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There are many small jobs around the house and garden that when
broken down into simple stages become less daunting. Often these jobs
can be tackled in small stages to make things more manageable
especially if you’ve never done a particular job before. All it needs is a
little preparation and application and of course the help of our range of
handy, ready-mixed bagged materials.
There are specialist ready-to-use dry mixes for almost every job, from
simple bricklaying, through patching, rendering and the fixing of fence
posts, to the laying of concrete bases for sheds, slabs and patios.
For best results follow the step-by-step build process below
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Materials
Start by choosing the materials. Good quality facing bricks are essential
and Hanson have a wide range of colours and styles to choose from and
they can all be seen at www.hanson.com/uk. Use bricklaying mortar which
comes in handy 15kg Midipacks. It’s completely mixed, ready-to-use - you
just add water, so there’s no need to worry about sand and cement
proportions or grades as you would if you’re buying everything separately.
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Getting Started – The Method
Brickwork has staggered vertical joints so that no two line up. This
arrangement is called the bond and whilst there are many sorts, the
simplest is the ‘stretcher’ bond. However a wall produced using this bond
would not be very strong, so if it is more than about 40cm high, pillars need
to be built into the wall every so often for support. Sometimes you’ll need to
cut a brick and this is fairly easy using a wide blade chisel, tapped firmly
with a club hammer. Nicking grooves in both sides of the brick first helps -
and a sharp tap should split the brick neatly along the cuts.
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Foundations
The most important part of any wall is the foundation. Cut your foundations
square and horizontal. If there’s a slope you may have to step down to take
up the gradient, making each step a whole number of bricks. For a small
garden wall, a foundation around 35cm deep should be enough assuming
the soil is firm and well drained. Other. less stable ground may need 45cm -
50cm. Dig out the foundations to around twice the width of the brickwork.
Lay the concrete footing using Hanson multi purpose concrete to a depth of
about 15cm. Multi purpose concrete comes in 15kg Midipacks and 25kg
Maxipacks and of course there’s no need to worry about sand and cement
proportions or whether you have exactly the right material for the job in hand.
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Laying the bricks
With your foundations laid and some bricklaying mortar made up, stack
some bricks ready and put some mortar on your mortar board. Lay a course
of bricks dry first to see the work fits within the given space. Start with a
corner brick and bed it into the mortar. Stretch a string line from the laid
brick to the opposite corner of the wall and lay a second brick around a
metre along the line, checking the level with a the spirit level. Fill in between
the bricks and carry on this way until you reach the end. Build up the rows
concentrating on the ends and infilling in between. Keep checking all the
time that the rows of bricks are horizontal and that the wall is vertical by
using the spirit level and ensure too that the wall is straight by using a
‘straight edge’ along the face of the wall.
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