Bricklaying
Garden walls, piers, steps and retaining structures, built on proper footings with movement and drainage designed in.
About this service
Garden brickwork is structural even when it looks decorative. A retaining wall is holding back a measurable weight of wet soil; a boundary wall is taking wind load across its whole face. Both need a footing sized for the job and, in the case of retaining walls, somewhere for water to go.
We put in a concrete footing taken below the depth frost reaches — deeper again on shrinkable clay, which much of Greater Manchester sits on — build in weep holes and drainage behind anything retaining, and include movement joints on longer runs so that thermal movement cracks a joint rather than the brickwork. Copings are bedded to throw water clear of the face rather than let it run down it.
We match existing brick and mortar where the work joins something already there, which matters more than most people expect — a correctly coursed wall in the wrong mortar colour still looks wrong. If we cannot get a close match we will say so before starting rather than after.
What’s included
- Concrete footings sized for the wall and taken below frost depth
- Weep holes and drainage behind retaining brickwork
- Movement joints designed into longer runs
- Copings bedded to throw water clear of the face
- Brick and mortar matched to existing work where it joins
- Backed by our guarantee and fully insured
Our process
Setting Out & Footings
We set the line and levels, then excavate and pour a concrete footing sized for the height and load of the wall, taken below the depth frost reaches.
Damp Course & First Lifts
A damp-proof course is laid where required and the first courses are built off the footing, checked for level and line throughout.
Drainage & Movement
On retaining work we build in weep holes and drainage behind the wall. On longer runs we form movement joints at the correct centres.
Coursing
The wall is built up in lifts with consistent joints, matching the bond and mortar of any existing brickwork it meets.
Copings & Pointing
Copings are bedded to shed water clear of the face, joints are finished consistently, and the brickwork is cleaned down.