Brick Paver Patio How To

Brick Paver Patio How To

contributed by Alexson 

Bigger, Better, Best

As Alexson left for Mexico (probably headed for a chair on a patio), my brother, a friend and I got to work on the patio. The first thing that had to be done was to compact the gravel with a plate compactor. If I were to develop a difficulty scale of all the tools we've rented from Home Depot with the 2-man auger being a 10 and the cement mixer being a 1, the compactor would be a 2. While it was pretty heavy to lift in and out of the car, it was as easy to operate as a lawn mower.

After a quick comment by my friend the pharmacist that the patio looked like a thyroid gland (I'm not quite sure it would do too well as Iowa doesn't have the highest concentration of iodine in the soil), we started on the edging. Other than having to deal with some gigantic nails, the edging went down quick and painless.

After laying down the sand with the help of some 1" guides we were able to get started on the pavers

We all took a minute to review the herringbone patter and were off to haul bricks. The middle part of the patio was fairly straight-forward, but the edging was a little more tricky. I found it was better to take off small slices off the bricks to form a gradual curve than to curve suddenly with only a few bricks. Good progress for Saturday.