Kitchen Garden Forum

Would a brick raised bed 3mtrs x 1mtr and 30cms high be strong enough with one brick deep walls?

Martin.

Depends what foundation you build it on.

What depth foundation would it need for 30cms high, 1 brick deep walls?

It's more the 3m length that makes me comment, but I'm a bodger not a builder.

I once did something along these lines, no point in doing it unless you dig out a foundation bed at least twice the width of the brick or block and you will need to dig down to well consolidated ground. Also, make sure you leave holes in the structure for water movement. It'll be water movement and the subsequent soil movement that breaks the bond rather than the pressure of the soil within.

Use brick that have a good "Frog". This means bricks with holes in the verticle plane or a deep indentation so they bond well together. It's only about four courses but the top course can easily break away. An expanded metal strip laid over the top of your bricks then bonded by a strong mix will hold it all together.

I can't see the point to be honest treated timber will last at least ten years, more if you treat any cut edges and paint the soil-contact parts with bitumen paint. Just quality treated timber will be fine, fence posts last over ten years and alwYs rot above ground or places where water stands like the tops.

I can build good sized raised bed held together with SS coach screws in half a day including two cuppa breaks.

Are you using up bricks you already have? In which case it will be economical but it seems like a lot of work compared to using timber. Also how permanent do you want it to be?

Thanks for the comments. I want these beds to last longer than me (20 years or more I hope) so my first thought was to use hardwood (railway sleepers) but I assume that brick beds should last indefinitely.

I will be employing a contractor to do the work so it will be cost that makes the final decision.

I posted here to get some idea of how the brick beds should be built to compare with what the contractors recommend when I get quotations.

If you're using a builder the costs would be worth it for a classy looking raised bed, presumably this is within your home which makes a difference. A nice job will add to your home.

I had though about a raised bed within our domestic area, it was to built with local stone and a sand/cement curved top. The stone was to look like dry-stone though would be cement mortar that didn't show.

It was going to be far too expensive, about £500 just for the labour.

On that note, repointing the exposed portion of a semidetached pair of houses two pot single chimney stack, working off ladders and reinserting the in situ flashing into the brickwork has just cost me £250 in Hertfordshire.

It was a pound-note job ?

There are some really good building tradesmen in this county, unfortunately they are supported by those who learnt from them but didn't quite get the idea of integrity.

I had a plasterer give a a price for some work in my "Shed". £1500 plus materials plus traveling.

Plus traveling ?

His home is fifteen minutes from my home.

I paid my son-in-law something like £120 a day plus the travel costs from ~~Nottingham plus the beer costs but my grandsons came for the few days. Anyways, it took three days. About £500.

Peter, that repointing job was a gift, I bet you raked-out and mixed ?

Erm, sliding slightly to one side I hope you recover from your plumbing problems and I was just about to share my aches and pains.

Regards
Richard.

Ricard with an H wrote:It was a pound-note job ?
Peter, that repointing job was a gift, I bet you raked-out and mixed?.

Richard, it was properly invoiced and my involvement apart from moving the cars off the drive was that I filled one bucket with water.

Came recommended by the stove installation firm.
Previous quote started with £600 for scaffolding.

3 to 4 course of brickwork to form a raised bed should not cost a great deal your footings need not be that substantial my raised beds are made out of condemned scaffolds planks held upright by a couple of timber posts knocked in at each corner and halfway on the long sides there is not a lot of weight in backfilled top soil

peter wrote:
Came recommended by the stove installation firm
Previous quote started with £600 for scaffolding.

Some people have all the luck with tradesmen, could reel off quite a few stories and I know enough about the building trade to know how and why costs are costed.

I've done it myself, if I'm not available in the required time my prices were high. If I got the work it was completed by juggling and a lot of bullshxt.

Even worse is high prices by those least able to do a good job and since I've been in north Pembrokeshire (mostly a high wind loading area) i have yet to see a properly built slate roof with most roofers ignoring BS codes of practice when it comes to cut slate at the verges. Having said that I have seen some outstanding work, particularly on a property owned by Gryff Rhys Jones that has been televised.

Back to the brick raised beds though, I would love to have two for flowering plants on our main lawn area but I can't afford the work that would do this lovely barn convention justice and it's the same reason I don't have a greenhouse. It's got to be posh, or not at all.