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DESIGN AND PLANNING

The art of working with bricks relies on the coordination between mind, hand and eye: the key words are planning, rhythm, repetition and timing. The trick is to fit the components together with the minimum of measuring and as few cuts as possible. If you do have to make a cut, the challenge is to get it right the first time! If you can use the bricks as you find them—new, salvaged, seconds or left over from another job—so much the better.

Choosing a suitable project

Sometimes it is easy to get carried away and build something massive that dominates the space and frankly looks out of place, because the scale is wrong and the style is not suitable. So before you decide what to build, take stock of your garden or yard and consider how to improve it. If it is cluttered, you may want to rebuild an existing feature to make it smaller, stronger or more decorative. If the area is a bombsite or a blank canvas, design the whole garden first; when you are ready to build brickwork projects, make sure they fit into the overall scheme.

Garden features are more than basic structures that are constructed out of necessity—they are also decorative. You may need to change the appearance or style of a project to suit your garden. For example, a simple, well-proportioned brick planter would suit a modern scheme, but for a Victorian garden, it would be more appropriate to incorporate detailing and decoration. From a safety point of view, avoid building ponds and some water features if you have young children.

FIRST CONSIDERATIONS

• What do you want to achieve? Write down the aspects that are important to you, and look at magazines, books and other people’s gardens to assess the possibilities. If necessary, change our project designs to suit your needs.

• Bricks are made in many colors and textures. Do some research into what is available, and see what you like.

• To make a project fit better into your space, you may have to consider changing its size, shape and proportions. Would it, for example, look better as a larger but low, long and thin structure, or as a square rather than round structure? Use the dimensions of a brick to dictate the precise overall project dimensions—working in a number of whole bricks wherever possible. (See here for how to cut bricks.)

• Location and orientation are important. Mark the envisaged position with sticks, plastic sheet or plywood, and look out for possible problems such as the blocking of routes through the garden, unfortunate viewpoints and the casting of shadows.

• If the project is a pond or water feature, does it require a long trench to be dug in the garden to bury a power cable, and is this possible?

• Are there parts of a project’s construction that you don’t understand? Try working out the problem on paper or mocking up the structure with real materials.

• Calculate the costs and time involved, to make sure that the project is feasible.

Siting: Deciding where on the site—in the garden or on the plot—the structure is going to be placed. The aspect, sun, shade and proximity to the house may need to be taken into consideration.

Planning the project

The first part of a project (and one of the most important) is deciding on its precise size and location. For a patio outside your back door, for example, you need to know its finished height, how it slopes in order to drain rainwater away from the house, and its exact size to the nearest brick and mortar joint.

In the projects in this book, a lot of the planning has been done for you, but do take note of any advice or exceptions that suggest you might need to revise the design, and which refer you to a page within this techniques section. Do a survey of the site and draw simple scaled diagrams on graph paper, showing how the foundation is constructed and how the project is built. Some structures pose more obvious planning problems: steps, for example, have to conform to certain dimensions, otherwise you will trip over them; walls that are too high or long can lean or fall down without the benefit of extra support (see here).

Every brickwork project requires a foundation: a firm, level (or sometimes slightly sloping, in the case of a patio) base on which to build, otherwise it will collapse. It is very important to use an appropriate foundation, and to plan it in a drawing to show its size and depth. For example, if you want a patio to be level with the surrounding ground, the patio needs to take into account the thickness of the bricks that will be used for paving.

Buying the right tools and materials

Once you have figured out the project design in detail, you can assess what you need to build it. Sometimes, it is necessary to compromise with both tools and materials in order to make a project affordable. If that is the case, ensure you have enough time to do the work with basic manual tools, and don’t resort to inferior materials that will deteriorate quickly.

If you don’t have a wonderful set of tools, consider borrowing or renting better ones. A cement mixer is worth renting if you are working on a large project, unless you enjoy bodybuilding exercise! Call around for quotes for materials, and order in bulk when possible. The choice of bricks available depends on your location; you can also consider using second-quality bricks (rejects) or reclaimed (secondhand) bricks.

Planning: The procedure of considering a project, viewing the site, making drawings, working out quantities and costs, prior to starting work. Thorough planning is vital in order to avoid hold-ups and the wastage of materials.

Trial run or dry run: Setting out the components of a structure, without using concrete or mortar, in order to ascertain whether or not the pattern of bricks is going to work out.

BRICKWORK DESIGNS FOR THE GARDEN

This plan demonstrates how the projects in this book might be used to fill your garden with attractive brickwork designs.