The usual advice when building a garden wall from either bricks or
pre-formed concrete blocks is:
Dig the footings
Prepare concrete foundations
Have the first course of bricks/blocks below ground level.

Now that may be ok with cheap housebricks but these pre-formed concrete
'Bradstone' blocks are not that cheap and to have a whole course of a long
wall beneath the ground seems an awful waste.

I cannot see the logic of it either. Surely the bond between the bottom
course and the rough surface of the concrete footings will be as strong as
the bond between the first and second course of bricks/blocks? If that is
the case, what is served by having a complete lower course below ground
level?

Kev

"Uno Hoo!" wrote in message
...
The usual advice when building a garden wall from either bricks or
pre-formed concrete blocks is:
Dig the footings
Prepare concrete foundations
Have the first course of bricks/blocks below ground level.

Now that may be ok with cheap housebricks but these pre-formed concrete
'Bradstone' blocks are not that cheap and to have a whole course of a long
wall beneath the ground seems an awful waste.

I cannot see the logic of it either. Surely the bond between the bottom
course and the rough surface of the concrete footings will be as strong as
the bond between the first and second course of bricks/blocks? If that is
the case, what is served by having a complete lower course below ground
level?

Kev

I'm guessing, but I think the footings need to be below the frost affected
layer,
so that automatically means that you'll need a layer of blocks on top of it
just
to reach the surface. Can you not economise by using breeze blocks as the
first course, as they will not be seen?

Andy.

"Andy" wrote in message
...

"Uno Hoo!" wrote in message
...
The usual advice when building a garden wall from either bricks or
pre-formed concrete blocks is:
Dig the footings
Prepare concrete foundations
Have the first course of bricks/blocks below ground level.

Now that may be ok with cheap housebricks but these pre-formed concrete
'Bradstone' blocks are not that cheap and to have a whole course of a
long wall beneath the ground seems an awful waste.

I cannot see the logic of it either. Surely the bond between the bottom
course and the rough surface of the concrete footings will be as strong
as the bond between the first and second course of bricks/blocks? If that
is the case, what is served by having a complete lower course below
ground level?

Kev

I'm guessing, but I think the footings need to be below the frost affected
layer,
so that automatically means that you'll need a layer of blocks on top of
it just
to reach the surface. Can you not economise by using breeze blocks as the
first course, as they will not be seen?

I had already decided on that 'course' (!) of action! I was just interested
to discover the reason for the recommendation.

Kev

"Owain" wrote in message
...
Uno Hoo! wrote:
The usual advice when building a garden wall from either bricks or
pre-formed concrete blocks is:
Dig the footings
Prepare concrete foundations
Have the first course of bricks/blocks below ground level.
Now that may be ok with cheap housebricks but these pre-formed concrete
'Bradstone' blocks are not that cheap and to have a whole course of a
long wall beneath the ground seems an awful waste.
I cannot see the logic of it either. Surely the bond between the bottom
course and the rough surface of the concrete footings will be as strong
as the bond between the first and second course of bricks/blocks? If that
is the case, what is served by having a complete lower course below
ground level?

I think for garden walls the point is that the garden (lawn etc) can
continue over the footings right up to the wall, thus avoiding the ugly
footings being visible.

If you don't mind the footings being visible then I think they can be
(there might be Building Regs requirements for frost protection as Andy
(Preece) said, but that would be for a building wall not a garden wall
IYSWIM), but if you're spending money on expensive blocks would you want a
length of concrete at the bottom spoiling it?

Actually, the footings would not show because on one side the patio flagging
comes right up to the walling blocks and on the other side the concrete
would be covered with an edging strip that will surround the lawn.
My query was more to do with the reasoning behind the recommendation that
the lowest course should be below ground. Initially I felt that this may be
to make the wall 'stronger' - but as I pointed out in the initial post, the
mortar bond between concrete footing and bottom course should be equally as
strong as the bond between the first and second courses.

Kev

On Wed, 24 Aug 2005 23:17:49 +0100, "Uno Hoo!"
wrote:

The usual advice when building a garden wall from either bricks or
pre-formed concrete blocks is:
Dig the footings
Prepare concrete foundations
Have the first course of bricks/blocks below ground level.

Now that may be ok with cheap housebricks but these pre-formed concrete
'Bradstone' blocks are not that cheap and to have a whole course of a long
wall beneath the ground seems an awful waste.

I cannot see the logic of it either. Surely the bond between the bottom
course and the rough surface of the concrete footings will be as strong as
the bond between the first and second course of bricks/blocks? If that is
the case, what is served by having a complete lower course below ground
level?

Kev


The row below ground allows you to hide the messy foundations with
ground. I'd use cheep concrete bricks for the first row.

Rick