Building a block wall advice
Discussion
New boundary wall - roughly 1m, turn right, 30m, turn right, 5m, turn right and finally another 5m.
Just a wall, not retaining, one side will be timber clad and the other side a mix of smooth render and stone faced.
Nothing will ever be hung/grown/attached to the wall.
Height will be approx 1.8m.
Will be using solid breeze blocks, on their face.
Will it need buttresses? If so how many and what spacing?
Just a wall, not retaining, one side will be timber clad and the other side a mix of smooth render and stone faced.
Nothing will ever be hung/grown/attached to the wall.
Height will be approx 1.8m.
Will be using solid breeze blocks, on their face.
Will it need buttresses? If so how many and what spacing?
Not sure if you are using breeze (cinder) blocks or aggregate blocks, which are available as either dense aggregate, (e.g Topcrete) or medium density (e.g Hemelite) blocks. for external use, You should use at least a 7 N/mm2 block type, as these are resistant to freeze thaw conditions, as well as up to Class III sulfates, which can be found in some sub soils.
For a wall of the length described, movement joints would be needed, but these can be reduced or possibly even eliminated if some form of bed joint reinforcement, eg, (Brick tor) is used, which also protects the wall from side loads, and if failure of some part of the foundations of the wall occurs. For external use the stainless steel Brick tor should be used, as the galvanized version is intended for use only in the protected inner leaf of a cavity wall.
By laying blocks on face the wider stance (typically 215mm compared to 100 mm) of the wall does provide some increased stability but ironically a wall formed from blocks laid on face is not as strong as the same wall formed using two leaves of blocks laid in the normal way with a 15mm gap (and ties) between them owing to the aspect ratio of the blocks themselves. This can be countered to an extent by using stronger blocks but for an external wall carrying no building loads, a 7N/mm2 block should be adequate.
For a wall of the length described, movement joints would be needed, but these can be reduced or possibly even eliminated if some form of bed joint reinforcement, eg, (Brick tor) is used, which also protects the wall from side loads, and if failure of some part of the foundations of the wall occurs. For external use the stainless steel Brick tor should be used, as the galvanized version is intended for use only in the protected inner leaf of a cavity wall.
By laying blocks on face the wider stance (typically 215mm compared to 100 mm) of the wall does provide some increased stability but ironically a wall formed from blocks laid on face is not as strong as the same wall formed using two leaves of blocks laid in the normal way with a 15mm gap (and ties) between them owing to the aspect ratio of the blocks themselves. This can be countered to an extent by using stronger blocks but for an external wall carrying no building loads, a 7N/mm2 block should be adequate.
Steel re-inforcing cage in the foundations,a cast concrete ring beam to all of the top of the wall. Try and use hollow ploy concrete blocks on the ends and corners. Upright steel rods coming up from the foundations into the pot blocks,then pour wet concrete into pot blocks at the same time you cast the ring beam.
It won't move anywhere.
It won't move anywhere.
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