Brick Paving - The Short Story

You can read this story or start your estimate.

Few people - even some experienced masons - understand how brick paving is supposed to work. Just pack a little sand, throw some mortar under the border and viola instant patio. And it looks fine for a season or two. So here is the abbreviated version.

Paving with stone has been around for over a thousand years, the system in those days was simple: large stones, hard ground. The larger the stone, the less likely it is to be mashed as a heavy cart, wagon or horse traveled over the paving - sort of like when you place a large piece of wood under a jack to keep it from sinking as you raise a car on muddy ground. However, the world changed, stone was not always readily available and along with the invention of brick came a new product worthy of a try. Brick pavers are placed upon a bed of sand. No mortar joints or bed of mortar is used in this process, which creates a free floating pad of brick. This deletion of mortar is what made it inexpensive enough to build entire city streets and roads in this fashion.

Very quickly however, after roads were placed, they became wavey and full of ruts. Road engineers realized compaction and sub-grade were an important feature in brick paving. Once they began to design roads and streets that would with stand the on going furry of traffic, it became necessary to remove 3 inches plus or minus of the existing soil and replace it with a highly compactable sand gravel mixture, and compacting this "sub-grade" to 3000 psf (pounds per square foot). This process, escalating labor costs drove up the cost, and the advent of pre-mixed delivered concrete made using this technique obsolete for civil roads and projects.

What do you care about all of this? You are not having any wagons, carts, trucks or even cars using your brick paver patio. Ah, but you have a thirty year mortgage, just how many times do you want your patio paved during that time? Will the technique used by your contractor out last your mortgage? Arm yourself with enough knowledge to ask the right questions.

After being sure you have a properly compacted sub-grade (actually for a few dollars more you may have the brick placed over concrete and be assured that your patio will last for generations), the next area to be addressed by your contractor is the border. There must be a solid border where you have free standing edges - against a structure or wall this is not necessary unless you want the look for aesthetics only - this border is typically two courses (rows) of brick one on top of the other, with the first course laid into a wet concrete footing a minimum of 8 inches wide and 6 inches deep, with one continuous, horizontal piece of 3/8 inch re-bar suspended in the center of the concrete. The border either has mortar joints or is laid into the wet footing to help hold the free floating center brick into to place.

When brick pavers are installed properly they are a very attractive alternative to concrete textures, wood decks or stone. The approach is everything, how your contractor prepares the site, compacts the sub-grade, and installs the footing and borders determines the life of your patio. Attention to detail where miter cuts, level, fall for drainage will determine your overall final appearance. The prices in our program include all of the proper materials, a sufficient wage to hire a competent technician, necessary site preparation and an average profit-overhead mark up.