Chapter House Design Garden Folly Building Tips
When planning your garden folly ensure that you check the local council regulations.
Always build on a suitable foundation, if unsure consult a builder.
For our garden folly products we recommend that you build with wire cut reclaimed bricks no taller than 70 mm. This will ensure that items such as corner stones will fit nicely into three rows of bricks.
At the end of your days building, instead of pointing the joints up as you would for a good finish, use a 10 mm flat ended pointing trowel to rake out and roughen up the mortar to a depth of 4 – 10 mm. You can be creative at this point to rake out more around broken bricks and so on.
Your garden folly order should be easy enough to build. The only assistance we can offer is with the method of installing the top sections of the arch. Each of the arch sections weighs 75 kilos and can be a problem to hold one in place whilst the other side is fitted. The method that we use is a basic frame to support the first section. It is better if the frame is made to a rough size and packed to fit. When set, the packing can be removed allowing the frame to slide out. It’s advisable to build the wall on both sides of the arch up to the level of one brick over the top of the arch support stones. This will prevent the arch from separating as the force of the arch is pushed down and out, (see picture below). The outside of the arch is also packed using the higher level brick. The picture shows this brick to be the one on the right hand side with the tape measure on top of it.
Good luck with your garden folly project and we would appreciate a picture when it’s complete. Any questions you may have, please feel free to ask.
To view the stages of a professionally built folly using stone follow the link below
Chy-Ryn Folly • Qualified Stonemason Covering Devon and Cornwall
