# Forum Home Renovation Fences & Screens  Building a rendered brick column as a front fence, column only not a run

## Aspire029

Hey guys and girls 
its my first time here so hopefully I don't make a fool of myself. 
i am looking into building a front fence but I'm not running a long run of concrete footing into the floor as the design I'm after is just a few columns most likely a brick column 1.2 high, (council said if I needed higher then that then I would have to apply) and I'm not sure how big the square of the column will be. And then horizantal bars in between, I still don't know yet the exact measurements of my design.  
I have attached photo of what I'm after it's not my actual house but it's similar to how I want to do a front fence. 
I also understand with this design it has some cons as cutting grass beneath the bars or mowing the lawn close to gate might be awkard. 
Sorry to blab on, so my question is how do I line up front fence if there was no existing fence with say my neighbour who has a front fence 2 houses down, I was told by the council you can just go off by your neighbours front fence or get a surveyor out. I plan to run it in line with my neighbours front fence but how do I line it up with theirs and without it looking crooked. 
The plan for the footing will be 300 by 300 and to dig 400 deep or until I hit clay otherwise dig further then compact the soil best I can. I did hear of some websites to dig 1 meter. 
i plan to brick the column up myself but not sure if I'm game enough to render it. I have seen a youtube clip on a guy bricking a letterbox and was wondering if I brick the way he does will that be okay here is the link ,              https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3IAE_GXlhXY. 
Thanks heaps for taking the time to read this.

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## cyclic

My suggestion would be to scratch around the lawn where you believe the boundary pegs may be, you might just get lucky. 
Also scratch around neighboring footpaths for the same. 
The original plan showing the block of land is available from your local Council. 
Start by getting a copy of it then look at the measurements and you should be able to get close to the boundary points from there. 
Also a plan of the home may help as well because it should show set backs etc 
If you are going to render the piers use blocks not bricks, and set the first block slightly into the wet foundation which will give you the levels and the line you require. 
Set 2 Y12 bars in the foundation and join them to further bars to get within 75 mm of the top of the pier,then core fill the blocks for added strength because there is nothing worse than trying to fix 
 to a pier only to have it break up.. 
This may be over engineering but over engineering doesn't usually cause failures.

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## Aspire029

Thanks for your reply i really appreciate it. 
Im a bit of a newbie so if you cant help me understand what core filling blocks is, and why do you need to use blocks. And what is set 2 Y!2 bars

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## cyclic

> Thanks for your reply i really appreciate it. 
> Im a bit of a newbie so if you cant help me understand what core filling blocks is, and why do you need to use blocks. And what is set 2 Y!2 bars

  Core filling is filling the block with wetter than usual concrete usually using a smaller gravel to allow the concrete to fall inside the block easily, and you rod the concrete with a piece of rod or timber to compact the concrete and help it to settle in the block. 
You would usually not do this with bricks. 
Using blocks as opposed to bricks is stronger IF you use the Y 12 bar which you bend 50 to 75mm at right angles on one end and cement the bent end into the foundation and the Y 12 (reinforcing rod with a spiral twist on it) completes the strength of the pier once filled with concrete. 
Block are also IMO quicker and easier for what you are doing. 
If you build a pier using bricks you will easily push it over because you are relying on the sticking power of the mortar joint, and the pier would have to be at least 370 x 370mm to be able to concrete fill it as described to get the extra strength.

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## phild01

The concrete core fill as described by above is a grout and can be a ratio of 2 to 1 coarse river sand and cement, and mixed as a wet flowing mix.

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## cyclic

> The concrete core fill as described by above is a grout and can be a ratio of 2 to 1 coarse river sand and cement, and mixed as a wet flowing mix.

  Course river sand        MI Organics :: Coarse River Sand        is more for bedding not mixing. 
Best mix for core filling is 10mm concrete blend because it has more body which equates to more strength.

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## phild01

> Course river sand        MI Organics :: Coarse River Sand        is more for bedding not mixing. 
> Best mix for core filling is 10mm concrete blend because it has more body which equates to more strength.

  Do know this but when I did core filling the instruction I got was strictly as I mentioned to ensure proper flow.  The blocks I used were the ones that are stacked (not mortared) and no longer available.  They weren't popular, I believe because of the difficulty keeping them aligned, but were fantastic.  Maybe the spec I had was because they were a narrow void block.

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