall is easy, just about everybody can do it, you can do it yourself, if you follow our explanation in this text here, all you need is a crowbar, a post hole shovel, a hammer a few long nails or screws, a saw, a type measure and a few treated pine sleepers that today are easily available at most timber yards.

If you are in Brisbane Australia, these are a couple of addresses of local timber merchants and hardware to get what you want. If you are somewhere else, you need to find your own.  ‎

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunnings_Warehouse

Now, let us assume that you have visited your local supply, and you have got all you need, so, you are ready to start, you have also worked out where you want your sleeper wall to go; So, start digging the first hole where the wall starts, you need to dig this hole about 600 mm or more in the natural ground for the post to be strong enough to hold the pressure of the retaining wall when the wall is back filled; you may have to concrete around the post for extra strength, but this is not a must do, if the retaining wall is low, because you can replace this with, packing the soil tightly around the posts and if you have some rocks, wedge them between the top of the hole you have dug and the post at ground level, because the rocks will exercise their pressure on a larger surface of the natural soil than the post, they will be able to hold back the soil pressure of the wall more easily, now that you have done the first post, you can repeat the same procedure for next post and so on.

The posts can be made from the same material of the sleepers; you can saw them to the right length and fix them in the ground as we have said above. Now, to make it easy let us say that your wall is going to be the length of a sleeper plank, and you have dug the two holes and fixed the two posts. So, now you can just place the first sleeper against the posts at the required level; the levels of the sleepers is better if you work it out from the top down, because it is easier to change the bottom than the top, you see, in this case you can always dig a bit or add a bit of soil at the bottom to fit the bottom sleeper. So, mark on the posts the level you want to reach with your last sleeper, and then mark down from this level the number of sleepers you are fixing on these posts, once you have done that you are ready to fix your sleepers on the posts.

Fixing your sleeper to the post. 

To fix the sleepers to the post now is simple, but still you need to do a few things right, if you want your wall to last a long time, with the materials you are using now; it is useful to know that in this case it is highly advisable that you use galvanized nails or screws to fix the planks to the posts, because the retaining wall is in contact with the wet or humid ground constantly, therefore, normal nails or screws will rust easily.

You have bought some 75 mm and 100 mm galvanized nails to do the job, so, you hope that you can drive these nails into the sleepers and posts just by using a hammer, because it is the fastest way to get the job done. 

Okay, if you are good with your hammer and can drive nail easily it is the best way to go, provided that the timber is soft enough to do that, and if you have used treated pine sleeper it can be done, as all you need to do now is to place the sleepers where you have marked on the posts and nail them in, and then you can backfill behind the retaining wall and the job is done.

But what about if you are using hardwood or old dry hardwood, because you got it very cheap from a second hand timber yard, because they were overstocked they sold this timber at a very special price, which was less than half the price of the treated pine sleepers; so, you were happy to buy it because it was cheap and the timber being hardwood lasts for a very long time, but now you may have a problem to fix the sleepers to the posts, because it is near impossible to drive nails into this old dry hardwood timber, unless you drill a hole for every single nail, and even then the nails can bend even if you are an expert with the hammer.

If this is the situation and it is hard to nail this timber together, you can overcome the problem by using couch screws or bolts, so, you use a drill and drill a hole for your galvanized couch screws or bolts and tighten the screws or the bolt nuts with a spanner. But if you don’t want to do this extra work and you want to use the galvanized nails that you have already bought, then you can do the following: drill a hole as deep as you can just use a bit a fraction smaller than the diameter of your nails, then try first with the 75 mm nails how you go, if it works and you believe that the nail go deep enough into the supporting post and hold well then your problem is solved, but if the nail bends or don’t go deep enough then you can try the following, and this is one of the last tricks of the old trade, which not many people know or use, this trick is not a trick at all and once you know it, you can feel even stupid for not thinking about it yourself; so what is it? Okay, when you pick up your nail to nail in the hole you have drilled, dip the point of the nail a couple of centimetres into a bit of Vaseline or mechanical grease, if this is not available just wet a bar of soap and rub the point of the nail on the wet soap, this greasing of the end of the nail will make it easier to drive it into any wood including dry old hardwood.

