Brick Walkway Installation, Brick Path, Farm House

Brick walkway, dry laid, running bond design

This old farm house is a handful. It is all down and dirty. No finesse, no niceties, no decor, not much here is designed for 21st century life. Look around  here, 19th century life surrounds you.  No finished driveway, no garage, no patio, no deck, steps without a landing to maneuver at the entry door, windows that don't open or jam closed, raw wood floors without finish, the list goes on. This is a frustrating place to live. There is so much to do to make it habitable to 20th century standards..forget twenty-first century standards! Slowly, patiently, we have been upgrading the living quarters, little by little, project by project. The current project is truly, physically, brick by brick.

After struggling to walk on the uneven dusty sandy soil that constitutes the yard here, I decided something had to change. The previous owners had demolished some chimneys in the house. They left piles of bricks strewn throughout the yard.  It dawned on me that those bricks might provide a better surface for walking than the sandy dusty soil. So,brick by brick, we gathered and transported bricks to one central bank to provide supply. We recycled those bricks to lay paths and work surfaces in the areas around the house entry, to make egress and exit safer and less dangerous.

original brick walkway, 7 bricks wide, no edging

This brick walkway project has been a work in progress, evolving over a period of several years.Part of it was laid, then taken up and relaid, because it was deemed too sloped.  Parts were then removed again because it was to narrow, then again because it was deemed too straight and didn't end at a good spot. Well, you get the idea. As I stated it is a work in progress. I believe the pathway part is settled and has been in use for well over a year. Presently it was necessary to deal with another problem that arose. The path was getting a wash out effect every time it rained or the wind was strong. Mulch from the sides of the pathway regularly washed across the path, requiring tending. It had to be shoveled up and put back on the garden bed beside the pathway. It was a pain in the neck to deal with and looked terrible. My solution was to gather broken bricks and place them short side down into the soil along the edge of the path. One by one bricks were lined up in a trowel dug trench along the sides of the path. This created a small mini retaining wall along the sides of the pathway to hold back the soil and mulch on the higher side of the path. When originally built, the lower side of the walkway needed the same bricks on end treatment to stabilize the pathway bricks in the sandy soil. (They moved around from the pressure of being stepped on.)  The sand underneath shifted place much like a sand dune. The bricks buried on end stabilize the pathway holding all of the walkway bricks in place exactly where they had been set.

improved, widened, brick walk way with bricks set on end to create an edging

Others can benefit from our mistakes and experiences. Here is some advice we can share. We found that a pathway seven bricks wide, laid in a running bond on sand, was barely adequate for comfortable passage. The reconstructed second pathway was constructed ten bricks wide in a running bond, and it was quite a bit more comfortable for passage and looked better visually.  We found that a running bond design, as seen in the photos, was a very doable design to use for the path. The running bond was easy to lay down and change direction, or curve to the desired contour, without cutting bricks. Lots of special tools were not required, though some are desirable if you have access to them. We did all the work with a garden trowel, a garden hand rake, a push broom and a 30" length of 2"x4" lumber. One might also find a level tool of some help in this project.  The trowel is for digging and moving soil, the rake is for smoothing out and breaking up clumps, and the length of lumber was for leveling and for dragging across the sand/soil to smooth it out to a level surface before setting any bricks on it. After bricks are set, sand is spread over the top of the walkway and brushed in the push broom. The brushed in sand helps keep the bricks in place once set. Good luck and happy bricking!