Exterior yard wall - knock down and rebuild or strengthen single skin side

[Sal99939]

Hi all,

Hope you are well.

I have a rental property where there was an exterior toilet and storage room. This has been knocked down and the relevant pipe work capped off.

What’s left is part a single skin wall and part a double skin wall.

I was thinking to have it knocked down and re-built, as I was unsure of the stability of the single skin side.

Pictures below.

What would you guys do?

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

Definitely don't muck about patching and propping it up. Take it down, rebuild re-using the bricks.

 

[Sal99939]

Definitely don't muck about patching and propping it up. Take it down, rebuild re-using the bricks.

You would re-use the existing bricks? I was thinking to use new bricks as there doesn’t seem to be enough.

Also what is the best way to stabilise the party wall its connected to?

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

They're good bricks, they're survivors - if they weren't strong and frost-proof they wouldn't be there.

You could use new on the inner side, original outside (or vice versa). Or reclaimed similar ones.

You may have enough anyway, it depends what height you want.

If the party wall's also knackered then talk to your neighbours, replacing that at the same time will cost less if all done at once and you share the cost of that part.

 

[jj4091]

If you mean the party wall to the right of the back gate then it looks to be a 9 inch solid wall and quite stable but hard to tell from the pic. . it may be due for some pointing doing.the outside of the dividing piller definately does.

 

[noseall]

What would you guys do?

Reduce the height for one thing. 2.4m (H) of unrestrained wall is not going to fare well. Something more appealing like 1.8m tall. Enough for privacy etc.

Is the boundary wall currently one brick thick or half brick thick, i.e. single skin?

 

[Ivor Windybottom]

The original wall (next to the gate) is around 1.8m. The taller part is where an outbuilding was.

It's hard to tell from the photo but it looks like next-door may still have an outbuilding. So obviously care and thought needed to decide what height where.

 

[Tigercubrider]

You could build a single skin wall with pillars?
Depends on what uses fewer bricks.
Or - if you plan on a shed, build the new inner wall with concrete blocks so the outside looks consistent.