Patio Bricks Part Three

So the DIY home improvement adventure continued yesterday. Started off leveling the sand. Normally I would use a screed to do this. A screed is any flat rod, piece of wood or whatever you have that is used to straighten sand, dirt, cement, or concrete. The defining part of a screed arrangement is that the rod rides on some kind of a guide on one or both ends.

Typically this guide is a 2 x 4 attached to some stakes driven in the ground. The best way to do this is with metal stakes and a bracket that holds the 2x4. But you can just nail the 2x4 to a wood stake.

Example here: http://www.deeconcrete.com/screedbarholderwood.html

They have these or similar items at Home Depot, Lowes or masonary supply yards.

But I didn't do any of that. This was 32 square feet. Barely big enough to even work with a screed. So, I snapped a chalk line on the building foundation on one side and used the existing patio as a guide on the other. Then I used a 24 in level to check my progress as I went. So this was an eyeball job to be sure.

Here are the short steps:

1.) Put the sand in the hole and "walk it in" by basically stomping it down with you feet. Get it close to the level it should be.

2.) Put in some additional sand and rod it off with a piece of wood or a concrete trowel.

3.) Starting near the existing bricks start setting the bricks.

4.) Sprinkle some additional sand where the brick is going to go and set the first brick. It should be higher than it's neighbor.

5.) Pound it down with a plastic mallet until it is at the right height. Repeat and check with the level every 3 - 4 bricks.

The first row is hard and you will end up taking bricks out, putting in sand or removing sand to get it right. It gets easier as you go. If this is your first time. The entire job may be a challenge.

Also after two rows stand back and be sure it looks like it is sloped the way you want it. Rarely is a patio dead flat. It should have a 1% or better grade so the water runs away from the building. Keep checking it as you go. I had little hump in the center that I had to deal with. A couple bricks had to be removed, but I was able to pound them down for the most part.

Oh, I had to rent a brick saw / block saw to make some cuts around the edges. The layout worked really well. The guys who did the first install did a good job I gotta say. I just had to follow their pattern and it fit.

The next post will be on mixing some mortar and building my first ever brick wall. All two courses of it.

Pictures to follow.

Best,
John