Soldier course or coping stones?

[Zebra]

I've had to build a double thickness wall as the outer skin of a new cavity wall. The outer one is to replace the neighbour's garden wall which I knocked down, which was built up to cover my gable end. Wierd, I know. Anyway, what do you reckon to cap it with? The builder's original plan was two layers of creasing tiles then a row of bricks on edge. I'm trying to avoid extra height, as the whole upstand is big enough already in my opinion, so I reckon use reclaimed coping stones instead - they would be in keeping with everybody else's concrete coping stones nearby, and would avoid that height gain.
Any other ideas?

 

[88v8]

Ummm, I think I would have taken the top off the gable and run the tiles straight over it like the house next-door. However as you are where you are, I agree that reclaimed coping stones would be a better solution than brick on edge, which doesn't look great and isn't very durable unless the bricks and pointing are of high quality.

Ivor

 

[Feltwell]

Agree with Ivor. Bricks on edge will become a problem in the future I reckon.

 

[Keithj]

I inherited an arrangement like that on the end gable of our place in Snowdonia. The water got in, froze, expanded the gap, melted, got in again...

... and we ended up with a serious damp problem in the roof and bedroom. The fix was to remove the "parapet" and run the slates out over the edge.

 

[Zebra]

I agree, that was a mistake, it's where it is for very complicated reasons, to do with the neighbours garden wall which she wanted to keep and I was supposed to underpin, but at the last minute it had to be demolished; the builder offering to the neighbour that he would put it back just as it was; not being able to roof over it as if it were part of my house because it's not mine, and is outside my boundary; and me not realising how much higher than the demolished wall it would end up being. My preference, which I bitterly regret not insisting on, and wish I had not gone along with what the builder agreed with the neighbour, would have been to cede to her the little bit of land and build my own house, with roof over, on my own land.
But that's not how it worked out.
So you think coping stones too? Yes, that's what I thought. Thanks.

 

[Flyfisher]

Unfortunately, I can confirm the problems described above with bricks-on-edge from first hand experience.

 

[essexbearhunter]

I had a long weekend in Somerset, spending the last night in Odcombe (just down the road from Montacute).

The flat stone slabs acting as copings on some of their gable ends there had stepped ends, rather than plain vertical cuts at the joints - an extra finesse in trying to prevent moisture penetration.

 

[Zebra]

Yes, I've seen around the country similarly very appropriate stone solutions to the problem. Where stone is readily available, it would be obvious to use the local stone for capping, as it is presumably what would have been traditionally used. However, here in Hertfordshire, where there is plenty of local sand and gravel but no local stone, this would seem somehow out of place I feel, so I've bought some reclaimed concrete capping stones. They are everywhere around here, and though not traditional, they are at least ubiquitous, and many of the older houses in the village have them, whereas none have stone.
Thanks for the input though, a very good idea.