How to Build Paver Walkways With Restraint Borders

Building walkways with pavers allows you to choose from a wide variety of paver sizes, shapes and colors, creating a distinctive path that readily blends in to existing landscaping. To hold the pavers in place, create a border that won't move with every small shift in the soil beneath the walkway. Installing edging restraint strips along the edges of the walkway provides the border you need. Held in place by 12-inch steel spikes along with the weight of the pavers themselves, the restraints create a crisp line between the pavers making up the walkway and the rest of the landscape while keeping the pavers in place for the lifetime of the walkway.

Tape measure
Landscaping paint
Spade
Tamper
Edging restraint border strips
12-inch steel spikes
Hammer
Soil fumigant spray
Masonry sand
Water hose
Pavers
Carpenter's level
Chisel
Polymetric sand
Push broom

Instructions

- 1
  Determine the path that you want the walkway to follow and its width. For easier installation, measure the pavers you're using to create the path and set the width so it uses an equal number of pavers without the need to make cuts to fit the width. Mark both sides of the path edges with a landscaping spray, measuring the distance between the edges with a tape measure to keep path width consistent.
- 2
  Measure the height of the pavers. Add 2 inches and dig the walkway foundation with a spade, using the result to set the depth.
- 3
  Tamp the soil at the base of the foundation down to compress the soil. Lift and then drop the tamper onto the soil along the base of the foundation to compress it using the tamp's weight. The flat bottom of the tamp also helps in leveling the soil as well.
- 4
  Line the sides of the foundation hole with the restraint borders. Place the borders so the edge is against the sides of the foundation with the flats extending inside where they'll sit beneath the pavers. Drive 12-inch non-corrosive spikes through the holes along the base of the restraints to hold them in place.
- 5
  Spray the walkway foundation hole with soil fumigant to prevent the growth of plant life through the pavers.
- 6
  Fill the bottom of the hole with masonry sand to the depth of 1 inch. Drag a screed stick across the sand to level it out, using a back-and-forth motion with the screed to shift high points of the sand into voids. Wet down the sand with a garden hose. Tamp it compact as you did the soil and place a second inch of sand into the walkway hole. Lightly mist the second inch of sand and compact the second layer with the tamper as well.
- 7
  Line the hole with the pavers, placing them into the foundation up to the edge of the restraints. The top of the pavers will be level with the top of the surrounding surface. Place a carpenter's level across the pavers to make certain they're level. Make adjustments to the pavers to level them by removing sand from beneath high pavers and adding sand beneath low ones. Butt the edges of the pavers against one another, leaving as little space between them as possible to avoid movement. Cut pavers when necessary by scoring a cut line with a chisel, placing the chisel along the line and striking the chisel head with a mallet to split the paver.
- 8
  Cover the surface of the pavers with polymetric sand, which is masonry sand with an additive that reacts to water and hardens in place. Sweep the sand into the joints between the pavers and between the pavers and the restraint border with a broom until full. Use a garden hose to wet the sand, causing it to fall deeper into the joints. Spread more sand over the pavers and repeat the wetting process as many times as necessary until the sand no longer compresses into the joints between the pavers.

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