Brick pier cap designs: how I came up with my most-watched one

The video above is the most-watched thing I’ve ever put on YouTube, at more than 11 million views. There’s no talking in it, just music over the build, so this is the story of how that pier cap came about.

I made it up as I went

There was no drawing and no plan written down. I designed it from scratch, by myself, and made it up as I went. That’s how most of my artistic pieces happen.

Setting out comes first

Before any mortar goes on, I set the bricks out to see how the pattern works. That’s where the design really happens. When I got to the cap, I decided to put curves into it, and that’s what makes this one different from a standard square cap.

Getting the curves to sit right took a while. The setting out is the slow part, and it’s the part you can’t rush. If it’s wrong at this stage, every cut after it will be wrong too.

A template for every curve

Once the setting out was right, we made a template. Every curved piece was then cut carefully to that template, one at a time, so each one matches the next.

Black pointing and a stone centrepiece

Once it was all laid, I pointed it using a black colour dye in the mortar. Then I finished it with a stone centrepiece, which I cut into the curves.

Why the cap matters

A pier cap isn’t just decoration. It’s the top of the pier, so it takes the weather first: it throws water off and keeps it out of the brickwork below, which matters when the frost gets into a wet pier. It’s also the part everyone looks at, because it sits at eye level at the end of a wall or beside a gate. A plain concrete cap does the job. A brick cap like this one does the job and makes the whole wall.

If you want to try your own design

• Set it out dry first. Lay the bricks out without mortar and look at it before you commit.
• Make a template for anything you’ll repeat. Curves, angles, anything that has to match from one piece to the next.
• Give the setting out the time it needs. It’s the slowest part of the job and the most important.
• Cut carefully, one piece at a time. Rushed cuts show up straight away in a feature like this.

More pier and pier cap designs from the channel

• Building New Brick Pier Cap Design, a follow-up design from 2020
• Inventing New Brick Pier Cap Design
• Twisted Brick Pier build
• Building Transformer Brick Pier
• Brick ART: Lion Pier
• Bricklaying pier design 3D
• Brick Pier Cap Mitre Designs in reclaimed brick
• How to Build a Decorative Brick Pier
• Building a Brick Pier, the basics of building the pier itself

Want a feature pier cap on your own wall?

A cap like this takes far longer than a standard one, because of the setting out and all the cuts, so expect that time to be in the price. When you ask a bricklayer about one, ask to see photos of feature work they’ve actually built, and ask how they’ll set it out and cut it.

Post the job on Hard Hat Way and say you want a feature pier cap. Trades near you can see your photos and quote, and every one of them is rated by other trades on the work they’ve posted. If you’re building the wall too, the brick calculator will tell you what to order, and the garden wall cost guide covers what the wall itself costs.