How to Pave & Design With Bricks

Choose a brick style and color to match your décor and design a pattern to fit the brick. Standard bricks come in colors from white to deep red or brown. Mix colors at random or in fixed patterns such as waving lines or squares interspersed in background bricks, for visually interesting patios and walkways. Vary layouts in the same size and color of brick, with herringbone, basketweave or running bond patterns. Lay bricks side by side with even joints, but vary that by turning bricks the opposite direction in the next section.Use one pattern for the inside of a patio or walk, a different pattern for a border.

Put your final design on paper and size your project to brick dimensions, for instance widths in multiples of four for standard bricks. Mark the outline of your project with wood stakes and builder's twine. Excavate that space with a shovel or excavator at least six inches, deeper for driveways or areas that will bear heavy weights. Cover it with landscape fabric to block weeds, if desired. Compact two inches of medium gravel and top that with two inches of medium sand. Smooth and level the sand with a long board.

Install bricks starting at one corner and work across and up the area in the chosen pattern. Lay bricks with gaps if you want an antique look with wide seams; place them tightly by installing one brick and setting the next in place by putting its bottom side at the top of the neighbor and pushing straight down. Cut bricks with a masonry saw if any half-blocks are needed to make a pattern, such as a running bond where joints overlap in the middle of a brick. Basketweave, with two bricks one way and two the opposite, and herringbone, with one brick end on the side of another, may require different cuts.

Test the level of the project as you work and again when installation is complete. Adjust any irregularities by adding or removing sand under a brick. Finish the project by sweeping sand over the bricks and into the seams; use polymeric sand, which has a bonding agent that will seal joints once dampened. It may take several days of sweeping to get all joints firmly filled.