How to Install a Brick Stone Patio Walk

Lay out the path. Use stakes at each end and a long string stretched between the stakes to mark a straight path. Use a garden hose to mark the edges of a winding path. A comfortable width for a path is 3 feet. Measure the length and the width of your path, using a tape measure. Approximately 4 1/2 bricks are in a square foot, so multiply the length times the width times 4.5 to determine how many bricks you'll need.

Dig a 6-inch-deep by 3½-foot-wide trench where your path will run. Using a spade, remove the grass, then dig out the dirt, moving it to low spots in the path, elsewhere in the yard or to a raised bed. Tamp the dirt by hand with a dirt tamper or a plate compactor.

Build a temporary border on each side of the path, using one-by-four boards and stakes. Attach the boards to the stakes with deck screws, using a screwdriver or a drill with a screwdriver bit. If you intend to leave the boards as a permanent edge, use pressure-treated two-by-four boards.

Pour 2 inches of gravel into the trench. Sprinkle water over the gravel to keep the dust down. Tamp it down so the gravel locks together, making a solid base. Add another 2 inches of gravel and repeat.

Add a 2-inch deep layer of sand to the path. Using a two-by-four board cut to fit within the borders, smooth the sand. Tamp. Add more sand to any low spots and tamp again.

Lay the border bricks first by digging out enough sand along one side of the wood edging so you can lay a row of bricks with the 2-inch side up. Using a rubber mallet, tap the bricks securely into the sand.

Lay out the bricks, working your way across and then down the path. Work the bricks down into the sand, maintaining a level surface. Tap the bricks down with the rubber mallet or lift and add a little more sand as needed. Insert the opposite border of bricks, on edge, as you build the path. The running bond is the easiest pattern if the path curves or you are working with unevenly sized bricks. Other brick patterns, flagstones, pavers, tumbled glass, small stones or sea shells are interesting and creative variations in a brick path.

Sweep sand across the brick and into all the crevices, using a broom. Spray gently with water, then repeat as needed until all the spaces between the bricks are filled with sand.

Add more sand as needed to maintain your brick walk. If grass or weeds grow between the bricks, or ants built nests underneath, pour vinegar on them. Use caution and do not get vinegar on your landscape plants.