Brick Wall Construction

Building a brick wall is not as difficult as its seems; you just need to get the basics right. Choosing good quality material for the brick wall and putting your efforts are the two factors which play a crucial role in the brick wall construction. More importantly, building it on your own will also help you save a decent sum of money. The investment involved in it will include the money spent in buying the necessary material, and some of your valuable time, ideally a weekend.

Brick Wall Requirements

The overall cost incurred will depend on the quality of the building material you use, and where you get it from. We recommend buying good quality bricks and cement, even if it costs a bit extra, as that will directly reflect on the longevity of your wall. Other than bricks, cement and water you will also require some masonry tools to build a brick wall. These tools will include trowel, i.e. a small hand tool with a flat metal blade, shovel, measuring tape, a level indicator for horizontal surfaces, etc. Once you are ready with all the tools, you can start building the brick wall.

Brick Wall Construction Guide

The durability of the brick wall depends on the foundation structure or the footing of the wall, and hence the foundation structure should be strong enough to the carry the entire load. The ratio of the wall and foundation should ideally be 3:1, which means for every 3 feet wall above the ground, you should have a foot deep foundation. If you want to construct a 6 feet tall wall, its foundation should be two feet. Ideally, the foundation should be in an inverted T shape, with the extra footing on either side of the wall. If you intend to build a brick wall of the width of two bricks, your foundation should have the width of 4 bricks.

You can start by digging the ground and laying the foundation using the mortar mix and bricks. Mortar mix is prepared by mixing cement, sand with water. Follow the manufacturers instructions to decide on the proportion of these material required to make the mortar mix. Too dry or too wet mortar will not be suitable for the construction. Make sure that there are no gaps in the foundation, Fill all the gaps using the trowel to feed the mortar in them.

Once the foundation is laid, allow it to dry for sometime. After it dries, you can start the construction of the remaining wall. Pour some water on the bricks to make them wet, so that they don't absorb water from the mortar and make it dry powdery and ineffective. Start the construction from one side of the foundation. Using the trowel prepare a layer of mortar on the foundation, and keep a brick on either end of the foundation. Use a cord and fasten it around the bricks placed at both the ends. This cord will ensure that the alignment of bricks is in a straight line. Once the cord is in place put some mortar along the base, and set the brick on it. After the first brick is set, put some mortar on the side and set the second brick. Continue in similar sequence until the entire layer is over.

You will have to be careful as to not leave any space in between these bricks. Using the trowel you will have to fill all the gaps that are visible. Use the level indicator to ensure that the alignment is correct. Start with the second layer of the bricks in similar fashion as you did the first one. Continue with subsequent layers until you get the desired height. Allow it to dry for sometime and your brick wall is complete.

In order to make the wall clean and presentable, you will have to brush off the excess mortar on it. If you intend to build a wall with stone, the basic process will be same, however, you might have to abide by some specific instructions required for that particular stone type.