How To Create a Brick Walkway Leading To Your Patio

There's nothing quite like the stylish look of a brick walkway leading up to your patio. You can use them to connect your patio to the garden, pool, shed, garage or any other location around your yard. In addition to the stylish look it creates, a brick walkway will also make it easier and more comfortable for you and your family to walk on. If you're interested in building your own, keep reading and we'll walk you through the steps of creating a brick walkway for your patio.

What You'll Need

First and foremost, you'll need to decide what type of brick walkway you want to have. You can go with some of the more traditional paver designs with one brick lined up next to the other, or you can use your imagination to come up with an original design. I recommend pulling out some home improvement magazines or getting online to look at examples of brick walkway designs, as this should give you some ideas on what to use. Once you've decided on a patio design, find out how many bricks you'll need and go to your local home improvement store to pick up the necessary amount.

In addition to the actual brick pavers, you'll also need a couple bags of sand and gravel. While some people may simply place their pavers directly into the dirt, you should always place some other material underneath them to help cement them in place. Gravel and sand works perfectly to hold a brick walkway together and preventing it from moving over time, so be sure to pick up these items while you're at the home improvement store.

Creating Your Brick Walkway

Once you've acquired all the necessary materials, go ahead and start digging up the path where you want your brick walkway to follow. It only needs to be about 6-inches deep, so a shovel work just fine. After you're done digging it up, lay down ½ inch of gravel followed by a ½ layer of sand. Make sure it's completely flattened out before you continue to the next step. You may need to scrap it down with a shovel to help flatten out the sand.

Now that your base is laid, you start placing the bricks in whatever pattern you desire. Continue this process until the path is completed. Lastly, you'll need to fill the space between the bricks by placing additional sand over them. Hopefully you have enough sand left over from earlier, but if you don't, you'll need to make an extra trip to pick some up. It's important that you add plenty of sand in between the pavers to keep them securely in place.