If you’ve been wondering how to mark the boundaries of your garden, brick walls yield myriad advantages. For a start, they last significantly longer than fences, are stronger, and provide a higher level of privacy and more noise blocking. Apart from anything else, brick walls look great. What’s more, these barriers are cheaper and easier to build than you may have thought, while offering considerable design flexibility. Finally, you could even find they enhance the value of your property.
It’s a good idea to build yours well before the late autumn and winter set in, while the conditions are still good enough for the mortar to cure properly, resulting in durable, long-lasting structures. If it’s too cold, the mortar may freeze.
Things to think about before installing a brick wall:
- Height limits and planning permission
Particularly near roads or public footpaths, garden wall height is restricted. Typically, a wall near a road should be no more than a metre high. Elsewhere, it can be up to 2m in height. Check with your local planning authority, but you may not need planning permission if your structure is freestanding, is not part of a listed building or a protected site and does not exceed maximum height limits.
- Drainage
Good drainage is essential to stop water from pooling around the wall’s base, which can lead to damage and instability. You could also think about having a membrane to stop salt and water migration.
- Materials
You’ll want durable, high-quality and weather-resistant bricks which can withstand whatever the UK climate throws at them. Don’t forget to use an equally good-quality mortar mix at the same time, so that you create a strong bond between the bricks.
- Regular inspections
As part of looking after your brick wall, inspect it frequently for any indications of damage, including loose bricks or cracks, and resolve any issues quickly.
- Structural considerations
There are a number of other, more technical and structural aspects to think about as well, from the importance of having a solid foundation for your wall to deciding how thick it should be. Additionally, if you have movement joints (specially designed gaps) at 6m intervals in your wall, this deals with the expansion and contraction caused by temperature and moisture fluctuations.
The perfect brick wall for your garden from AS Landscapes
At Surrey-based AS Landscapes, also covering Ascot and Windsor and around, we can help you to have the best wall for your garden or other outdoor space, whatever the style of your property. Indeed, we specialise in walling and brickwork. So talk to us whether you want a retaining, boundary or feature wall. We’ll be with you from initial concept and design through to installation and aftercare, with sky-high standards of design, quality and craftmanship from start to finish.
We also do repairs, coping or capping plus bespoke consultations. We’re adept at using bricks, concrete blocks with cladding and a variety of natural stone. Whatever your garden needs, we can design a wall which suits it to perfection.
Get in touch with us today for an initial consultation, free of charge and without obligation.
Call 01932 253602 or email [email protected], tell us a bit about what you need and we’ll take it from there.