Double Wall

Put Up A Garden Wall From A Scaffold Tower

Building a brick wall can really be tempting to the amateur builder. There's a delightful element of calm that comes with wall building - with the detail and the repetition of it.

Although building load-bearing or major interior walls is best handed over a professional, no-one is going to tell you you shouldn't turn your hand to a garden wall, or even a brick wall for a shed. A wall at the end of your garden might be a good place to start.

While short walls require little more than time, cement mix, sand and lime, bricks, a flat board and a brickie's trowel, water, spray paint or a ball of twine, a spirit level, a tape measure and some stakes, if you'd like to attempt erecting a taller wall you might want to also hire a scaffold tower, so you can reach the higher parts of the wall easily and safely. By taking away the demand to stretch and overreach, you're likely to build a much straighter and truer wall. Check your council's building regulations before building a wall over 2 metres tall.

Before you start setting up your scaffold tower, you need to lay the all-important foundation. Check that the area you're building on has quite hard ground and easy drainage. Mark the area you want tobuild in, using spray paint or string and pegs.

With it all marked out, you need, quite simply, to get digging. If you're building a 2-metre wall, your foundations should be 45cm deep by sixty centimetres wide. When you've dug down deep (literally and figuratively!) put a peg at each end of your hole and mark them at the depth you want the foundations to be.

Prepare your cement. Foundation cement needs to be 1 part of cement to 5 parts of ballast; when it's ready, tip it into the hole, even it out, then leave it to set for 24 hours before building on it.

When the foundations are dry, and assuming you want tolay a 2m wall, you'll need to set up your scaffold tower. Scaffold towers come in very simple to assemble sets, usually with colour-coded parts. As they're on lockable rollers, access towers can be simply pushed from one end of your wall to the other with all of your equipment still in place, making the bricklaying far easier.

Scaffold tower and foundations prepared, ensure that you have 130 bricks per sq.m of double wall you're building - all walls over 75cm high should be double-thickness, so they're sure.

At last, it's time to prepare your mortar withthe cement, sand and lime and water. For sheltered walls, use 1 part cement, 1 part lime and 6 parts sand; if it's going to be licked by the weather, your wall should be stronger, so mix 1 part cement with ½ part lime and 4 parts sand. Prepare your mortar on a flat piece of wood, so you don't mess up your deck. First, pour on half of the sand, then pile in the rest of the ingredients before adding the remaining part of sand and mixing it up with a shovel. Make a well in the centre pour in a little water and start mixing with the trowel. Keep adding water until it is wet enough to slip off the trowel, but still keeps its shape when you make a hole in it. Mortar only remains good for a couple of hours, so don't overdo it!

Finally, you're ready to start actually laying the bricks! Place a brick sideways at the ends of your foundation and tie a piece of string between then, so you have a guide; scoop up a trowel of mortar, dash it next to the first brick, and lay a brick on top of it with the frog facing up (the frog is the depressed side of the brick- not a small amphibian!). You have laid your first brick. Repeat the scoop of mortar on the foundation, then scrape some mortar on the end of the next brick and place it next to the one you have already laid. Gently tap each brick down with the end of your trowel, so that they are level with the twine (also use a spirit level) and remove any excess mortar that has pushed out the sides. Repeat until there are two rows of bricks length of your foundations.

The next consideration should be what bond you want - the Flemish or English bond - each is great at holding up your wall; the decision is up to you down to personal preference.

Lay your wall up to a metre from the ground, then call your access tower into action. With the scaffold tower supporting you at just the right height, you'll be able to drift into your DIYer's happy place as you slap on the mortar and pile on brick after brick. All of a sudden you'll be bragging about how ache-free you are because you use a scaffold tower -- beside your first home-built wall, tapping your foot merrily on the access tower platform and thinking about what your next DIY project will be!

About the Author

Matt Browne offers his knowledge earned over 20 years' working in the construction industry. His passion is making working at height in all situations safer, and he is committed to helping you stay safe in your DIY exploits. Get in touch with Matt at
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 4th, 2006 at 8:36 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.