You will find brick pathways blending right in with any kind of landscape, adding to its beauty. You can build a straight and broad brick path, or you can make it wind charmingly up to its destination. The best thing about brick paths is you can lay them yourself. While building with bricks might need professional expertise, laying a brick pathway is not so complicated. You can lay brick in sand that is a fairly simple process.

The brick path and pattern you want is up to you. These attractive paths can be set in different patterns like basket weave, herringbone, etc. For brick sidewalks and pathways, it is better to use frost resistant bricks as it is for outdoor use. The regular building bricks wont withstand the use.

While laying your brick path, go for a slight slope so that water can drain away easily. For brick sidewalks and pathways, the bricks are laid on sand unlike in building construction where mortar is used. Laying a brick pathway on sand is called ‘dry laying’. The bricks are set on a bed of clean sand over a gravel base. You have a choice of white or yellow sand, which you can match to the color of the bricks you plan to use. After you position the bricks, they are placed close together and then sand is filled into the joints, preventing movement. The sand helps level any gaps in the gravel. If the earth under your brick pathway is steady and drains well, you can directly lay the sand on it. The gravel bed is used to provide draining.

This type of dry laid brick path needs edging so that the pathway stays in shape. You will need to have an edging on both sides of the brick path to keep the bricks in position. This edging for the sidewalk path can be paver or bricks laid on the sides. You can also use metal or plastic edging that is very easy to install.

If your brick path runs through your garden, there’s a possibility of your plants and weeds overflowing on to it, especially if you have chosen a weave design with grass borders. Weeding brick paths is a regular process that must be done to keep your brick path clean and accessible. To prevent weeds from cropping up from the brick pathway joints, a layer of landscaping fabric can be laid on top of the gravel base, below the sand.