I believe that I have said enough about simple timber retaining walls, for you to have some idea how to build them, so, now let us talk about another type of retaining wall that can be easy to build, it is a type of concrete wall that the blocks are laid dry, so, anyone can have a go; and if you don't get it right the first time it is easy to fix.

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There is a lot more that we can say, but this blog is becoming too long, so, see you in part two. 

To see more, or the entire article click on this link, DIY Retaining walls. 

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Building a veneer house.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com,  

My other sites; https://sites.google.com/site/menfrancoreconciliation/  

Farming today compared to the old way, My life my struggles, 

Hub Pages, DIY brickwork. and this article at this link, Building a veneer house. 

When we build a brick veneer house, the roof of the house is tied straight to the timber frame, this type of roof may also need to be tied with steel rods that start from the concrete floor, to secure the roof frame down, this may dipend on the constraction and the by laws of the local government. 

Welcome to our article, Building a veneer house.  

Dear readers, this is going to be a long blog, and while we are writing it in DIY section, it cannot be said that this is a DIY article for a beginner, since what we are describing here is more advanced. Anyhow, this is how we were building houses during the seventies here in Australia. We must say here, that most houses were built using plain common sense, of course, we are still building them today in the same way, and they will be built for a long time, in some part of the world, where blocks of land are subdivided to build standalone houses, but today even this way of building is becoming old fashion, especially if you are building in a city, where building anything is becoming very specialized, so, if you build anything that needs approval from the local authorities you need a builder an architect and an engineer, or at least you must be a good tradesman  and know how to read their plans, then you might be able to build a small house, by yourself.  

Anyhow, this article is for those people that want to know what sort of problems they may encounter, while building a brick-veneer house or even a solid cavity brick house, and how to avoid these building problems, in other words this article can help the owner-builder that wants to know a bit more, because he is going to build his own house. 

So, now that we have built this imaginary brick base in the previous article, House brick base continues, we have the option of using this same style of brick base in a few ways, because this base can be used to build a timber house on the top of it, or it can be used to build a brick veneer house as well, what this means is that we can build brick around the timber frame of the house, so that the house looks like a brick house, but in reality it is both, so, let us see what is the difference and if it affects anything.

Of course, we must start building the house knowing what it is going to be from the start, and this is the reason why we need a plan, you see, we need a plan because we need to know the measurement from the start, because anything we change, changes the measurement, but anyhow the ways of building it is almost the same, accept that the bricks take more space than if the house outside is finished with timber claddings, therefore, this affect the remaining floor space in the house, but apart from that there is no much difference in building the brick base.

Now, there are at least three types of houses being built these days, the timber house, the brick veneer house and the solid brick house. These types of houses can vary as it is possible to mix all these materials together in various amounts. But in this article, we want to write first about a brick veneer house that can be built on a similar brick base that we have completed in the hub, House brick base continues. So, let us describe, how this is done.  

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 This photo shows a house timber frame on a concrete floor. When we build a brick veneer house, the timber frame of the house is the same like when a complete timber house is built, because the timber frame is supporting the roof, and the bracing in the walls make it self sufficent. 

 

Building a brick veneer.  

As we have said, the difference in the construction of the base between a timber house and a brick veneer house is not that much, as it affects only the outside of the house and the floor space of the house, if the extra space needed for the bricks is not taken into account at the start. But how we proceed to build these two types of building on a similar brick base is this: If the outside of the house is going to be timber, the outside of the timber bears and the entire timber frame is placed right at the outside edge of the brickwork, but before we do that, we put on top of the brick walls a galvanized ants capping, then the timber bears and the house frame. But if it is going to be brick veneer then the reverse happens and the timber bears and frame is set back about 6 inches (150mm) this is to give space for the bricks and leave a cavity between the timber frame and the bricks, the ants capping goes inside or at least under the timber bears.         

