How to build a cinder blockfence?

[Bgunderson]

I would like to build a cinder block fence around my back garden, about 3 feet high, then plant ivy so it will climb and completely cover the fence. I want to know if a have to mortar the blocks, or can i just put some 2x4's about 2 feet in the ground and skewer the cinder blocks on the 2x4's? It will be more like a hedge, so it need to bear weight other than its own... :roll:

[roger g]

Sounds good to me. When building anything remember: location, location, location. If you live in a cold climate and you mortared the blocks together,unless you put footing underneath (deep) the blocks, the walls would crack along the block lines anyways. In northern England they have literally tens of thousands of miles of dry stone walls which are just properly stacked stones which give and take with the weather and only need adjusting every so often. These walls are hundreds of years old. Your wall is only about 4-5 blocks high so you have to consider what will happen if it falls over and the consequences. I think the 2x4 idea works.
I see the word "cinder block" used quite a lot and I haven't heard that word in years. I assume you mean a concrete block. Years ago there was a definite difference between a cinder block and a concrete block.
I hear you say "what's the difference between a cinder block and a concrete block?" Well I'm glad you asked that. In my neck of the woods a cinder block was made of..............(drum roll)........cinders! And a concrete block was made of.................(drum roll).........concrete. Cinder blocks used to be dark gray almost black because they were made from coal cinders. The stuff left over from burned coal. I'm really not as old as you might think but years ago a lot of stuff used coal (generating plants etc) and there fore there were lots of useless cinders kicking around. Mountains of it in fact. This was made into lightweight blocks (very light) and were used in places where strength wasn't needed such as the inside layer of a solid brick house. Places where a lot of strength wasn't needed.

Roger

[Rich]

Moving to Masonry

[Shanley]

These "Cinder blocks" also had a very high resistance to fire (fire rating) and were used in fire walls, now with lightweight aggregate and much less coal burning, it seems cinder block are a thing of the past.

Consider that the ivy will trap mosture against the concrete block and over time will destroy them.

Consider a dry stack landscape block like shown on this website http://www.masonrymagazine.com/2-03/blocks.html