How to Make a Brick Walkway With a Pitch

Creating a brick pathway for your home not only results in a lovely walkway, but provides stable footing for those crossing your yard. When building a walkway into your yard it is important to ensure that the walkway is slightly pitched, meaning it leans slightly to one side. Although a small pitch is rarely perceptible to the naked eye when the path is complete, the pitch allows the walkway to properly drain to avoid damage to the path.

Pick axe
Shovel
Crushed stone
Power tamp
Level
Sidewall strips
Mallet
Sand

Instructions

- 1
  Plan out the route of your path completely before any digging or placing stone.
- 2
  Loosen the grass within the planned path using the pick axe. Dig up the loosened sod and dirt with the shovel, creating a trench 8 inches deep for the length of the path.
- 3
  Lay a base if crushed stone across the entire path, until the stones reach a height so that your bricks barely extend above the ground when placed atop the stone.
- 4
  Compress the stones down using the power tamper.
- 5
  Check the level of the tamped stones with a level and add more crushed stone to raise the level back to the height before tamping. Continue adding stones until the compressed stone is the desired height.
- 6
  Add a thin layer of crushed stone, starting at one side of the path then tapering down as you move across to the opposite side across the entire length of the path. Tamp down to create the pitched base. Test with a level to ensure there is a slight pitch in one direction.
- 7
  Lay out the bricks for your path atop the crushed stone.
- 8
  Place sidewall paneling around both sides of the path and hit the paneling in position with the mallet. This prevents the bricks and sand from sliding out of position.
- 9
  Fill in the cracks between the bricks with sand. This prevents the bricks from shifting.

How to Border a Sidewalk with Flagstone

Do Pavers Have to Touch Each Other?

Landscaping Walks & Pathways