A brick patio strategically placed outside can be a great place for afternoon cook-outs with friends, or family gatherings. These patios add a beautiful touch to your landscaping efforts around the home. They make a nice place to set a grouping of furniture on, but first they need to be made level and flat.
You can create a patio or walkway path suing bricks, flat rocks, paving stones, or even wash gravel. The one thing that all of these outdoor floors have in common is that they need a solid foundation before you put the decorative materials on top of them.
Dig below the surface area of where you want your patio at least six inches. You are going to place stabilized sand in the area four inches thick and then the remaining two inches will accommodate the thickness of the bricks, or rock that you are using to create a level surface that is stable and dependable.
Four shovelfuls of sand and one shovelful of Portland cement. You mix the sand and Portland to create a stable foundation for your future walkway or patio. Pack the stabilized sand into the area. You can build a packing device by using a twelve inch by twelve-inch piece plywood and you can by a flange at any hardware store that will attach to the plywood and will hold a ¾ inch piece of pipe. Screw the flange to the plywood and then attach a four feet piece of pipe in the other side of the flange. This will allow you to tamp the sand into place firmly. You can rent machinery to use to pack the sand in place at many tools rental supply companies.
If you are suing bricks, you want to place them so that there is a small space between each brick. Just like you would space ceramic tiles you were laying on your kitchen floor. You can create an even sized space by purchasing plastic spacers or you can eyeball the space for a more casual appearance.
Once the bricks are all in place you will pour a mixture of sand and Portland cement over the top of the bricks and use a push broom to push the stabilized sand in-between the bricks in the spaces you created. This sand will hold the bricks firmly in place and create a beautiful look to the patio. You can sprinkle water on the surface of the bricks to dampen the stabilized sand. When the sand dries it will harden and become like grout between ceramic tiles.
Remember that ants love to build under bricks and stones like this. You want to apply ant repellant each spring, again in the summer, and in the fall when the weather starts to change to deter the creatures from using your new patio as their new home.
You can place solar powered lights along the outer edge of a walkway or patio to create a beautiful landscape that is discernable in the dark, and to help prevent accidents caused by poor visibility after dark.
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