PolyBrick® Seat Walls
Asientos integrados en el jardín, no añadidos a él
Los asientos integrados no vuelcan con el viento, no necesitan almacenarse y siempre están donde se necesitan. Los muros-banco de PolyBrick se montan en seco, funcionan también como muro de contención o de jardinera, y duran décadas.
Por qué apostar por el asiento integrado
El mobiliario de jardín es siempre una solución de compromiso. Se desplaza, se apila, vuelca con el viento, se guarda en invierno y se repone cada pocos años. Un muro-banco simplemente está ahí: no hay que recogerlo, da cabida a seis personas con la misma facilidad que a dos, y aporta al espacio un carácter diseñado, no amueblado.
Además, rentabiliza su huella dos veces. Un muro-banco perimetral en una terraza contiene el borde. Alrededor de un hogar exterior define el espacio. A lo largo de una jardinera elevada es la propia pared de la jardinera. Se obtiene zona de asiento de una estructura que el jardín necesitaba de todas formas, y por eso el asiento integrado es habitual en jardines de diseño y escaso en los ordinarios: normalmente implica contratar a un albañil.
PolyBrick elimina ese obstáculo. Los bloques encajan a presión, de modo que el muro se levanta en seco en una tarde, y el material no pudre, no oxida, no se descascarilla ni necesita rejuntado. El muro-banco resultante no requiere ningún mantenimiento.
Aplicaciones habituales
- Asientos perimetrales en terrazas y patios
- Entornos de hogar exterior y chimenea de jardín
- Zonas de estar rehundidas
- Bordes de jardinera elevada que funcionan como banco
- Delimitación de zonas de comedor exterior
- Asientos en patios y jardines pequeños
- Muros de cerramiento y contención con coronación-banco
- Espacios comunitarios, escolares y jardines públicos
Resumen técnico
| Montaje | Encaje a presión. Sin mortero, sin fijaciones, sin albañil |
| Altura de asiento | Hiladas modulares. Se construye hasta la altura de asiento deseada y se remata con pieza de coronación |
| Doble función | Contiene simultáneamente el borde de una terraza, una jardinera elevada o un cambio de nivel |
| Comportamiento ante la lluvia | No absorbente. No retiene agua de lluvia, seca rápido y vuelve a ser utilizable enseguida |
| Material | Polipropileno 100% reciclado, resistente a los rayos UV, fabricado de forma sostenible en la UE |
| Compresión | Ensayado a 150 toneladas/m² bajo carga estática fija |
| Vida útil | 25 años bajo garantía |
| Mantenimiento | Ninguno. Sin tratamientos, aceites, tintes ni almacenamiento invernal |
Cómo acertar con la altura de asiento
Este es el factor clave. Un muro-banco a la altura equivocada es un muro en el que la gente se apoya, no en el que se sienta.
El objetivo es aproximarse a la altura del asiento de una silla de comedor. Demasiado bajo y levantarse resulta incómodo, especialmente para personas mayores; demasiado alto y los pies quedan en el aire, lo que se vuelve molesto en pocos minutos. Vale la pena sentarse sobre una pila de bloques a la altura prevista antes de construir, por la misma razón que se recorre un tramo de escalera antes de definir la tabica.
La profundidad importa casi tanto. Un asiento necesita fondo suficiente para que el muslo completo apoye, o la gente se queda en el borde. Cuando el muro también contiene tierra por detrás, la estructura suele tener profundidad suficiente de por sí; si es exento, conviene construirlo más ancho que una sola hilera de bloques.
Por último, rematar la coronación. Una pieza de coronación proporciona un canto limpio y cómodo sin junta en la línea de asiento, y es lo que marca la diferencia entre un muro en el que se puede sentar alguien y algo concebido expresamente como asiento.
Cómo conseguir que se use de verdad
Unos pocos detalles separan el asiento que se usa del que solo se mira.
Orientar hacia la vista, no hacia la casa. El asiento más utilizado en cualquier jardín es el que apunta a algo que merece la pena mirar, en un punto que recibe el sol de tarde.
Incorporar respaldo donde sea posible. Un muro-banco adosado a una jardinera elevada, un muro de cerramiento o un talud tiene respaldo natural. Exento, es un banco sin respaldo, que está bien veinte minutos pero resulta cansado para una velada.
Dejar espacio para circular. El asiento alrededor de una mesa necesita espacio por detrás para sillas y personas; una bancada pegada a la mesa es decorativa, no funcional.
Los cojines lo transforman. Los cojines de exterior convierten un asiento duro en uno confortable, y como la superficie no es absorbente seca rápido, por lo que vuelven a colocarse antes tras la lluvia.
How it goes together
- Set out the seating and check it against how the space is actually used: where the sun falls in the evening, where the table goes, where people walk through.
- Mock the height up before committing. Stack blocks loose, sit on them, and adjust. It takes five minutes and it is the difference between seating that gets used and seating that does not.
