Facing Bricks

For a normal single-skin wall (one brick thick) you need about 60 bricks per square metre. For a thicker double-skin wall, double it to 120. Whateveryou'rebuilding, order around 5% extra to cover cuts and the odd breakage.

As a rough guide, 1,000 brickstake about one bulk bag of building sand and six to eight bags of cement, mixedroughly fourparts sand to one part cement. Bigger joints use a bit more, soit'sworth rounding up. A squirt of plasticiser makes the mix nicer to work with than piling in extra cement.

Use a hammer drill with a masonrybit, andgo into the face of the brick rather than the mortar line if the fixinghas tohold any weight. Take it slow, blow the dust out, then push in a wall plug and screw into that. Ifyou'vegot a lot of holes to do, or the brick'sreally hard, an SDS drill makes light work of it.

Start with a solid concrete footing, about twice as wide as the wall, and let it set hard before you build on it. Run a string line to keep you straight, lay your bricks on a bed of mortar about 10mm thick, and checkit'slevel and upright every row. Finish the top with a coping to keep the rainout, andadd piers (thicker sections) if thewall'sgoing above knee height.

Mix your mortar four parts sand to one partcement, andonly make as much as you can lay in an hour before it goes off. Butter mortar onto the end of each brick, tap it down to a neat joint, and keep checking back against your string line and level. Take your time on the bottomrow, becauseevery row above follows it.

Give the wall a clean and a splash of water, then put on a thin base coat of mortar (about five parts sand to one cement) and scratch the surface so thetop coatgrips. Oncethat'sfirmed up, put your finishing coat on and smooth it off. Work out of direct sun if you can, and keep it slightly damp for a day ortwoso itdoesn'tcrack.

Usually not for a wall up to 1 metre high next to a road or path, or up to 2 metres anywhere else. Taller walls, or any wall holding back soil (a retaining wall), can need proper approval, soit'sworth a quick call to the council before you start.