Now because we are building a brick veneer house, the carpenters have placed the house frame back to allow for the bricks to be laid outside, in this case the carpenter’s foreman should have instructed his carpenter team to try to work with the bricklayers and set the opening of doors and windows in such a way that helps the bricklayers. Now, let me explain here what are the problems that the bricklayer can encounter if both teams don’t work together. For example, there is a short wall that has a door opening in the centre, if the door opening is placed exactly in the centre, then the bricklayers might have to cut the bricks on both sides of the door to make them fit the length of the remaining wall beside the door opening, this not only will add extra work for the bricklayer, but it can be an eye sore, and therefore, these sort of things should be avoided, wherever they can be avoided. 

So, what can be done one may ask? Well, the door opening can be moved a bit to one side, so that at least one side works to the bricklayer advantage, and if he is lucky both sides can work with a full brick, therefore, no bricks need to be cut shorter to fit in the wall between the door and the corners? This same principle applies in other parts of the brick wall, when there are two openings, the carpenter should move the openings of the windows and door to help the bricklayers, when they can be moved.

The bricklayer working part.   

Now that we have explained what the variations for the carpenter are, when he sets up the timber frame for the brick veneer, we come to the bricklayer part and what he does when he works on a brick veneer house, because there are many other demanding things to do in between while he is laying bricks; these other things need to be done as well, if the house is going to be well built.   

Apart laying bricks as usual, the fist other job that the bricklayer may encounter is that he has to place lintels over the opening of doors and windows of the brick base, if they happen to be at that level and most time they are, these lintels for brickwork can be steel angles that span over the openings, they come in various size and they are used according to the span they have to bridge. So, when there are openings in the base, the bricklayer places this steel angle over the openings and then lays the bricks over them making sure that everything looks and is okay, he has also to lay some brick reinforcement in next course of bricks above the openings, or even all around the brick base, this reinforcement is in the form of a light galvanized mesh as we have explained in our previous articles.

But this is not all, because in some cases when it is specified he may have to nail the rat-proof wire (this is a wire mesh with holes too small for a rat to go through), so, the bricklayer nails one side to the timber frame and the other side is laid in the joint of the bricks, thus a barrier is formed and no rat can enter into the cavity between the bricks and the timber frame. But that is not all, because there can be the need to lay a dampcourse, this again is like the rat-proof wire, one end is nailed to the timber frame and the other end is laid in the brick joints. 

At least this is how it was done when we were building brick veneer houses or apartments in the sixties and seventies; so, we had this problem there to solve while we were laying bricks, I guess that at this point of time one can even ask, but if the bricklayer has to do all these extra small jobs, how and when he is going to lay bricks? These jobs should really be done from somebody else and let the bricklayer do his job and lay his bricks. Having said that we have to agree that those small jobs should be done from a different person, but there is a problem there also; those jobs need to be done when the wall reaches a certain height, so, it is very hard to have somebody there that would do that job for us bricklayers. So, we were forced to do it ourselves whether at the end we were compensated or not. You see, this is one of the main reasons why when we work on a brick veneer the bricklayer lays a lot less bricks per day than he usually does on a normal wall, but there are more annoying things for the bricklayers to do, as we will write here under.

Other things that the bricklayer does. 

We have mentioned many things but there is more to say here, sometimes before we even start to lay bricks in the veneer part of the house, we bricklayers need to nail a special building paper, this paper is another layer of insulating material that is nailed on the outside of the timber studs that form the external timber frame; in reality it is the carpenters that should do this work, and if they are around, once we have built the scaffolding to lay our bricks, the carpenters are very likely to jump in and nail this insulation paper for us, but it is likely that the bricklayers have to do it themselves.

Other things that we need to do while laying bricks on the brick veneer, we need to nail to the timber studs brick veneer ties every three or four courses of bricks; These are L shaped brackets that attach the timber frame to the brick wall, we have to lay this wire reinforcement every so often, we have to nail the damp course under and above openings and other things that need to be done before we lay bricks.

Once we finish building our veneer walls, most likely the last job is to lay these bricks for the windowsills. The windowsills take a lot of time and patience, usually we need to cut every brick in a special way and then lay them making sure that the joints are all even; in order to achieve that we use a gauge rod. Sometimes we are lucky and the same gauge rod that we have used to build the entire house works for some windowsills; if it does not, then we have to work it out how to make this windowsill, we can make smaller joints or larger joints, as long as the outcome looks acceptable.

