Support Wall Being Built

From my last post, the support wall foundation has been dug out and concrete with rebar poured into place. I left the foundaton concrete to set/harden for over a week, It is now ready for the support wall to be built.

Building anything out of brick is not that difficult, but be patient, there is a knack to it, after all its a skilled trade and very labour intensive. This support wall is going to give me plenty of practice before I start building my garage. The concrete mix is so important for your wall to function properly. I will put my tips and guides on bricklaying, rebar, concrete/cement mix's etc on later post's.

For the support wall, I'm using standard concrete blocks, these can be bought at most builder's merchant's. They are very strong, easy to lay and are not expensive (about 40p a block).

Here are the photo's of the support wall being built. You can see from the pictures that I am building "brick lights" in to the driveway wall for a nice effect when you use the driveway at night.

Any questions? Please leave a comment and I will respond. Thanks. Next blog, I will at last be starting my concrete foundations for my garage.

Dig Out Foundation For Support Wall

At last, I have now finished digging out my driveway and garage area. This took me around 6 weeks and was back breaking work (see other posts). I would like to take this chance to thank my two friends, Tony Pelligrini and John Balmer for all there help and muscle power. This saved me lots of time and money.





Now you see the area has been dug out, but before I can even think about starting my garage, I will have to put a support wall round the whole area that I have dug out. This is a must to stop soil and rainwater etc from soaking into the garage walls, also when the soils moves (which it will) it could put a lot of pressure/force on to the walls which can cause cracking of the brickwork.


To start the support wall, I must first mark out the wall foundation and then dig out the soil to the required depth/width needed for the wall foundation. The size needed is calculated on the size of the wall being built and the load on the wall. If in any doubt, contact an engineer. My wall was only four feet high with very low load, the concrete foundation for this was 12" wide and 6" deep (overkill for a small wall).


The support wall was not only to go round garage area, but also one side of my driveway, which is part of my patio. So I lifted my patio slabs and will start the support wall from my house and take this along the driveway and round the area of my garage build. This will give me a defined area to construct my garage.


These are the photos of me digging the support wall foundation :









My next post will show the support wall being built. Any questions? Feel free to leave a comment and I will respond. Thanks

More Photos Getting Land Ready For Foundation

As you can see from the pictures, I'm nearly finished the prep work and then I can start digging the foundations for the support wall to go round the whole area that I have dug out.

Here are some more photos of me digging the soil as I promised in last post.

Prepare Ground work For Garage Foundation

Hello everyone, welcome to my blog on building a brick garage. I'm not a builder, I'm an engineer and have always wanted my own double garage.

When I bought my house, I knew I wanted a double garage and my house was perfect for this to happen as I had lots of land and a very large driveway.

Before I could do anything, I had to contact my local council for planning permission, this process is an absolute must or you run the risk of being forced to pull the building back down. This would not happen if planning permission is given. I wont go in to planning Permission as the rules and laws vary all over the country. If in any doubt, just contact your local council office.

Planning permission approved, what next? In order to start the build, you will already know the size of garage you are wanting. Better having all this info on paper, believe me its easier.

I was ready to go, but before I could even think about my garage, I had to get a good level ground to start my "Garage Foundation". Unlucky for me my rear garden was on a hill and I had to extend my driveway too.

So I have lots of soil to remove, no problem. So I thought, I marked out my driveway and garage and calculated the amount of soil to be removed. This came to 15 tons. I then phoned a hire company to hire a mini digger, This was around £250 for the weekend, Great!! But when I phoned for a price on a skip, it was about £150 a skip and I needed about 7 or 8 skips. Problem was, I needed all the skips in the same weekend. The cost came to was around £1500 and this was before I even layed a brick.

I thought no chance, money was put aside for my build and I was doing it myself to save money and get the garage I wanted, so what was the answer? Dig it out with a shovel! It's free, It wont take me that long. (who was I kidding?)

So I bought a cheap car trailer on EBAY for £150 and started digging, and more digging, it was never ending. I broke 4 digging spades in a matter of weeks and my back was killing me. The worst part of digging out was not digging or the loading of the trailer, but the unloading at the recycle centre which meant I was double handling all the soil and giving myself twice the work.

My next blog will show the last of the digging and I can then start my foundations.

These are the photos of me digging out by hand: CRAZY