finishing off a garden wall

[briwire]

I've spent all summer building a 7 coarse high, double thickness garden wall and am nearing the end of the project, thank god.

I have built 6 piers, one and a half bricks square, 328mm, where the wall changes direction and where some steps up into the garden will go. I've ;ooked around the DIY and builder mercahnts for some pyramid pier caps. 380mm seems the best size, to give approx an inch overhang all around. The problem is that they look a bit cheap and nasty. When I look around the builders yards, they are chipped and damaged, and uneven around the edges where they have been in the mould.

Does anyone know of a supplier of some fancy caps?

Also, I am going away from the wall at 90 degrees with a wall either side of the steps. The top coarse will be bricks on their edges. This means that the end brick on each side will be showing the 3 holes. Is there a trick of the trade to mask this face of the brick.

 

[Thermo]

mitre them with a diamond saw

 

[happybrickie]

theres a place in Bury that ive used before not got the number to hand but i think its called forticrete artifical stone but look really good...

 

[Symptoms]

bri - see if the manufacturer of the bricks you are using does special shapes for your capping purposes. A single bullnose stretcher brick (layed on edge) might fit the bill. You could, of course cap the whole of that return with capping bricks (eg. bullnose or other profiles) in a contrasting colour/texture. You might also wish to consider the common occurance of the last plain 'capping' brick eventually working loose due to lack of support; the advantage of using a bullnose is there is no sharp edge to get knocked.