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The cavity brick house. 

The difference between the brick veneer and the cavity brick house is this: the brick veneer house all the walls are made of timber, and the timber frame is just like the complete timber house with the exception that the outside is veneered with bricks, so that the building looks as if it is made of bricks, but in reality, the timber walls are the load bearing walls and they can stand on their own, if you cover them with something else other than bricks. But the cavity bricks is different, all the outside walls in the cavity bricks are made of bricks or blocks, at least the external walls are made of two brick-walls one beside the other with a cavity between them, these two external walls are tied together with cavity ties, in a way it is very much like the brick veneer where the timber external walls are tied together with ties to the veneer brick wall.

For the bricklayers the cavity brick house is easier to build because he can set everything to suite his face brick walls, so, this is an advantage for him. But in this case if there is no builder of foreman around the bricklayer needs to work out where the opening of doors and windows are and put them in place; this needs to be done because the door frames and the window frames need to be tied permanently to the brickwork while the work is in progress. So, we must admit that this is not for the beginners, as it takes a good tradesman to do that.

There are a lot of other things that need to be done, some of them are just like what we have described for the brick veneer, but one thing in particular is different here; because the brick walls are load bearing walls and whatever goes above them need to be tied the wall, the bricklayers has to make sure that there are ties that are able to tie down the roof of the house permanently; this could be achieved by steel rods that start from the concrete floor or from the foundations. In some cases where there are not enough steel rods from the concrete below, the bricklayer can add some special made brackets several courses of bricks below the top, this is also good, but not as good as the steel rods that start from the foundations.

I believe that I have covered the most important things in building this imaginary house, so, I hope that this article can help someone that is building his own house. 

Now I need to say that you can find more exlanations, in the original article in Hub Pages. So to see them click on this link, Building a veneer house. 

So, see you, in next article, DIY Retaining walls. 

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House brick base continues.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com,  

My other sites; https://sites.google.com/site/menfrancoreconciliation/  

Farming today compared to the old way, My life my struggles, 

Hub Pages, DIY brickwork. and this article at this link, House brick base continues. 

In Australia back in the sixties and seventies, we were building lots of affordable houses, the photo above shows one of the typical house of those times, this house was built on a brick base. They were built for normal working families. Anyhow, I need to explain that, this base here is not like the house brick base in the text, because in the text we are building in a sloping site, so, it is different. 

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Welcome to our article, House brick base continues. 

Dear readers, in this article, we are continuing to build the brick base step by step, so that, anyone can follow how it is done. Anyhow, in our last article, we have started to describe how to build a brick base on a sloping building site, we had reached the stage, where the bricklayers had set-up and built the southern wall high enough to lay some brick reinforcement and the damp course. Now, to keep our descriptions simple and accurate, we must assume that they are leaving an opening for a door, then continue to build this wall as high as the first brick on the concrete foundation at the highest corner. They need to do that, so, they can check and make sure that all the walls are level and there is no mistake in the level of the brickwork. Anyhow, once the bricklayers have done that, it starts to be easier for everyone to work on this brick base, since the whole house dimensions have been set-up, and everything is level.

Now let me make it clear, to start a house base on a stepped foundation is not easy, and the bricklayers must be careful and make no mistakes, especially on a sloping site and stepped foundations, since the foundations may not be level, because of the extra difficulty that the concreter encounter when laying the foundations on a sloping site.

Anyhow, when building every tradesman must rely on their skills, they must make sure that what they are doing is the right thing to do, they cannot blame somebody else for their own mistakes, therefore, when they find a mistake from the previous tradesman, whether they are concreters or other trades, whenever possible they should try to fix whatever can be fixed, when that cannot be done, their foreman can recall the previous tradesman to fix their mistakes, before they go ahead and make the mistake bigger and more costly to fix later.

