Garden Wall Project - help required

spiidey · 16 Jul 2014

r896neo said:
You should ideally use a geotextile membrane like terram 100 or equivalent. On a wall your height its probably not going to be an issue if you use 20mm gravel in your drainage backfill.

Should we be using a membrane between the backfill soil and the free draining gravel?

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Thistle Timber do "20-10mm gravel" for £5/bulk bag less than B&Q, and it comes washed. Is "20-10mm" gravel ok for what we're doing?

http://www.thistlebuildingsupplies.co.uk/pdfs/price_guide/Price List A5 April 2014 Web.pdf

(2nd page under "Aggregates and Sands Bulk Bags")

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What type of sand do we need that ties in with the Marshalls guidance:-

http://www.marshalls.co.uk/homeowne...rmation-sheets/croft-stone-garden-walling.pdf

(Stage 2 on first page)

Washed Building Sand
Washed Concrete Sand
Granite Sand
White Coloured Sand
Something else?

http://www.thistlebuildingsupplies.co.uk/pdfs/price_guide/Price List A5 April 2014 Web.pdf

r896neo · 16 Jul 2014

that aggregate sounds fine.

As i said, a membrane is a good idea but only if its the right type. A highly draining geotextile such as terram 1000, multitrac 1000 or equivalent is what you need but i wouldn't be terribly worried about it in your small wall if you can't get hold of it easily.

the 20-10mm gravel will be fine.

As for the sand the coarser the better. Sharp sand/ Grit sand.

spiidey · 16 Jul 2014

r896neo said:
that aggregate sounds fine.

As i said, a membrane is a good idea but only if its the right type. A highly draining geotextile such as terram 1000, multitrac 1000 or equivalent is what you need but i wouldn't be terribly worried about it in your small wall if you can't get hold of it easily.

the 20-10mm gravel will be fine.

As for the sand the coarser the better. Sharp sand/ Grit sand.

Thanks.

Is this the correct product (appears I can order by the square metre here):-

http://mobile.green-tech.co.uk/prod...s/ground-cover-and-textiles/terram-1000-white

And just to confirm, I'm only using this membrane on the vertical between the back filled soil and the back filled clean drainage stone?

r896neo · 17 Jul 2014

Yes on both questions.

spiidey · 18 Jul 2014

The last thing for us to establish before we start the works for the wall is to understand what existing service/utility lines are in our back garden, so we don’t hit anything untoward whilst excavating the earth (we’re planning on hiring a digger to do this).

With that in mind, I contacted “Dial Before You Dig” who I have to say were a bit snooty on the phone and not really helpful at all.

They informed me that there “should be” (!!) 4 companies in the area for the main utilities:-

Scottish Water
Scottish Gas
Scottish Power
BT

And that all of the utility connections are likely to be from the road to the front of the house, therefore not impacting on any works we’re doing in the back garden.

I asked if there were any other companies in the area and got a woolly reply, and that I would need to wait on all the companies coming back to me within 10 working days.

I then contacted Scottish Power direct who very kindly provided me with a site plan showing the only electric power cable coming from the road at the front to the front of the house, so everything looks ok for us from that point of view.

However, the last thing I want to do is start excavation and end up frazzling myself and am extremely nervous about how many companies I actually need to come back to me – e.g. is there more than 1 electric supplier (i.e. could there be another on top of Scottish Power)?

What level of comfort do other posters require/need when undertaking this kind of project?

Also, what other precautions should I take when mechanically excavating the earth?

spiidey · 19 Jul 2014

We've just had delivery of various materials for the job (Type 1, 20mm Gravel, Sharp Sand, Topsoil).

They've been delivered in bulk bags, which are open to the elements.

There are thunderstorms with significant levels of rain forecast today - do we need to cover each of these bags from rain, or not?

r896neo · 19 Jul 2014

cover the top soil, if you have enough tarps do the sand too. The others won't matter.

