Brick walkway renovation

on the left as it looked in February, on the right as it looked this week after fixing the jog in the edging and adding width

The last week has been a period of major reconstruction for our brick walkway.

brick edging being set on the right

The beginning of this reconstruction commenced during a warm spell in February, then it came to a screeching halt due to the return of winter weather. In February the walkway reached about halfway down the necessary length. This week has seen further completion of the decorative and supportive edging which consists of bricks set on end along one side of the walkway. This weeks work also includes additional bricks added to the path width. When time ran out in February, the width of the path was two bricks short. We left it that way until this week. It looked rather bad with the jog in the edging, but hey, you do what you have to to make it work temporarily. Now the edging lines up for the current length of the walkway, and the width of the path is consistent from top to bottom. It is a visual improvement, in addition to a structural improvement.

array of brick laid out for planning

bricks piled and laid out before laying in walkway

Using the recycled, used brick does add some additional construction time to the project because it requires sorting of the different types of brick described in my last blog entry. http://shoresidefarmhouse.blogspot.com/2011/04/brick-walkway-renovation.html  Much time was spent laying out what bricks would go where, and how they would fit together. The height and width of each type of brick is different, so changes had to be made in the sand under the brick to compensate for the differences in brick dimensions, especially height, or the path will not be level. I guess in some ways it is like a giant jigsaw puzzle. The photo at left shows brick laid out on the sides of the path to be able to visually pick which brick will work well in the next installation of bricks.

The glove at the right was new when this project was started at the beginning of this week. Look at it now! It looks like swiss cheese. Brick handling was tough on the gloves, so I would discourage attempting to do this project without flexible gloves to protect your hands. This style gloves was great for this work, but it was fatal to the gloves. More on the path making, next entry.