That is why the bricklayer cannot trust blindly the concreters. Anyhow, the bricklayers that are building this brick base are doing the right thing. They have built the lower part of the brick base level and they have made the first full course of bricks all around the house base. Now they can relax a bit, as everything is in the right place at the right level and there is no pig in the brickwork, as the last course of bricks makes a full circle of the house and ends up level, so, there is no pig in the brickwork, now, let us explain what is a pig in the brickwork and how it can happen.

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This photo here shows a lowset brick base on a level site, the bricklayer have build the base all level, you can see that the bricks form a ring all around the house, so, there is no pig in it. The drainage has been done, next thing they need to do is to backfil and compact the soil 50 mm below the concrete floor, then they will lay 50 mm of coarse river sand, followed by the damp couse steel mash and concrete. Most times the concrete slab sits on the inside brick only, the outside brick wall can continue with bricks, after laying a dump-course.  

Explaining a pig in the brickwork. 

Let me explain how a pig in the brickwork can happen. Here I need to say that this saying, can be a local saying that explains; the brickwork is set in a way like a spring coil, so it never ends.

Now let me explain how it can happen, and how the bricklayer can create a pig in the brickwork.  This mistake can happen on a sloping site, like the sloping site we are working on, in this article. It can happen when the brick-walls are not exactly level, and the bricklayer ties the line on the wrong course of bricks, when they start building the last wall.

Therefore, let us go back to build our brick base, and let us assume that the bricklayer that is setting the wall on the eastern side is having some difficulty in setting the wall exactly level, because the foundation is not level, so, the bricklayer believe that he can make the walls level,  by making the bed joint thicker before he reaches ground level; therefore, he lets his northern corner be a couple of centimetre lower than his southern corner on the same course of bricks, you see this is a long wall and if you only use the spirit level, you can hardly see that it is not level, but with the proper level or water level it will show the difference.

At the same time, the bricklayer that is setting the western wall is having some difficulties too and for the same reason is starting his wall and letting his northern corner be a couple of centimetre higher than his southern corner on the same course of bricks, he also believes that he can set everything right by making very small joint before ground level is reached.

Now, there is a difference of four centimetres at the northern wall, this is a problem, you see, four centimetres is more than half a brick, therefore, the bricklayer can easily tie the line on the wrong course; this is how a pig in the brickwork is created.

To make sure that there is no pig in it, the bricklayer needs to make sure that the walls are started level from the start, and then run a full course all around the entire building. The brick course should be like a closed even ring, and make sure that the walls are level, this is the only way to avoid mistakes. So, it is better to spend extra time at the start and get it perfectly level. I hope I have explained it properly and clearly, how a pig in the brickwork can be created.

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Building the rest of the brick-base. 

Let us assume that everything has been set properly, so, all the brickwork around is level and at the right alignment. But to make sure, we double check everything again by running a type measure and seeing that it agrees with the plans measurement, this now is a very simple job, because everything is set in hard cement and everything is level, so, if there is any mistake in the measurements it will show up easily.

Having checked everything and found that everything is right, we can proceed to complete the brick base. Anyhow, we have built the lower part of the base one brick higher than the highest corner of the concrete foundations. So, there is only one brick laid at the highest point of the foundations. 

Since the whole base has been set, the best way is to build higher the northern wall, which is now the lowest wall, we want to build it at least to above ground level, so that the trances can be back filled and then it is easier for everybody to walk around the building site, this is an easier job now since everything is in the right place at the right level. So, we build this wall above ground level. Having built the northern wall above ground level, now we must choose which wall to build next. But at the same time, let us see what the bricklayer can use to speed up the brickwork, like the bricklayer’s profiles, these are devises that can be attached to the brick walls to help the bricklayers. So, let us explain the bricklayer’s profiles.

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The bricklayers' profiles are divises that help the bricklayers lay more bricks in a day, since he does not need to build  the coners first to tie his line, it also helps to keep the gauge properly, since everytime you move the line up it clicks in place, according to the gauge you have chosen, So they are helpful divices. 

Bricklayer's profiles. 

