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[Phil]

Well not much room and I am laying on clay - first three rows have been placed on 1"  concrete

Without wishing to pee on your bonfire, that will crack like buggery, also if your using concrete its the wrong thing, you should be using a mortar bed.

If your on top of clay you should use 4" compacted hardcore and then bed the blocks on 3" of sharp sand, use a wacker to bed them in with kiln dried sand brushed in the joints .

If you want to bed them on motrar  then its best to use a sand lime mix as this is more flexible, and you dont need to use a wacker plate, but the bed should be a good 2" thick and still be on a compacted hardcore.

As for the retaining wall rather than using brickwork why not use a sleeper on edge?? no footings required and laid in about 10 mins rather than a couple of hours.

If you do go for brick ten English bond in 2 4" skins with a cavity will be better and its easier to get 2 finished faces as the cavity will take up the brick manufacturing tollerances, whereas with a solid 9" wall it can look rubbish.

Just my 2p worth of course, so up to you if you take any notice  

And if anyone says they use a cement mixer i will come round and stick a bat up your night dress, there is no such thing as a cement mixer!

[Phil]

21 ton of MT1 hardcore,.

 [smiley=rolleyes.gif] Thats MOT (Ministry of Transport) Type 1, less fines than MOT type 2, and if compacted correctly it goes as hard as concrete, but as you aren't road building they prob sold you limestone scalpings, which is a cheaper alternative    

You need to get to know some builders with a mini digger  

Very handy machines, so much so that my Dad bought one 6 years ago, helped no end when i had to dig the footings and oversite for my garage and coservatory. The conservatory is 3m*8m and the garage is 4.5m*10m, thats approx 20cu m of soil which weighs about 40T stuff doing that by hand!!  

[Marks DTM Calib]

21 ton of MT1 hardcore,.

 [smiley=rolleyes.gif] Thats MOT (Ministry of Transport) Type 1, less fines than MOT type 2, and if compacted correctly it goes as hard as concrete, but as you aren't road building they prob sold you limestone scalpings, which is a cheaper alternative    

MT1 is what it was....I wanted the very hard finish to get a good base.....I dont want it moving!

[Martin_1962]

What is the difference between mortar and cement?

[Martin_1962]

Had a nose around and a think

Dug down at least an inch more than required, ground is hard - as it is walked on a lot, and full of stone - new build.

Using sharp sand - which is recommended for this type of use but due to unable to ram them down beyond whacking with something hand held, I mixed cement with the sharp sand 4:1 roughly.

I have used similar mixes before for my shed foundations, which is where I dumped all of my rubble dug out out flower beds, this however was built straight onto the ground, just a shallow trench for the bricks and all the rubble tipped inside. Now this has survived 6 years of use including bad weather and has no broken brickwork or mortar.

The wall will be two bricks wide but only about 3 high, as it has to cover about a 6 inch step in the lawn at worst.

Parts of the existing patio are 2" deep cement mix and have survived for 7 years so far, I don't mind doing this but it looks ugly.

Anyway worst case with the first few runs will be lift up and start again, I am checking them on Wednesday for strength.

Still have a lot of digging to do first!!!!

[Phil]

What is the difference between mortar and cement?

Cement is a slag material burnt to high temps and processed untill it becomes a fine dust.

Mortar is what you get when you mix cement with sand and water or by mixing lime, sand and water

The question you asked is like asking whats the differnce between dough and flower.

But the difference between mortar and concrete is aggregate is included in concrete and not in mortar

2 years at college and 3 years at university studying building will give you more details about the finer points, but thats it in a nutshell.

Another thing to remember, adding more cement makes a weaker mix, it doesn't make it stronger

[Marks DTM Calib]

I seem to recall that the cement quantity required is related to the surface area of the aggregate you wish to bind....?

[Chopsdad]

Well not much room and I am laying on clay - first three rows have been placed on 1"  concrete

Without wishing to pee on your bonfire, that will crack like buggery, also if your using concrete its the wrong thing, you should be using a mortar bed.

If your on top of clay you should use 4" compacted hardcore and then bed the blocks on 3" of sharp sand, use a wacker to bed them in with kiln dried sand brushed in the joints .

If you want to bed them on motrar  then its best to use a sand lime mix as this is more flexible, and you dont need to use a wacker plate, but the bed should be a good 2" thick and still be on a compacted hardcore.

As for the retaining wall rather than using brickwork why not use a sleeper on edge?? no footings required and laid in about 10 mins rather than a couple of hours.

If you do go for brick ten English bond in 2 4" skins with a cavity will be better and its easier to get 2 finished faces as the cavity will take up the brick manufacturing tollerances, whereas with a solid 9" wall it can look rubbish.

Just my 2p worth of course, so up to you if you take any notice  

And if anyone says they use a cement mixer i will come round and stick a bat up your night dress, there is no such thing as a cement mixer!

What are those spinny round gizmo's builders use then Phil?  Sand, Aggregate, Cement, Lime and Water tumblers?

[Marks DTM Calib]

I was always told they were a mixer......if you called them a cement mixer (well, we did mix cement with other ingredients!) then the brickies use to throw off cuts at you....which bloody hurt...

[Phil]

What are those spinny round gizmo's builders use then Phil?  Sand, Aggregate, Cement, Lime and Water tumblers?

Its a CONCRETE mixer, see Marks comment  

I'm sure Mark will confirm some of the finer points of bricklaying, the motrar is muck, cement is dust and fairy liquid is a plasticiser and if the spot board isnt clean or theres lumps in the mix there will be hell to pay

But what ever you do dont put fairy liquid in the mix

Anither thing cats love to sh1t in the sand and walk on wet concrete