Search the Community

I need to hang a radiator (160cm wide, 50cm high, total weight around 35kg) via two brackets to a plasterboard wall. The wall is external, so that it has studs (about 12mm deep and 50mm wide) behind the plasterboard and then bricks behind the studs. I am lucky enough to have studs in correspondence of my brackets. However, I was wondering whether the 12mm depth of the studs would be enough for the screws to bite, or if I should reach to the bricks behind the studs and fix the brackets to them. If I can use the studs, how do I make sure that the screws go through the whole 12mm, given that this will be prevented by them hitting the bricks? Thanks.

Hello all, my partner and I have recently bought a new build house, and she asked me a question about the build which I had no idea about... There is part of the external wall, to left of the french door opening, where it appears that there is a vertical line in the bricks from the top of the house to the bottom. Does anybody no what this is for? Why is this part stacked differently to all the rest? Could this affect the integrity of the build? Thanks for any replies

A perennial problem with walls is water or other staining. Yesterday I was walking past a fairly new wall, built perhaps 15 years ago. There are an interesting number of white stains now running down the wall. What is the cause? My candidate is probably the weep holes, and also the 'shadow' from the road sign (which should be a few inches further out). I wonder if it also cheap bricks, or an insufficiently considered design. In any case, if stains show up this prominently so soon, then something on the detailing is not right. What do you think, and what would you do differently? ( I have uploaded these at full size so you can zoom in.) Photo 1. Photo 2. Photo 3. Photo 4 . Photo 5 . .

(This thread is about brick walls - please do not invade it with fences, and hedges - except as garnish for the brick). In a few days I will be having a small front garden wall built ... about 5m x 1m high so 500 or so bricks, in a street of small 1960s bungalows. I did a little wander up my street to crib a few ideas, and these were a few of the walls I have locally. It is a former lane lane which has been absorbed into the near town centre and has buildings from approx 1830 to present. There will hopefully be a longer blog post, but these are a few examples off the type I may be having built. I am looking for comments. The surprise for me is how quickly these deteriorate, especially with the wrong choice of materials - some are looking shoddy after only 25-30 years. IMO brick walls should easily last a century unless there is a requirement not to do so. Here we go. A Nice looking wall, made with facing bricks (like my house) and copers, and basic engineering bricks as DPC. B But it has spalled badly. Do not use facing bricks for a garden wall. C I like this combination of red and blue. 40-50 years old and suffering a little? On the main road with the traffic. D Posh gatepost. Inadequate materials as used in the flats behind. Now badly deteriorated. E Yep.Like it. Recent, and they have trees in the right place, too. But are those facers and will it spall later? F As above, but two or three decades older and now careworn: G Similar with added decoration from blue engineering bricks. English Garden Wall Bond, I think. H Again, with blue decoration included in the paving: I Another variation. Someone did not like the postbox in the gatepost. J A very carefully done piece of architecture imo. That stone wall style used to be the dominant note on the road, and is still the background. What have you done or seen? What will wear best? Feel free to post lots of pictures of garden walls from your area. If there is one fault with the above imo, it is that there is no discernible vernacular in this selection. Ferdinand