2 years, 4 months ago
I'm wanting to make a walkway in my backyard using bricks we already have but we don't know how to start. Any tips for doing this in grass?
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M$1 Answer
Well, if you are wanting to make a solid walkway using the bricks as pavers, first I would decide on how wide you want it and where it is going to be exactly. If it will be curved, use a garden hose and lay it out to represent one edge of the boundary. Dig down 1,1/2 inches below the soil level to outline the edge of your walkway. Take into account the width of whatever border you will use and widen each side of the walkway to accomodate the borders. Now move the hose over to mark the other edge of the walkway. Mesure over from the outline on the other side so that your width is constant throughout. Dig down 1,1/2 inches below the top of the soil here as well, Now you have 2 trenches that outline your walkways borders. You will be digging out all of the grass in between this area, but you will need to dig deeper this time. You want to decide how high the bricks will be in relation to the top of the grass, then mesure the thickness of the bricks and add 2 inches to that number for your base of sand that your pavers will need to rest on. Most likely you will be digging down around 4 inches. Dig this entire area out to this depth and flatten it out nicely. The next step is to put down some heavy duty black plastic on the ground where you have dug the grass away. This will help keep weeds and grass from growing up in between the cracks of your pavers. You will also want to decide on a type of border for your pavers. You can get black plastic borders that are very easily installed by simply tapping them into the ground. They come with spikes built in to them for thier installation. You will install your borders so that the top of the border is even with the top of the pavers, but dont put this in yet. After you put the plastic layer down on the bottom of your dig, you will need to add sand to your dig area. Get masonry sand, or play sand for this. You will need a minimum of 1,1/2 inches of sand as your base for the pavers. Once all of the sand is in, you can place a paver in the sand near the edge to decide how high to install your borders. Keep a brick with you and guage the hieght of your borders all along the edge as you install them. Finally you will begin to place your pavers. Put them in whatever pattern you like. Make sure that the pavers are tight one to the other. Don't leave spaces inbetween them. Each paver will need to be tapped downward with a rubber mallet so that it compresses the sand beneath it. Install all of your pavers, pack the sand beneath them and place them tight together. If you have mesured your pathway correctly, you will not have to cut a single paver to fit. After all of the pavers are installed you will need to add sand on top of the pavers and sweep this sand all over the top of your new walkway so that the sand completely fills any cracks between your pavers. You may need to tap your borders in deeper at this point. Borders are adjustable. If you are going to use wooden borders, you will need to use a pressure treated lumber, cedar or redwood lumber to make your border. This type of lumber will not easily rot in the ground. Simply add your borders so that the top edge of your wood will be at the same hieght as your pavers. Keep in mind that the pavers will sink lower (about 1/2 inch) when you are packing them down with your mallet. Either you will want to add about 1/2 inch more sand than you initially calculated to take into consideration the compaction of the sand.
That is about it. Borders are very important in order to keep your pavers immoblie for years to come. Without borders, the edges of your pavers will begin to break down and get very sloppy looking. The entire paved area will get very loose and you will lose the athetic appeal that it once had.
Honestly it is best to compact the soil before you lay any plastic or sand down. On a small walkway it most likely will not be an issue for you, but it is common practice to dig the area out and use a soil compactor (you can rent these) to thoughoughly compact the ground before you go any further on your walkway. Dig the area out about an inch less than you have initially calculated so that after you run the compactor on the area, it will be to the desired hieght.
I am not going to add a source because I am a professional builder!
That is about it. Borders are very important in order to keep your pavers immoblie for years to come. Without borders, the edges of your pavers will begin to break down and get very sloppy looking. The entire paved area will get very loose and you will lose the athetic appeal that it once had.
Honestly it is best to compact the soil before you lay any plastic or sand down. On a small walkway it most likely will not be an issue for you, but it is common practice to dig the area out and use a soil compactor (you can rent these) to thoughoughly compact the ground before you go any further on your walkway. Dig the area out about an inch less than you have initially calculated so that after you run the compactor on the area, it will be to the desired hieght.
I am not going to add a source because I am a professional builder!
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M$
I am not going to mark best answer because I am an information professional. Seriously. I suspect others may vote for your answer, it seems very good, but not being a professional builder myself, and not having any way to verify that you are, or that your information is good, I just can't.
One thing that I did forget to mention. Once you add the sand to your dig area, you will want to smoothe the sand out to a flat, uniform hieght. The sand should look almost perfectly smmoth on the top and have a uniform depth (min. 1, 1/2") throughought.
Also, you could bypass the rubber mallet in favor of simply laying all of the pavers and after they are all down, run a "plate compactor" (is a larger base soil compactor) over all of the pavers in order to pack them down. After this you will then sweep your sand into all of the cracks. When you place the pavers tight together, they will invariably open up a bit. You actually want about a 1/8th inch to a 1/4 inch gap between the pavers that gets filled with sand. Its kindal like grout for tile. In my experience, when I put pavers tight together, they always end up with a little crack anyway. Dont worry about it if you lay a paver and it has an initial small gap. It needs it anyway.
commenter #2, what is the point of posting that? Lol. Feel better?
http://www.grounds-mag.com/mag/grounds_maintenance_install_concrete_pavers/
Theres a source besides me.