How to Edge Interlocking Brick

Interlocking bricks are bricks with edges formed to fit along the edges of adjacent bricks to create close-fitting patterns and long stretches of level pavement. While the bricks lock together tightly, to keep them in position you'll need to provide an edge around the paved perimeter. For most interlocking brick systems, an appropriate edging consists of steel edging strips. Once set into place the strips create a definitive boundary between the bricks and surrounding surfaces, keeping the bricks in position while keeping adjacent soil, sand or gravel from the brick surfaces.

Landscaping paint
Steel edging strips
12-inch steel spikes
Mallet
Spade
Gravel
Sand
Interlocking bricks
Polymetric sand
Rubber mats
Vibratory plate compactor
Soil
Tamping tool

Instructions

- 1
  Mark the perimeter edges of your interlocking brick surface onto the ground using landscaping paint.
- 2
  Lay steel edging strips along the marked lines, following the markings with the flat of the strips towards the interior of the surface where you intend to place the bricks and the mounting holes towards the outside of the strip lying flat against the ground.
- 3
  Secure the strips into position using 12-inch steel spikes. Place the point of the spike in the center of the mounting holes of the strips and then drive the spikes firmly into the ground with a mallet until flush with the bottom of the strips.
- 4
  Continue down the strips, driving a spike through each mounting hole to hold the strip firmly into place.
- 5
  Lay the bricks within the interior of the edging strip upon a prepared foundation, dug with a spade and then filled with a layer of gravel covered by a bed of construction sand until the bricks reach the edging strips.
- 6
  Fill the space in the joints between the bricks and between the bricks and the edging strips with a polymetric sand. Place rubber mats over the bricks and compact the sand in the joints by running a vibratory plate compactor over the surface.
- 7
  Remove the mats and place more sand into the compressed areas, filling them again. Repeat the compression and replacement process until it's no longer possible to compress the sand.
- 8
  Water the sand to activate it, hardening it as a result.
- 9
  Backfill dirt to the side of the edging strips opposite the bricks to conceal the strip. Tamp the soil in place to compress it against the edging and prevent runoff.

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