Backyard Landscaping Design With A Brick Patio

This is not a time consuming task and typically you'll need 2 days for a small patio.

Here's How To Build A Brick Patio:

1. 1. Measure out the favored area. Note that rectangular backyard design plans are easier to carry out than curved designs. To make sure that you have a perfect rectangle, calculate the 2 diagonals: they should be of equivalent length.

2. Dig out the area, to a depth of 8". With a level, check that your excavation's floor slopes (1/4" per running foot) away from the house for drainage, so water will run away from the house and patio.

3. Do some tests run by laying your brick pattern, to check your dimensions. This way, if your main measurement was off, you can correct it now. There should be about 2" additional all along the border.

4. This spare 2" along the perimeter is for the placing of brick edging (the bricks are about 2" thick). Place the bricks on end, "shoulder to shoulder." Tap them into place with a rubber mallet.

5. The suggestion in Step #4 is to frame the rectangular location. Take away the bricks that you laid as a test run. Pour crushed stone into this framed area, to a depth of 4".

6. Tamp down the stone. Put down landscape fabric down over the stone, to suppress potential weeds later. Now pour 2" of sand over the landscape fabric. Use a long 2x4 as a screed.

7. Starting at one end of the rectangle, run this screed along the sand, leveling the sand out. You want the sand's level to end up 2" beneath the tops of the edging bricks.

8. Excess sand in Step #7 will thus be redistributed to low areas, and you'll finish up with a level surface. Tamp the sand down. Now it's time to start laying the brick patio flooring - for real!

9. Start with a corner. Press the bricks down into the sand. Make them abut as closely jointly as possible. Hit the bricks with a rubber mallet to settle them into the sand.

10. You want "paving" bricks for this job. In the size that I'm giving, I'm assuming 4" x 8" bricks, about 2" thick. Brick pavers can be in other sizes; but this size is simplest to work with.

11. For this design pattern, I suggest the "basket weave".

13. Run a mason's line across your forms as you proceed, row by row, in laying your bricks. The mason's line will serve as a lead for evenness.

14. Once laying the bricks, spread some sand over them. With a broom, work this sand into the cracks. Then, with a garden hose, quietly spray the bricks, so the sand will resolve between the cracks.

15. If the cracks still aren't completely filled, do again Step #14. Now you're done!

Things You Require To Maintain The Following Patio Backyard Landscaping Design:

shovel and rubber mallet
level
crushed stone
landscape fabric
paving bricks
mason's line
plywood to kneel on
broom
garden hose
one long 2x4 for screed