How to Create a Walkway With Pavers on a Grade

Mark out the boundaries of your walkway on the ground using a can of spray paint. Mark a second line about six inches outside of those marks; this outer line will mark the border of your walkway base, ensuring that it extends beyond the actual stones.

Lay out the height of your walkway by hammering in wooden stakes along the spray-painted lines. Run string from stake to stake at the height you would like the finished stones to reach.

Dig out the area marked by the spray paint to a depth below the strings of five inches plus the thickness of a paver; if, for example, your pavers are two inches thick the hole must be seven inches below the string.

Fill the hole with four inches of gravel. Lay down two inches, then compress it with a gas-powered plate compactor before adding the next two inches and repeating compression. This builds a stable and solid base for your walkway.

Establish a level for your sand layer by setting several one inch diameter metal bars parallel to each other in your hole. Adjust the height of the bars by piling sand under them until they are exactly parallel to the strings, with one brick-height of distance between them.

Shovel in sand until the hole is filled to the top of the metal bars. Set a flat board across the bars and drag it across them to smooth the sand layer without compressing it. This is called screeding. Once this is done, you can pull up the bars and fill the holes they leave behind with more sand.

Build up a border for your walkway by hammering in plastic edging using metal spikes. This edging will keep your walkway from spreading out as weight is applied to it.

Lay down your pavers in the pattern of your choice on top of the flattened sand. Start from one corner and work backwards, being careful to drop pavers in flat, not on their edges (this will disturb the sand).

Pour out polymeric sweeping sand onto the walkway and sweep it into the joints between the pavers. Once the joints are filled halfway, run the plate compactor across the pavers to compress them down into the sand. Be sure to read the instructions on the bag of polymeric sand before beginning this step.

Sweep the rest of the polymeric sand into the paver joints until they are filled to the level of the walkway. Sweep the rest of the sand off, leaving the walkway perfectly clean.

Spray the walkway with a mist of water from a garden hose. This will activate the polymeric sand, locking your pavers in place.