How to Build a Brick Patio
Excavate and level a stable gravel foundation, screed a bedding sand layer, lay clay bricks in pattern, and sweep polymeric sand into the joints for a durable patio.
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🧰 Required Tools & Equipment
- ✓ Plate compactor or hand tamper
- ✓ Square and round shovels
- ✓ 1-inch steel conduit pipes (2x)
- ✓ Straight 2x4 screed board
- ✓ Rubber mallet
- ✓ Mason's line and line level
- ✓ Masonry saw or angle grinder with diamond blade
- ✓ Push broom
📦 Materials & Supplies
- ✓ Clay or concrete patio pavers
- ✓ Crushed stone base (dense grade aggregate / 3/4-minus)
- ✓ Coarse washed bedding sand (concrete sand)
- ✓ Polymeric joint sand
- ✓ Plastic paver edge restraints
- ✓ 10-inch steel landscape spikes
⚠️ Safety Checkpoints & Warnings
- • Call 811 before excavating to ensure no buried utilities run under the patio footprint.
- • Wear an N95 or P100 respirator and eye protection when cutting pavers and handling dry polymeric sand to prevent silica inhalation.
- • Wear ear protection when operating a plate compactor or power masonry saw.
- • Wear reinforced work gloves and steel-toe boots to protect hands and feet from heavy stones.
📋 Step-by-Step Guide (7 Steps)
Layout and Excavate the Patio Footprint
Mark the perimeter with wooden stakes and mason's string lines, setting a 1/4-inch per foot slope away from any adjacent house foundation. Excavate soil across the entire area to a depth of 7 to 8 inches below the planned final surface height. Remove all roots and organic topsoil, then tamp the raw subgrade thoroughly.
- • Flat, exposed subsoil trench excavated 7-8 inches below finished grade.
- • Taut string lines establishing square corners and outward slope.
- • Failing to account for drainage slope, causing future water pooling against the foundation.
- • Excavating too shallow, leaving insufficient room for a durable base.
Install and Compact the Gravel Base
Spread crushed dense-grade aggregate across the excavation in 2-inch thick layers. Lightly mist the gravel with water, then run the plate compactor over the area, overlapping each pass by half. Repeat this process until you have a rock-hard, uniformly flat 4- to 5-inch thick compacted base maintaining your drainage pitch.
- • Dense, interlocking gravel pad showing zero loose stones on top.
- • Gravel surface sits exactly 3 inches below the desired finished paver height.
- • Dumping all 4-6 inches of gravel at once instead of compacting in 2-inch lifts.
- • Compacting dry gravel, which fails to lock aggregate particles tightly together.
Set Edge Restraints along Starting Borders
Place rigid plastic paver edging directly on top of the compacted gravel along the fixed reference borders of the patio. Drive 10-inch steel spikes through the edging holes into the compacted base every 12 to 18 inches using a small sledge or hammer. Leave the final closing edge open until all full pavers are laid.
- • Edging strips pinned tight against the gravel with steel spikes flush to plastic tabs.
- • Edge aligns perfectly with the mason's guide string.
- • Installing edging on top of uncompacted soil or bedding sand instead of the gravel base.
- • Spacing spikes too far apart, allowing the plastic strip to flex.
Screed the Bedding Sand Layer
Lay two parallel 1-inch outside-diameter steel conduit pipes onto the compacted gravel base roughly 6 to 8 feet apart. Shovel coarse concrete sand between and around the pipes. Pull a straight 2x4 screed board across the pipes to create an ultra-smooth, uniform 1-inch sand bed, then carefully remove pipes and fill the pipe troughs with sand.
- • Pristine, flat 1-inch sand bed with no footprints or ridges.
- • Pipe voids smoothly filled and troweled flush to the adjacent sand surface.
- • Walking on the screeded sand layer after smoothing it out.
- • Compacting the bedding sand before pavers are laid.
Lay Paver Bricks in Pattern
Begin laying bricks at a 90-degree corner along the fixed edge restraint, working outward across the screeded sand. Lower each brick directly straight down against its neighbors using a 'click-and-drop' method rather than sliding it across the sand bed. Tap protruding bricks lightly with a rubber mallet to keep the surface even.
- • Bricks sitting tight with even 1/16 to 1/8 inch joint spacing.
- • Consistent bond pattern visible with no drifting joint lines across the field.
- • Sliding pavers horizontally, which bunches up sand and tilts adjacent bricks.
- • Allowing joint lines to drift out of square over long runs.
Mark, Cut, and Install Edge Bricks
Lay edge bricks over the open perimeter gaps, align with adjacent pavers, and mark precise cut lines across them using a pencil and straightedge. Cut the marked pavers using a diamond-blade masonry saw or an angle grinder fitted with a wet blade. Set cut pieces into position, then install and spike down the closing edge restraint.
- • Clean, gap-free perimeter with all cut bricks sitting flush against the edge restraint.
- • Final edge restraint securely spiked into base aggregate.
- • Dry-cutting bricks without respiratory protection, releasing hazardous silica dust.
- • Making rough 'eyeball' cuts resulting in large uneven edge gaps.
Apply Polymeric Sand and Final Compact
Ensure the patio surface is completely dry, then pour polymeric joint sand over the bricks and sweep it into all joints with a push broom. Place a rubber pad under your plate compactor (or use a scrap piece of carpet) and run it across the patio to vibrate the sand deep into the joints; re-sweep sand until joints are filled to 1/8 inch below paver chamfers. Thoroughly blow off all surface dust, then mist lightly with water to activate the binder.
- • Joints filled solidly with hardened polymeric sand 1/8 inch below paver edges.
- • Zero polymeric sand haze or residue left on the paver faces after misting.
- • Applying polymeric sand while pavers are damp, creating sticky stains on brick faces.
- • Flooding the joints with heavy water pressure, washing the sand out instead of activating it.
Credit: inspired by an original tutorial by This Old House — watch the original on YouTube.
Don’t have everything?
- No Plate compactor? Heavy cast-iron hand tamper (8x8 inch) used in thinner 1-inch gravel lifts
- No Masonry saw with diamond blade? Angle grinder with 4.5-inch diamond masonry disc, or a brick chisel and 3-lb sledgehammer
- No 1-inch steel conduit pipes? 1-inch schedule 40 PVC electrical conduit or 1-inch galvanized plumbing pipe