Low level decorative brick wall in garden...

[Minkeycat]

I've had a "dry built" brick wall in the garden for a little over a year. It's quite cool because it's made of old bricks and is "frog faced" because I wanted to display all the various patterns and wordings on the bricks. It's worked well although the dogs and the cat have knocked bricks out of it on a fairly frequent basis so I'm now thinking of properly cementing it all together. It's only 4 or 5 bricks high, laid on their sides and won't be weight bearing but I'm wondering, will it need a foundation and if so, how big and how should I create it?

As ever, all construction advice much appreciated.

 

[Flyfisher]

Rebuilding the wall with mortar won't add much to the ground pressure of the wall so if it has been ok without foundations until now (except for the dogs and cats!) then it'll probably remain ok. On the other hand, 'about a year' isn't very long to determine the real stability of the ground and if it has moved slightly the effect would likely be unnoticed with a 'dry' wall compared with a mortared wall that would crack if there is any movement.

Given my usual tendency to over-engineer such things, I'd probably dig a shallow trench about six inches deep and two bricks wide, add a couple of inches of hardcore and tamp (or vibrate) it well down before pouring about four inches of concrete as a foundation for the new brickwork. Just the concrete would probably also be ok, but I have loads of old rubble and bags of 'ballast' (sharp sand with 20mm aggregates) lying around so it's easy for me to use.

Alternatively, just reposition the bricks when the dogs get a bit frisky and dislodge them and then find something else to worry about. :wink:

 

[george2019]

If you're willing to take a risk (i.e. might not last):

Scrap off all organics soil down to the subsoil
Backfill with stone, compact by tamping down and level

Start building! If your fill isn't well graded, 50mm of concrete would make it a much sturdier build up and give a better level to work from.

It'll probably still start to break apart in 10 years due to freeze/thaw action, but for the purpose of a low cost decorative wall, would be sufficient.

 

[MikeG]

It won't need much of a foundation (as described by george2019 is more than enough, but use hardcore/ rubble rather than stone if you have the latter to hand), but the mortar joints will break up relatively rapidly. Use a weak mortar, otherwise the bricks will break, not the mortar. I don't think I've ever seen bricks laid "frogs out". A photo or two after the job is done would be nice.

 

[Minkeycat]

Many thanks all. Hopefully will have the wall sorted in the next few weeks. I've never actually attempted bricklaying before so I'm a little nervous about posting photos but if it looks half way decent, I'll post a few.
All the best