Bricklayers’ profiles are helpful, because it eliminates the process of building the corners first, it also helps to keep the gauge easily, since the gauge is marked on the profile. I have always had a profile with me when I was laying bricks. Some of these profiles can be bought, but if there are not readily available on the market, and there is a lot of brickwork that needs to be done, by using your own creativeness you can make one yourself, all that is needed is a straight edge marked with the gauge that you can fasten to the walls.

There are at least two types of profile that the bricklayers can use to speed up his work, the main one is used for external corners. This external corner profile needs to be supported both ways to be effective, so, if you haven’t got one and you cannot buy one, you need to configure a device that can be tighten both ways, when you are making your own profile. You have to plan it in such a way that you can grab a brick from the joint on one side and two bricks on the other side, so that a sort of triangle is made, and balance can be kept.

The internal corner profile can be a lot easier to make, and here I wonder why people don’t use it, since it is easier to make. All what is needed is again a straight edge with a hole or a few holes drilled in it and a special made up bolt or two that are thinner than the brick’s joint; these special bolts need to be modified and instead of their normal bolt head they should have a short cross say 30 to 40 mm welded at one end, and at the other end treaded with a butterfly nut. All the bricklayer needs to do now is to leave a hole in the bed joint near the corner, or clear the joint with a plugging chisel, then he puts one of his bolts in the hole of his straight edge; now he can push the bolt in the joint until the modified bolt head reaches the other side of the brick, then he turns the whole bolt 90 degrees, so that the modified bolt head is now vertical, and then he can tighten the bolt with his butterfly nut and at the same time make sure that the profile is plumb and he can use this profile instead of building the corner with his spirit level.

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To complete the brick base. 

What else needs to be done to complete the brick-base.

Let us now assume, that because the ground is sloping the base of this house has been divided, in such a way that the lower end can be used for garage laundry and utility room. To achieve that they have dug up the ground level about half the length of the house, and then dug a foundation to support a retaining wall and pillars to support the house above, the rest of the ground under the house will be left the way it is for the time being, because it is too costly to dig it out.

Anyhow, let us complete this brick base, as we have said above the lower side is now a certain height where the windows openings should be started. The windows are going to be tied to the brickwork, so, they need to be put in the right place and braced while the walls are being built. The bricklayers need to be careful that the windows remain plumb and in the right place while he attaches the window ties to the window and builds the tie into the brickwork. Here I may have to point out that placing the windows on the walls at the right height and at the right place, it’s one of those jobs that in this part of the world there is no rule who has to do it, say if the bricklayer is paid a fixed price for the amount of bricks he has laid, when he is placing and fixing the window on the wall he might not be paid, therefore, nobody is willing to do it, but there is no set rule and not much money for doing it, therefore, everybody wants to pass the buck to the builder or other trade people.

Having said that, now let us assume that everything has been done according to trading practice and the windows have been built into the brickwork accordingly. But here I want to point out that we have not talked about the lower part of the brick base that is being built on the higher part of the land, so, what needs to be done there?

The lower part of the brick base is built together with the rest of the base, but because it is lower it can be just one single brick thick with engaged piers under the house. These engaged piers may have a double purpose, one is to strengthen the walls and they may be used to carry the weight of the house if this part of the house is going to be a brick veneer. In this part of the house because there are no windows the bricklayer needs to leave some air vents, so that a minimum of ventilation is achieved. All this is going to be done according to specifications, as there must be some local rules and they may not be the same everywhere.

What we have written in this article is approximately what happens when we bricklayers build a brick base on a sopping piece of ground. So, I hope that I have not left behind any important description that would have helped the readers.

Now that we have built our imaginary house brick base, we believe that we have said enough in this article. So, see you in our next article, that will have a lot more information about, Building a veneer house. 

 To see more click on this link, House brick base continues 

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Building a house brick base.

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG YOU ARE INVITED , TO BROWSE AS LONG AS YOU LIKE. Anyhow, here I will publish my own diary and what I see happening in the world, and when I do not have much to say, I will write posts from my life story. 

Anyhow, you can also find this article at, http://oldman-lifeworks.blogspot.com,  

My other sites; https://sites.google.com/site/menfrancoreconciliation/  

Farming today compared to the old way, My life my struggles, 

Hub Pages, DIY brickwork. and this article at this link, Building a brick base. 

