How should a block wall join another block wall at 90 degrees? There is a long slump stone block wall that runs across the back yards of about six houses. We all have wooden fence that t's into this wall. I am thinking about replacing the wooden fence with a block wall. Is there an ideal way for the new block wall to terminate into the existing block wall? Should it be mortared together, secured with rebar first, etc.?
Also, how should a block wall meet at the corner of our house, which is stucco? Just motar the wall aginst the stucco, or should there be a block column built first?
There are several issues here, icluding some you haven't touched on. How long will this block wall be? You may need control joints. Similarly, since the wall you want to build is not a watertight structure, where it joins the existing wall and the house, in both p;laces you should use a premolded joint filler to allow for expansion.
Depending on the height and length of the wall, control joints are usually placed so that the sections of the wall have a 2:1 ratio between width and height. The masonry reinforcing should run through the control joints, and the joints themselves should have a plastic rod set into them, and the joints should then be caulked with a sealant.
Architect (NY) and Home Designer (PA)
Posts: 2561 | Location: Tobyhanna, PA | Registered: 24 October 2005
My back yard is 50' wide and there are no visable control joints in the block wall, unless it occurs in someone else's yard.
I have never paid much attention to control joints, but since it has been mentioned, I have noticed them in the walls along the freeway today.
Anyway, if we decide to replace the fence with slump stone blocks, the new wall would be 6' high and 39' long. Would that length require a control joint?
If I understand correctly, the new wall should not be secured to the existing wall to allow for expansion? Here in Southern California where the ground shakes, I thought that securing the new wall to the existing wall would limit the other wall's movement during an earthquake. I know of someone who had a long free standing wall that did not fall during an earthquake, but it cracked at the first course. He had to replace the whole wall. If another wall was tee-ed into this wall in the middle somewhere, might that have prevented the wall from cracking at the base?
