I want to do the wood and brick seating on my patio, but can't afford

Do you mean put cinder blocks down and put wood through the holes for the seating? If it were me I would buy one or two cinder blocks a week as I could afford them and look for free wood. People put old furniture and even wood out for the garbage man or free to anyone wanting it, especially in highly moving type communities like ours. Otherwise for inexpensive wood at yard sales etc. You might find a piece of lumber on sale at your local home improvement store. Also, many places that sell patio furniture have bench cushions on sale this time of year. You might want to get one for your bench now. Good luck finding what you need!

Wood and brick seating is not nearly as expensive to DIY as most believe.

In fact it is within most homeowner's Budgets as long as you remember the basics:

1. A brick has 6 sides not 3 dimensions only.

2. Getting each ton of bricks to acheive a much greater

height depends on how you turn the bricks and the

gaps between each two bricks.

3. Any brick layout is more shaped by the mortar

between than it is constrained to a square shape

4. Integrating low grade concrete inside of a Brick

Frame is integral to using both bricks and mortar

conservatively.

Basically when you think this project costs $500 for Each Small Bench [rather than $275 or less for Two benches with 4 Built in Sidetables] this expense on the Brain will make your mind up for you that: 'this is the Budget for that project'.

There is No way that anybody who knows what they are doing expends even $400 on this small job.

But let's say the cost was $400 maximum.

You cannot even enter into a bank to get a small loan for this amount payable over 5 years but instead what you get is a 2 years payment schedule and a sermon about how Lowe's and Home Depot often have No interest if you pay them in 90 days or less.

So we figure this as $52 a month for 1 year, Worst case, for a $435 loan, that you likely pay off in 6 months or less.

At that rate you are yet talking about a surplus, via:

Shopping List A

176 bricks or less .65 each

Or

320 half-Bricks [along the length] .35 each

+

5 bags of quickrete 80lb. 4.08 each

2 bags of High Grade Mortar, 60 lb. 9.85 each

1 bag topping cement. 10.95

Gloves, Knife, Eyewear 23.98

3" Masonites for nonsquare molds. 16.00

-------------

$166.03 to $175

+ $17.50 taxes

Plus your additional water bill of about 180 gallons which includes extra showers and cleansing forms and entire.

When you add wood and more shapes not square into the mix and design (rather than use masonite scrap to smooth mortar, use concrete slabs, and integrate round concrete tabletops) you also have unnecessary overhead and repetitive wood maintenances each 12 years:

Cheap 2ply plywood for Molds $47

4 Wood Rounds for Sidetables $56

More Taxes. $8

Weather Treated Woods 12 yrs budget: $167

Sales Taxes each 12 years. $12

Very simply:

Even making 8 qty 7 levels brick structures with 6 or 4

Bricks each level, that look like small chimneys, plus

wood atop all that scrapheap too, Attests only that:

Construction used more bricks than necessary because

of inexperience, and failing to integrate all the Free of

charge landscape resources to conserve bricks, mortar,

rock, and filler [concrete with extra aggregates], these

obviously had no clue what they were doing.

No mason could afford children ever they so did same.

Thus, you sit down and create your design first, and if need be, invest in clay and make little bricks, to realize that

The $5 expense in making little bricks, saved you bricks

per each hollow project you filled with concrete.

As you need only 4 structures that each integrate a

side table to a bench support, you have 44 bricks for

each of these structures [when you buy the shopping

list A above].

and

44 bricks is more than enough per each when:

you stack these Bricks on their side, and after mortar

sets, pour the concrete inside the void to make it a

permanent resting place for a Medium Slab, 250 lbs.

In summary:

A brick oven complete with a 60 inch tall smokestack

can make with the resources in List A, [among others,

'brick oven' is only an easily percieved by most example

to express how far these resources stretch]

Your project when placed into that narrative, really only

needs 4 qty 20" Smokestacks.

And, The brick oven uses far more bricks than ever a 20

inch tall smokestack ever can.

To suggest that list A is expensive, only means you

need to plan and budget better, a weekly amount,

toward a Home Improvement Envelope, and either

wait a short while before you begin, or get material

on credit or get a very small loan at a bank.

I know this works.

Check your local Habitat for Humanity Restore. https://www.habitat.org/local/restore?zip=35401