If you are building a house, you must first lay the foundarions. Above is shown a typical concrete foundation of a narrow long house on a sloping site. Note the concrete steps in the foundation, they should be set in such a way, that must be as high as one course of bricks, or several courses of bricks or blocks, or whateve is going to be laid on them. 

Welcome to our article, Building a brick base. 

Dear readers, in our last article, we started to tell you how to build a brick base, on a sloping site. I believe that the best thing to do is to talk in a way, as if we are building this house brick base step by step, so, let us start building it.

When we want to build a house, it is necessary to have a plan, but because we don’t have a plan, let us say that we are building a rectangular house base, which is about 8 meters wide and 12 meters long, it happens to be built on a sloping site.

Now, the foundations have been laid by the concreters and there are several concrete steps in it, because, of the slope in the land. So, the bricklayers need to pay more attention to the foundation levels. They cannot lay bricks and follow the foundations, set by the concreters, because they may not be level. In building every tradesman is responsible about his own work, so, it is wise to be careful that you don’t make mistakes, and if the trade before you have made a mistake try to adjust it, without making too much fuss if you can.

In the case of a stepped foundation, it is hard for concreters to set the concrete steps of the foundations at the right level, for the bricklayers to lay bricks on them without checking the levels, one of the reasons is that the steps in the concrete foundation may not be the same gauge of the brickwork that we are going to lay.    

As we have explained in our previous article about levels, we have already marked the level on the profiles and stretched a tight line above the southern brick wall; from this level line we can check the levels on the southern brick wall. 

Now, to make things easy let us start with one working bricklayer, let us assume that the bricklayer has marked the outside boundary corners and has started to lay a few bricks on the foundation; he is building a corner four bricks high at the lowest corner of the house. He has chosen to make the corner four brick high, because from his measurement he knows that there is a difference of three bricks in the foundation, therefore, his fourth brick on the corner that he is building now, is going to be level with the first brick on the opposite corner, having built his corner four bricks high and having laid his first brick on the other corner, now he can stretch his brickies line between these two points and start working his stretcher bond from his lowest corner, making sure that the bricks he lays are laid in line and level. 

Let me explain, in bricklaying it is important that the entire building is set in stretcher bond from the start, even if there are other types of bonds that are going to be used in the brickwork, because the stretcher bond is always the main bond, as this bond will continue throughout the building; therefore, the bricklayer cannot build the other corner until he runs a full course in stretcher bond from the first corner that he has built at the start, once that is done he can proceed to build both corners.   

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How we proceed to build a brick base.

Now, to give an easier description let us say that the foundation lowest corner of the house is the Southeast corner, the South West corner is three bricks higher than the South East corner and the other corners are higher than these two corners. Now as I have said the bricklayer has built this corner four bricks high and laid one brick at the west corner as marked, so, he is ready to lay brick, but before he does that he double check everything with his gauge rod, he checks from his line level that he has set above, or with the water level that his fourth brick in the corner is level with his first brick on the west corner, let us assume that they are level, so, they are the same course of bricks.

Now he can start laying brick in stretcher bond, from the South East corner working his way to the west corner, he sets his brickies line as he sees fit making sure that the levels and the alignment are right, when he reaches the fourth course, which is the first full course in this wall he tries to work out if he can start this whole wall in stretcher bond, without cutting any bricks by increasing or decreasing the perpendicular joints between the bricks, if he cannot achieve that, then one brick must be cut a bit shorter; small pieces are to be avoided as they are unsightly and they weaken to wall. While doing this job, one has to keep in mind that in a face brick wall the perpendicular joints become unsightly if they are bigger than the bed joint, therefore, it is better to keep the perpendicular joints smaller than the bed joint.

Now that the first course of bricks in stretcher bond has been laid from corner to corner, the bricklayer will lay bricks in the inside of this brickwork, if it is just a one brick thick wall he will lay the bricks right against the bricks he has already laid, but if it is a cavity wall then he has to set his inside wall as specified, most time this space between the walls is about 50mm. Now that the lowest wall has been set, he moves to work on the eastern wall, since this is the second lowest wall in this brick base.

