How to Install Brick Paving Stones
- 1). Outline the area for brick paving. Use wood stakes and builder's twine for a patio. Mark a straight walk with twine or lay a garden hose along the path for a curving walkway. Make sure corners for a patio are square, unless you want a different form. Measure the area with a tape measure to make sure it conforms to brick dimensions, nominally 2-by-4-by-8-inches; that measurement will include space for wide joints between bricks. Measure the bricks and adjust the dimensions if you plan to lay them tightly with no big seams. Decide on a pattern, but any should work with standard brick dimensions.
- 2). Excavate the paving area with a shovel or excavator, at least 6 inches deep; dig deeper if the paving will be used to park vehicles or handle heavy weight. Install plastic, metal or concrete edging along a walkway to keep bricks from shifting; this is optional with a patio, which usually will have enough lawn edge to support the bricks. Build forms to pour concrete edges or buy precast edging blocks.
- 3). Lay a sheet of landscape fabric or plastic over the dirt, to prevent weeds from infiltrating. Put down 2 inches of medium gravel, roughly 1/2-inch dimension in the excavated area. Compact it with a hand tamper until it is solid. Add 2 inches of sand over the gravel; use medium sand, not coarse construction sand or fine mason's sand. Smooth the sand by moving a board across it, jiggling the board as you go to compact the sand.
- 4). Lay the bricks in a chosen pattern; basic designs are running bond, herringbone and basket weave. Make running bond by overlapping brick seams halfway, so the end of one brick is at the middle of the side brick; cut bricks in half with a masonry saw as needed. Install herringbone by putting one brick straight, the next with the end abutting it on the side. Make a basket weave with two bricks side by side facing one direction, the next two side by side facing the opposite way. Check with a level as you work.
- 5). Install bricks with tight seams by putting the bottom of a brick side firmly against the top edge of a previously laid brick and pushing it straight down, rather than sliding it in place from the side. Make wider joints either by look or by using tile spacers which fit between corners of bricks to hold them apart until they are set; remove spacers after all bricks are laid.
- 6). Sweep sand into the joints, whether wide or tight, with a broom. Use fine mason's sand or polymeric sand, which has a bonding agent that seals the joints when dampened. Make several passes with the sand. Sweep a first course in and settle it, by dampening with a garden hose. Then add additional courses until the sand is level with the brick surface. Check after a day or two and add more sand if the seams have settled.
