Do Double Brick Walls Need to Be Lateral Wired?

Type and Height

• The purpose and height of a double brick wall affects its construction. A retaining wall, built to hold back soil on a bank, needs more structural support than a simple low decorative wall built around a rose garden or a patio. Retaining walls and those over 3 or 4 feet high may need special engineering and extra reinforcing. A retaining wall needs more lateral support than a freestanding one.

Using Headers

• A basic freestanding low brick wall can be built without any special reinforcing by binding the two "wythes," or sides, together with "header" bricks, bricks spanning the two sides to hold them together. There are several techniques to make this type of connection. Some patterns use a header brick every other brick in a course or layer. Other patterns use all "running" bonds with bricks laid end to end on both wall sides, but with every third course a full layer of headers overlapping the two sides.

Reinforcing

• A double brick wall over 3 feet high needs some reinforcing. This sometimes is done by putting vertical reinforcing steel bars in the center mortar between the two brick sides. Most often, however, a double brick wall is tied with reinforcing ties, metal wires or bands placed in horizontal mortar joints between courses of brick, bridging the two walls.

Tie Types

• There are different styles of reinforcing tie. Some are simple metal straps that lay flat on top of bricks and are sealed in place with mortar before the next row of bricks is placed. These are placed both across the bricks and down the length to secure bricks. Other types are bands with a corrugated texture or wires bent in a bow-tie configuration, with center straight section that goes across the two brick sides and bent ends on each side to make lateral connections.