How to Make a Sidewalk With Bricks
A brick walkway can bring a nice somewhat formal touch to your yard. Although laying brick is not difficult it can be somewhat time consuming and physically demanding. It will be necessary to have all required tools and equipment beforehand making the job much easier.
Things you’ll need:
- Bricks
- Wooden stakes
- Wooden strapping
- Screws
- Gravel stone dust
- Shovel
- Hand saw
- Broom
- Level
- Garden hose
- Tamper
- Rubber mallet
- Screw gun
- Use your hose to lay out the area where you want your sidewalk.
- Hammer the stakes about every 2 to 3 feet around the perimeter of your walkway. This will be your guide and show you where to dig later.
- Follow your guide and dig down about 8 inches. This will give you room for the base layers that you will have to put down. Make sure the edges are vertical when digging.
- Level out the dirt appropriately. Your sidewalk will need a gentle slope so that water will not puddle in the middle.
- Place about 4 inches of gravel as your first layer. Make sure it is level and tamp it down if it is needed.
- Take your wood strapping and secure it to the wood stakes you hammered in the ground earlier. This will be your guide for placing the bricks down later. If you have a curve in your sidewalk, just make some ½ inch cuts in the wood and this will allow you to bend the wood around the curve.
- Place about 1 ½ inches of stone dust down. If you need to add more or less to accommodate the height of the brick, then do so now. You want your brick to be level with the surrounding landscape.
- Use your hose to get the stone dust wet and use a board to tamp it down. While tamping it down stop every few feet and check your level to ensure that it is keeping level with your measurements.
- Lay the brick down, hitting each brick with the rubber mallet. Spread more stone dust over the top once you have all bricks in place. Use your broom to sweep and make sure it gets into all the cracks. Sprinkle with water and allow it to dry. The stone dust will act like concrete and after a few times of getting wet and drying the brick will be stuck in place.