Re: House - update
 

Sorry, I couldn't resist...

Ed's got aspirations, moving up from solicitor to pikey builder. He's already got the caravan and the building site. Don't be surprised if he's looking for a couple of pit bulls and a tattoo by the end of the week.

But seriously, that looks dead good. Worth staying in a caravan for.

Keith.

Re: House - update
 

Phil, I just wish I'd done something more practical. I'm learning fast but not fast enough. I even tried brickying, wasn't very good:rolleyes:

Re: House - update
 

Not easy, especially with little house bricks where everything has to be perfect. TRy block laying with more uneven stone first, then move on to brick laying. In a moment I'll stick up some pics of the stuff I did to my house in Scotland.

Re: House - update
 

Here's a photobucket slideshow of the stuff I did in order to put conservatory and garage into my sloping back garden, extending and rechipping the driveway, relocating existing and installing new drainage, building retaining walls, and laying patios & pathways

http://s227.photobucket.com/albums/d...t=58c4ab7a.pbw

The slideshow starts with the end result and work backwards, but you'll get the drift.

I don't actually have photo's of how much of the driveway I had to rebuild, but what you see of the photo with the SV in the garage, most of that from the front door of the house backwards was destroyed in the process and had to be re-layed.

Re: House - update
 

Nice work Col, i wouldnt be suprised if that wall moves over time though, frost can make the ground shift something terrible.
With something like that a 6 inch buffer of shingle between the wall and the earth would help with drainage and stop the wet ground freezing and shifting your nice new wall.
A double skin is recommended as well to give it move mass.

Nice work, cheating with them big blocks though ;)

Re: House - update
 

...and this is what the back garden looked like before I started, taken from the spot where the garage now stands, and looking towards the back door, where the conservatory now stands, so a good 2/3rd of the garden had to be excavated down to the same level as the end of the driveway where the BMW sits. Where I am standing to take this photo the ground was 1.2 metres above this level

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/d...l/CIMG0859.jpg

Re: House - update
 

The gap between the excavation and the wall was backfilled with all the large stones from the excavation, then all the original red chips from the driveway, so it's only the top 10cm below the grass, that actually has soil touching the back of the wall. Maybe a 6 inch buffer at the bottom of the wall and a foot buffer at the top.

I couldn't be ar$ed with double skin TBH, so I built pillars into the wall every 6ft to give a bit of extra strength

Re: House - update
 

So, ignore my last post then ;)

On bigger walls id suggest a weeper with weep holes in the joints every now and then, if you can control the water, the ground wont move as much :)

Re: House - update
 

You can see an example of the pillars I built in on this pic, two half blocks put in sideways on one course, two engineering bricks behind the next course, then two sideways blocks on the next course done after this pic, and so on. Don't know if that will be enough to hold it, time will tell, but Euan is just a wee baby there when I was doing the last patio, to it's held up to three winters so far.

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/d...l/CIMG2782.jpg

Re: House - update
 

Cant see pic mate, btw im not picking at your work, it looks a top job and you got to play with big toys :)

I can see it now.

Trench blocks are good for a good base, use them on the inner skin, face bricks on the outside.