As for excavating drains should be obvious based on gulley positions and mahnoles. It would be highly unusual for any other services to be at the rear of a house. Water and electric will almost certainly come from the nearest road.

spiidey · 19 Jul 2014

r896neo said:
cover the top soil, if you have enough tarps do the sand too. The others won't matter.

As for excavating drains should be obvious based on gulley positions and mahnoles. It would be highly unusual for any other services to be at the rear of a house. Water and electric will almost certainly come from the nearest road.

Brilliant, thank you r896neo.

spiidey · 19 Jul 2014

We're now moving onto trying to build a step section in the middle of the front/small wall.

What we had in mind for the wall itself was the following (see picture below).

Because we've not excavated any earth it has been a tad tricky to try and arrange the bricks loosely in order to illustrate what we're trying to do, but hopefully the attached diagram isn't too difficult to follow.

Questions:-

1. Are the Croft Stone Walling Blocks suitable for use as risers, if so, do we need to mortar between them / use M-fix?
2. We'd intend filling the yellow hatched area with Type 1, compacted down, and then bedding with sand and slabbing/flagging over the top of this, to create the first tread. Is this method ok i.e. using Type 1/sand rather than a concrete strip bed?
3. Anything else we need to take into account?

spiidey · 21 Jul 2014

Anyone able to help with this?

r896neo · 22 Jul 2014

your plan is ok. Fill the treads with concrete and then bed the slabs on a bed of strong wet 3:1 mortar to ensure good adhesion.

Point or not its up to your.

If you use a 200mm riser and a slab plus bed on top it'll be far to high for a step.

200 +40 flag +25 bedding is nearly a foot.

spiidey · 22 Jul 2014

r896neo said:
your plan is ok. Fill the treads with concrete and then bed the slabs on a bed of strong wet 3:1 mortar to ensure good adhesion.

Point or not its up to your.

If you use a 200mm riser and a slab plus bed on top it'll be far to high for a step.

200 +40 flag +25 bedding is nearly a foot.

Thanks for this.

For each riser, on the back of your helpful reply we've decided to go for 100mm brick + 40mm flag + 25mm bedding = 165mm total rise. Thoughts?

For each riser, the croft bricks are 100mm high plus a 10mm lip at the back that extends downwards (so at the lip, the brick is 110mm high in total).

http://www.marshalls.co.uk/homeowne...rmation-sheets/croft-stone-garden-walling.pdf

Taking the first riser as an example, do we:-

1. Bed one brick onto 100mm concrete, with this one brick above ground level (i.e. the top of the concrete would be level with the ground) and so this one brick acting as the riser;
2. Bed one brick onto 100mm concrete, with this first brick fully below ground level, and a second brick (on top of the 1st brick) above ground level and so acting as the riser, with mortar between bricks;
3. Bed one brick onto 100mm Type 1, with this one brick above ground level (i.e. the top of the concrete would be level with the ground) and so this one brick acting as the riser;
4. Bed one brick onto 100mm Type 1, with this first brick fully below ground level, and a second brick (on top of the 1st brick) above ground level and so acting as the riser, with mortar between bricks;

All options assume concrete fill for remainder of tread and flag mortared (strong wet 3:1) on top.

wrathkeg · 22 Jul 2014

spiidey said:
For each riser, on the back of your helpful reply we've decided to go for 100mm brick + 40mm flag + 25mm bedding = 165mm total rise. Thoughts?

That would be fine.

Andyc84 · 23 Jul 2014

Assuming your first riser will be in line with the front of the wall as in your picture above, I would bed onto the concrete footing, assuming you'll have a strip foundation for the whole wall...

spiidey · 23 Jul 2014

Andyc84 said:
Assuming your first riser will be in line with the front of the wall as in your picture above, I would bed onto the concrete footing, assuming you'll have a strip foundation for the whole wall...

We're using a Type 1 foundation for the wall in line with the Marshalls guidance for the Croft Stone Brick.

Assume there's nothing stopping us from using a concrete footing just for the step section though?

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Garden Wall Project - help required

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