- Excavate along the line to firm subsoil, removing soft or made ground.
- Prepare the foundation: compacted and screeded dead level. The first course sets everything above it, and a seat wall that is not level will be visible along its whole length.
- Lay the first course and check level along the run and across the width.
- Build up in courses to your sitting height, staggering the joints between courses.
- Where the wall retains soil or a level change behind it, backfill with clean angular stone rather than the excavated soil, and drain the base of that stone.
- Cap the top course to give a clean, comfortable seat edge.
Seating that retains
The most useful seat walls are doing two jobs, and it is worth designing for both from the start.
A wall along the edge of a raised terrace holds the terrace up and gives you seating facing back into the garden. A wall around a sunken seating area retains the surrounding ground and encloses the space. A raised bed at seat height puts planting directly behind whoever is sitting, which is a very pleasant thing to sit in front of.
Where the wall is retaining anything, treat it as a retaining structure first and seating second: firm foundation, free-draining backfill, drainage at the base. The seating is what you get on top of doing that properly.
For anything more than a low retained height, or where the wall is holding back a significant bank, take engineering advice and have it designed.
Fire pit and dining surrounds
A ring or square of seating around a fire pit is one of the most-used structures anyone builds in a garden, and the geometry is worth thinking about.
Set the seating further back from the fire than feels right on paper; people move closer when it is cold and cannot move away when it is hot. Leave gaps in the run for getting in and out, rather than a continuous enclosure everyone has to climb over.
Keep the blockwork itself away from direct flame and heat. This is a plastic product: it should form the seating and the surround, with the fire itself contained in a proper firebowl, pit liner or masonry hearth with a sensible separation between the two.
Get it right first time
The one thing worth knowing: sit on it before you build it.
Seat height is a few centimetres either way, and those few centimetres decide whether the seating is comfortable for an evening or awkward after ten minutes. It is almost impossible to judge from a drawing and completely obvious the moment you sit down.
Because the blocks build dry, you can stack the height loose, sit on it, get up from it a few times, and adjust before anything is permanent. Nobody does this and everybody should. It is the single biggest determinant of whether the seating gets used.
Ask our engineer
Questions about seat heights, retaining a terrace edge or planning a seating layout? Ask below, or get in touch directly.
Common Questions
What height should a garden seat wall be?
Roughly the height of a dining chair seat. Too low and getting up is hard work, particularly for anyone older; too high and feet dangle, which is uncomfortable within minutes.
Because the blocks build dry, stack the height loose and sit on it before committing. Seat height is a few centimetres either way and those centimetres decide whether it gets used.
How deep does a seat wall need to be?
Enough front to back for a whole thigh to land, or people perch rather than sit. Where the wall also retains soil behind it, the structure is usually deep enough anyway.
Where it is freestanding, build it wider than a single block run and cap the top for a clean, comfortable edge with no joint line to sit on.
Can a seat wall also retain a raised terrace or bed?
That is the best use of one. A wall along a raised terrace holds the terrace and gives seating facing back into the garden, and a raised bed at seat height puts planting directly behind whoever is sitting.
Where the wall retains anything, treat it as a retaining structure first: firm foundation, free-draining backfill, drainage at the base. For anything more than a low retained height, take engineering advice.
Is it comfortable to sit on?
Capped and built to the right height and depth, yes, and outdoor cushions transform it further.
Because the surface is non-absorbent it does not soak up rain, so it dries quickly after a shower and cushions go back out sooner than they would on timber or stone.
Can I build seating around a fire pit?
Yes, and it is one of the most-used structures anyone builds in a garden. Set the seating further back than feels right on paper, since people move closer when cold and cannot move away when hot, and leave gaps for getting in and out.
Keep the blockwork away from direct flame and heat: this is a plastic product, so contain the fire in a proper firebowl, pit liner or masonry hearth with sensible separation.
Why build seating in rather than buying furniture?
Built-in seating does not blow over, need storing for winter or get replaced every few years, and it seats six as easily as two. It also earns its footprint twice, since a seat wall around a terrace is retaining the edge and a bed wall at seat height is doing both jobs at once.
Built-in seating is standard in designed gardens and rare in ordinary ones mainly because it usually means a bricklayer.
Does a seat wall need maintenance?
No. There is nothing to rot, rust, spall or repoint, no annual oiling or staining, and nothing to store over winter.
The material is UV stabilised recycled polypropylene and carries a 25 year warranty.
What foundation does a seat wall need?
Excavated to firm subsoil, compacted and screeded dead level. The first course sets everything above it, and a seat wall out of level is visible along its whole length.
What the foundation should consist of depends on the height and on whether the wall is retaining anything, so establish it for your site.
Should seating have a back?
Where you can, yes. A seat wall against a raised bed, a boundary wall or a bank has a natural backrest.
Freestanding it is a bench without one, which is fine for twenty minutes and tiring for a whole evening, so site the main seating where something can serve as a back.
