Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Aug 03, 2010 2:49 pm I've recently bought an established house. The front is on a slight slope, and the previous owners had a staggered series of garden beds. It really doesn't look very good, so what I'm planning on doing is having a retaining wall with a high garden bed level with the house, and then a drop down of a metre or so (maybe 1.2, I haven't actually measured it) and then another garden bed at street level. I would prefer the retaining wall to be made of bricks so that it matches the house (I'm willing to consider the link wall stuff, but want to stay away from sleepers), but given that it's a house that was built 20 or so years ago, I have no idea what bricks were used, or where I would buy more. So...how important is it that the house bricks match the retaining wall bricks? has anyone used two different colour bricks that close together? how did it turn out? Re: Matching retaining wall bricks to house 4Aug 05, 2010 9:55 pm I agree with Keen. either perfect match or use a different material. Re: Matching retaining wall bricks to house 5Aug 06, 2010 8:43 am *sigh* That's what I thought. A second hand brick dealer sounds like a good idea, but I won't be able to take a brick with me to show them or anything. I suspect it'll be a bit hit and miss (especially since the house was built approx 30 years ago, though I think it was by a volume builder at the time). Re: Matching retaining wall bricks to house 6Aug 06, 2010 11:26 am We put a brick facade on our carport when our house was about 10 years old, by which time our bricks had been discontinued. The house and carport actually adjoined, and we were worried about it looking odd with two different bricks. We managed to find a close enough match - nowhere near perfect, just close - and it worked out fine. Nobody EVER noticed that they weren't the same. We had a few spare bricks ****** around, so we took one with us to the brick display centres to find a match. You could do the reverse - go to all the brick manufacturer's display centres and pick out three or four bricks that you think are close, then ask for a sample of each. It might take a few trips, but hopefully you'll find something that works. Re: Matching retaining wall bricks to house 7Aug 06, 2010 3:46 pm Just give it a go with the closest you can find... if it ends up look like bollocks just render over it! Cheers Cozmo ______________________________ Building a PD Heywood 29 http://fromevetoeternity.blogspot.com/ Re: Matching retaining wall bricks to house 8Aug 06, 2010 3:50 pm Cozmo if it ends up look like bollocks just render over it! see, for me that's a totally unacceptable solution. I think I'm one of the (what seems to be) very few people out there that just cannot STAND render (sorry to everyone who has it/likes it). Re: Matching retaining wall bricks to house 9Aug 07, 2010 10:21 pm sweetime Cozmo if it ends up look like bollocks just render over it! see, for me that's a totally unacceptable solution. I think I'm one of the (what seems to be) very few people out there that just cannot STAND render (sorry to everyone who has it/likes it). Then use a different type of cladding... i dont know maybe stack stone.. or you could just knock it down... or have some sort of shrub/ground cover thats hungs over it... or Cheers Cozmo ______________________________ Building a PD Heywood 29 http://fromevetoeternity.blogspot.com/ Thank you again Simeon.. I will call my certifier for that. Have a good day 4 5179 Yeah my reasoning is just that those house posts are designed for vertical load not lateral. I just didnt want to risk interfering with the existing house… 4 11537 Thanks for the insights, that makes perfect sense, and yeah, I will be leaning on the experience of the excavator operator entirely. 6 16122 |