How To Construct A Garden Path
Every summer, about 2,000,000 optimistic
homeowners decide to install a garden path. They
rush out to the Gardening Center or Home Improvement department
store, spend an inordinate
amount of time getting someone to help them calculate how many
bricks they’ll need. 99% of
the time, the store professional will warn them of the need to dig a
proper bed for the path, and
explain about substrates and sand. The homeowner listens with half
an hour, convinced he
knows perfectly well what’s being talked about, and dashes off.
Somehow, Joe Homeowner gets those puppies home; perhaps by delivery
(having seen the
famous photo of a Volkswagen buckled to the ground under a flat of
bricks) or by having them
marked as a “Will Call” and fetching them in smaller loads.
He rents a mini back-hoe, and has a fun afternoon peeling up a 6”
layer of sod. He throws down
3 bags of sand, and sets his stones, filling in the cracks with sand
or garden dirt. He graciously
allows his wife to brush the stones off, and they admire his
handiwork. Done.
A year later, he stares at the bucking, twisting, crumbling path and
insists loudly there’s
nothing wrong with it as his mother-in-law is carted away by
ambulance, after severely injuring
her ankle and hip in the course of tripping over one of the jutting
bricks.
He should never have thrown away the little diagram the store
professional drew for him. The
one that looked like this:
The Correct Way To Install A Brick Path
Translated, the little drawing means the path is not just a single
layer of bricks or paving
stones, but an assembly. It’s a unit that has more layers than a
Hero sandwich.
Your bricks are just the top layer. The one you see. The real work
of creating that perfect,
professionally-laid path is determined by how carefully you prepare
the layers beneath.
This is one perfectly professional way to install a simple brick
path…
1. Dig down the depth you will need. Calculate this by adding the
depth of your pavers or
bricks plus 1 ½” - 2” fine sand, plus 2 layers each of compacted
limestone screenings.
2. Tamp (compact) the exposed earth – a rented plate compactor is
the best thing to use
for this entire project.
3. Lay in a “Lift” (layer) of limestone screening.
4. Compact and smooth over top.
5. Repeat step 4. (You will know that these are compacted properly
when it is somewhat
difficult to pound a 5 or 6 inch spike into them).
6. Position vinyl edges along the desired sides of the pathway, and
spike into position
with 4” galvanized nails. Lay in a Lift of 1 ½”-2” fine sand.
7. Compact the sand with your plate compactor and screed the top for
uniform
smoothness, using a 2’ X 4’ whose length equals the width of your
pathway. Placing a
nail at each end, at the appropriate spot, will allow the Screed to
track along the top of
the edgings. This will provide your finished Face at the same depth
as your pavers.
Garden Path Designs
Lay in the pavers or bricks. If you are using a uniform, staggered
pattern, start at one
end, in one corner. Work along to the other end.
If you are adventuresome and creative, and wish to do a design with
your pavers
(possibly a radiating circle at the center point of the walkway)
start at the center point
of that design, and work to each end.
Because we do not line the end joints up on pavers, cutting will be
involved. Even if the
walk is the same width as a certain number of pavers, because of
staggering, one brick
in every other row will have to be cut.
Mark on the work piece where you want the cut on all 4 sides. Place
the work piece on a
firm hard surface (such as another paver). Position the brick set
fully on the mark – you
want the entire edge of the brickset contacting the workpiece.
Tap the brick set enough to make a little groove all the way across
the face of the work
piece. Repeat this on all 4 sides. You should now have a groove
girdling the work
piece. Be sure and keep the work piece on the hard, smooth surface.
Place the brick set
centered in one of the longer grooves so that its entire edge is
fully contacting the
groove, and the length of the brickset is very close to 90 from the
face of the work
piece. Give it a good healthy belt with your sledgehammer – usually
only one is
required – and amazingly, the workpiece is now 2, with a relatively
smooth edge where
your cut was just made.
Now all the bricks are in place. Compact them again with the place
compactor, starting
in the middle, and working to the edges and ends.
Use the finest sand you can find to fill in the cracks of the
pavers. This is done by
pouring sand over the top of the pavers, and is worked down in
between by brooming
over with a stiff push-broom. If you’ve used a polymerized sand like
Magic Sand, be
sure to finish by hosing it down, which will make the sand magically
set up.
What you will have at the end of this process is a professional and
pleasing garden path.
About the Author: D. Benjamin is the owner of
iapsales.com LLC - a family business specializing in HVAC products. We
are distributors of
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electric tankless water heaters,
bathroom heaters,
patio heaters, electric heaters,
portable air
conditioners & electric towel warmers. Shop on line at
www.heateroutlet.com for these great home improvement products.
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