How to Lay a Concrete Brick Wall Around a Patio

Excavate an 8-inch-deep trench around the perimeter of your patio with a spade or shovel. The width of the excavated site and finished wall will depend on your personal preferences and the dimensions of the brick you chose for your project. Leave an opening on one side of the patio to use as an entrance.

Level the soil at the bottom of the trench by locating low and high points with a level. Remove soil from high points. Compact the soil with a manual soil tamper, recheck with a level and remove additional soil as necessary. Repeat until the bottom of the trench is perfectly level.

Apply a 3-inch layer of crushed stone or gravel in the trench. Smooth the gravel layer and pound the layer with the soil tamper to compact the layer of material. Level the gravel layer by adding gravel to low points and tamping the layer again. Repeat until the gravel layer is level.

Combine premixed mortar and water with a shovel in a wheelbarrow. Immediately rinse the shovel after mixing to prevent mortar from drying on the tool. Mortar packaging includes instructions on how much water to add to produce a substance with a consistency similar to thick batter.

Apply a layer of mortar over the gravel layer to create a mortar bed for setting bricks into place. Apply only a small area of mortar at a time, so that it does not dry before you finish.

Set one brick into place at a time, scooping mortar onto the ends of each brick. Set each brick onto the mortar bed and against the adjacent brick to fill the gap between the two bricks with mortar. Use mason's spacing rules to keep gaps between bricks and between courses of bricks uniform in thickness. Set a level on top of each brick and use a rubber mallet to tap the high side of the brick to level each brick into place.

Set wooden stakes into the ground at either end of your wall. Tie a taut string between the two stakes, allowing the string to lay across the tops of the first bricks you install. Use the height of the string to help you keep the first course level throughout. As you move on to additional courses, move the string up, allowing enough room for the brick's thickness and the thickness of the mortar between the new course and the last.

Smooth mortar lines between bricks while the mortar is still wet, using a brick jointer. Wipe excess mortar off the jointer with a wet rag. If any mortar gets onto the brick faces during installation, use a wire masonry brush to remove the mortar quickly before it sets.

Continue to apply courses of brick using a running bond pattern to stagger each new course. Build the wall up to the desired height and then cap the wall with cap bricks to create an attractive top course for the brick wall. Apply the cap bricks using the same method of applying mortar to the top of the previous course and to the ends of the cap bricks and then tapping the bricks level.