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Working on the eastern brick wall. 

The eastern stepped concrete foundation is a longer foundation, and it has a difference in level of about 1.2 meter and this will be about 15 courses of bricks.

First, the bricklayer stretches the external line and a level tight line above the eastern wall, from these two lines he can check the outside alignment and the levels, then he checks and lays his first brick on the foundation near the first concrete step, as he has a four-brick high corner he can lay one to four brick next to the concrete steps. I must say here that it is hard to explain just by writing a text to show exactly how everything is done, but in building everything is common sense, so, use your imagination to see how things can be done.

Anyhow, let us assume that the bricklayer has set his bricks and now he is running his stretcher bond, from the south eastern corner to the north eastern corner of the house and the fourth course of bricks has been laid and the inside brick has been laid. At this point of time the bricklayer needs to build the south eastern corner higher to proceed with the works, unless another bricklayer is doing that for him. You see, I am writing this article as if there is a single bricklayer on the site at the beginning, but I am doing that because that is the only way to show you how we can start this brick base correctly.

Anyhow, at this point of time the bricklayer wants to add a couple more courses on the walls that he has started, so that his walls in this corner are higher than the ground and the trench then can be back filled at this corner of the house, so that it is easier for him and everybody else to work on level ground.

But before he does that, he knows that he must check what else needs to be done, he notes that there is an opening for a door after he lays another two or three courses of bricks and that he needs to reinforce his brickwork with some brick mesh reinforcement before the opening occurs, and there is also a dampcourse to be laid at the opening level, this dampcourse is only needed in this lower part of the base, because they are going to lay a concrete floor and build a couple of rooms under the house. The dampcourse is a thin layer of material that stops the dampness passing from the ground up and from one level to another; it works both ways depending on the way it is laid.

 In the specifications says that the reinforcement is needed every four courses and under and above all openings. So, he lays his mesh reinforcement on the walls and builds another corner three brick high, this is the level where the first opening occurs, it is also the level of the damp course. Here we need to note that to make it easier to understand what is happening, this south eastern corner is now seven bricks high form the foundation, at this point of time it is better that all the brickwork in the base is built to this level.

Once you have all the brickwork level, the dampcourse is laid according to the specification, and the first problem is solved in this lower part of the brick base. So, now the bricklayer/s can start building higher corners, as they did when he started, or if they want they can set bricklayer profiles if they are available, since now the brick walls at this lower end of the house are set at the right level and alignment.  

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To build a brick house you need a briklayer team. 

On the above written explanation, we have assumed as if there was only one bricklayer on the job, but to build a brick base a small gang of bricklayers and labour/s are needed, say two or three bricklayers and a labour. Sometimes there are no strict rules on the job, and they can help each other. Mind you this can only work with small gangs, and the bricklayer foreman is there to guide the team and help whoever needs help. On large team everyone has his own job to do, and when the unions have a say, they want you to do only your own job and nothing else, so, sometimes the unions are not helpful, but then again, they need to have their own rules otherwise they cannot exist.

Anyhow, let us go back to building this house brick base; now that the first part of the base has been started, the bricklayers must be careful to start the rest of the base correctly, so, they continue to lay brick and check for levels and alignments’ as they have done before, by building one wall at a time and a course at a time, until they bring all the brickwork level with the first brick on the foundation on the highest corner of the house foundation, here again everything must be checked and rechecked again, to make sure that everything is level and set at the right alignment and above all that there is no pig in the brickwork. To make sure there is no pig in it; all the walls must be built at this level and checked, and the last course must be a full closed ring. Then you can proceed to build everything to the finish height required.

I believe that this article has become too long, because of the explanations that are required, so, it is better if we write another article, and talk about what is going-on on the work site, while we are building this house brick base, and explain what is meant by a pig in the brickwork.

To make it easy to follow, this is the link to our next article, House brick base continues. 

To see more click on this link,  Building a brick base. 

See you soon.    

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