Designs for Brick Walkways

      

Brick walkways, properly maintained, add an aesthetic feeling to landscaping like no other building material. The earth tones of the brick blend in with any style architecture, and as a bonus, the bricks offer a hard surface for walking, work, and play.

Laying a brick sidewalk-formal or informal in style and design-is easy for do-it-yourselfer mainly because the project can be completed in stages-unlike concrete, which must be worked immediately.

DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS:
Be versatile when you plan a brick walkway project. If the walkway will meet a patio or terrace or fence, leave an open area between the two. Later, the area can be formed into a raised planting bed or just left as a pleasing grassy area. Also, rather than removing trees or shrubs, build the walkway around them. Each tree or plant will require an open area equal to at least 1-1/2 to 2 feet in diameter. This permits an adequate amount of moisture to reach the roots and enough space to grow.

It is recommended that you make a sketch of your project on graph paper, tracing in trees, shrubs, plantings, fences, walls, patios, and so on. Then determine where the walkway best fits in the plan.

Materials and Edging-
The walkway can be constructed of bricks laid in mortar bed on a concrete footing or in a sand bed over a gravel base. Often, brick installations such as these feature permanent edging materials, such as bricks set on end, special wood beams, or even old railroad ties. The edging holds the shape of the wall-, and increases its longevity. Bricks tend to "float" if they are not contained within a form of some sort.

Creating Edging Patterns-
The type of permanent edging you choose will affect the design of the project. A walkway that is straight-away, can have an edging of 2X4s or 4X4s of redwood, cypress, or pressure treated lumber. Old railroad ties also make super edging for walks. Sink them into the ground to about half the thickness of their top edges so the wood surface will stand only a little higher than the tops of the bricks. You can create additional designs using the wooden edging materials in interior patterns that divide the walkway into "sections."

If the walkway will go around a tree, for example, you may want to create a circle around the tree with bricks. Or, you may want to turn the walkway with a gentle curve, or even widen certain sections on which garden furniture and plantings may be set. You can work with curved, round, and free-formed shapes with an edging of bricks set in a small concrete footing.

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