We’ve not been lazy – promise! It’s actually quite the opposite, but it’s all just not very exciting or pretty. Our lack of progress will probably not convince you that we’re busy, but everything is just taking so much longer than we’d like or had anticipated.
In case you’ve not already guessed what project we’ve been working on, we’re referring to our garden wall. Our last progress update was weeks ago and although we’ve been continuously working on it, progress is really slow now.
After hours and hours of taking down the wall brick by brick, and then cleaning each one by chipping away the mortar this is what the wall looks like now.
It’s almost gone!
We’re so relieved that it’s almost over! We’ve worked out that to rebuild the wall we’ll need about 800 bricks. Up till now we’ve cleaned about 500. There are a few still lying around, but a lot of them are broken so we’re now worried, that we may end up not having enough bricks to complete the project.
Somehow this all seemed much easier in theory than in practice. We’re still not 100% convinced that we should rebuild the wall ourselves, but after some encouragement by you guys, it’s looking quite likely that we’ll be attempting it!
Have you ever built a wall? Do you have any tips for us? Do you think it’s something that we can do ourselves? Or is it something that should be left to the professionals?
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It is hard work knocking down brick with recycling as an ambition. I am sure you can rebuild it if the foundation is already there. watch some tutorials, take your time and measure a lot. The professionals have a different view on it though. My husband is a bricklayer, he has done entire houses, and i cant get him to do anything with a visible brick surface. He would rather have one with a couple of decades experience to do it, but he is a serious perfectionist…
If you use lime mortar it will be easier to knock down again if you are not happy, (cement binds harder) and it gives a nice light color. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Louise! We’re practicing brick laying on the wall we’re building for the raised bed. It’s definitely so much harder than it looks! If it works out okay, we’ll probably try and attempt the long garden wall ourselves, too.
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