Securing single skin garden wall

[edwardr]

Hi,

Apologies if this is off-topic, though it is a project mainly involving wood :lol:

I've ripped down our previous boundary ivy hedge, which has been in place since before we moved to our house (looks like it's been around for decades). What's left is an old, lovely single skin brick wall, about 60cm high. The plan is to batten timber posts to the wall and fix trellis to the battens.

Things were all going smoothly until I discovered the section of the wall that is next to the main root base of the previous Ivy hedge. It's pushed the wall out
so it looks like this:

And from the other side it looks like this:

I don't want to rebuild the wall unless absolutely necessary, and the neighbour doesn't have a problem with it. What I would like to do though, is whatever I can to secure the wall and help to prevent or slow it from getting any worse.

What steps can I take? I was thinking of maybe getting a steel strip or something and fixing it to my side of the wall as a bracing mechanism?

Is there anything I can fill the cracks with that might adhere to the brickwork and help provide a bit of strength?

 

[MMUK]

You could push it back into place and then coat it with resin. If you're not fussed about seeing bricks, render over it and use a reinforcing mesh.

 

[blackrodd]

No pics on my screen so can't see anything to try and help you with.
Rodders

 

[RogerM]

No pics on my screen so can't see anything to try and help you with.
Rodders

+1. Might be able to help if we can see pics.

 

[Adam9453]

I think i'd push it back into place and then bolt some bars to your side to hold it straight and to fix your trellis to.
regarding filling the cracks, i'd knock up a little mortar in a bucket and re-point it, wouldn't take long.
Although as I can't see the pics either, this advice is given blind :?

 

[edwardr]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies so far. Apologies about the photos; I've edited the links so they work now.

 

[rafezetter]

Unfortunately the wall looks pretty far gone anyway according to my builder mate I showed the pics to (25 yrs a builder) and he said even repoint then render and a mesh is at best a band aid.

(not such a crazy idea)
If it's your property he said it would be better and not cost a great deal more to get a new wall built if you are smart about it... Are there any colleges nearby that teach building skills? Find a college, contact them and speak to a tutor, tell them you need a simple 2 skin, non loadbearing outside partition wall built (maybe with coping stones which reduce rain wear) and would like to offer the opportunity for a student or two or three or whatever to practice in the field and use it as part of their practical assessment. Student(s) gets practise, and an assessment done (which they need) and you get a wall built for just the cost of the materials.

The reason we both suggest this is we had a mid 20's guy live here for 2 years doing a general builders carpentry course - framing / roofing / doors that sort of thing, and he asked around people we knew if they needed certain tasks doing for his assessments, so they could get signed off by his tutors. He helped a bloke build a shed, fitted doors and a few other things all for free labour.

just a thought.

 

[AndyT]

I think the wall needs to be rebuilt but an alternative if you really don't want to do that is to use Metposts to hold some vertical posts and attach your trellis to them. It's what I did in our garden where the low walls were not as weak as yours but were not good enough to fix posts to.

You might find that there are foundations under your wall which will make it hard to hammer the Metpost spikes in, but in my experience garden walls don't always have them.