Brick raised bed

xb_deai said:

1. Will the dampness of the soil affect how deep the footings have to be?

Not as such, you will have to remove the topsoil from the foundation anyway as it is not structurally sound, i.e., it will settle under the weight of the foundation and wall and will crack. Remove the topsoil and dig down a minimum of 400mm (200mm of concrete will suffice for this wall and 200mm of topsoil cover to the foundation) If, at this depth, the ground is solid underfoot, if it doesn't squelch when you walk on it and turn sloppy very easily it should be fine for this wall. Add a few bars of steel or steel mesh when pouring the foundation, keeping it a minimum of 50mm from the bottom of the foundation.

2. How much top soil is needed and what is average price of top soil? (I live in rural town in Wicklow)

A foot of topsoil should be plenty, if there are any building sites around, pop in and ask the machine driver how much. Shouldn't be too expensive these days. Try to avoid moving or handling topsoil in the rain as it takes water ver fast, turns to muck and is almost impossible to dry out.

3. I live in a terraced house and the rear boundry is on to a field with 7 foot block wall. Both side boundry are wooden fence supported by concrete piers. Can I use ecisting block wall as rear wall of raised bed?

I can't see why not, drill a few weep holes through the wall and through your new wall to allow water to escape as this wouold put a lot of pressure on the wall.

How would I tie in side walls to existing walls?

If your new wall is meeting a concrete pillar then use L-shaped wall ties set in the mortar bed of your new wall and use washered steel nails to fix the short leg of the tie to the pillar. You can get these in a Builder's Providers.

Many thanks

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