Brick paver Walkways

[James "Cubby" Culbertson]

Hiya Folks, Getting everything in order to install brick pavers at mi casa this summer. These will be external for walkways and possibly part of my driveway over a bed of basecourse and sand. Anyway, I've got a few basic questions. One, I can find 1" Base Course/Crushed rock or 3/4". The price for the 1" is significantly cheaper so my question is, does it matter that it's a bit larger than the typical 3/4" stuff? Two, the walkways will have some curves in them. Do you recommend I just fudge the gaps to make the curves or cut the bricks. I realize this probably depends on how sharp a curve but just curious. I've got a wet saw and had planned on cutting so if that's preferable, then I'll go that route (I think I'd prefer this to excessive gaps between the pavers). I'd probably have all sorts of headaches with changing geometry if I'm cutting the bricks though. Anyway, any other tips or advice is most appreciated. Cheers, cc

[No]

Hey Cubby - I did a curved walk, 4' wide, 35' long. It turned 90degres gradually. The first 2' and the last 2' were not quite straight. Think shaped like a banana. I did not make any cuts to facilitate the curve, I just fudged. It looked great. I let the pavers dictate the width. I used 4" of "crusher run" and 1" of sand. Crusher run was much smaller than 3/4", more like gravel but it packed. Frost line is 40 plus inches here. No problem with heave or shifting. Only problem I had was when drywall delivery truck drove over the edge and provided a bit of free additional compaction (Dropped about 1/2").

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[James "Cubby" Culbertson]

Thanks for the input! I plan to put down the same base and sand although the base course is around 1" and smaller. I'm figuring it'll work fine. Same amount too! As for the curve, I kind of figured I'd start out at the straight part and see how it goes. If fudging the gaps looks bad, then I'll start cutting. A guy at work who builds houses on the side recommended taking a 4" grinder and attaching a diamond cutter to it. That way I could cut curves fairly easily (won't cut all the way through the brick,,,just score it enough to then use a chisel/hammer on it). I figure between the wet saw and his idea, I may just be able to do this without too much pain. I'm using standard paving bricks (4x9) and they don't come in any sort of tapers etc... so I'll just have to make my own. The only decision left to really make is whether I want just the plain bricks or tumbled bricks....hmmm. Cheers and thanks for the info. cc

[Jim Elbrecht]

-snip-

Do they come in a 1/2 or 1/3 size? If you can mix them up a bit with short ones you can make the curve much faster if you need to. To figure out how much of a gap you need to make to curve them- think of each side of the brick as the edge of a circle. You extend the diameter of the outside by about 1/4" per brick with the gap. If you can find matching bricks in 4x3's you can extend it 3/4" in the same space.

If you are going to *have* to cut them- don't get tumbled. Your cut edges will stand out. Otherwise, the tumbled ones hide a multitude of sins.

Jim

[RicodJour]

Depending on the paver, the cut edges on the tumbled can be chipped up a bit to make them blend in. Sometimes that ends up looking better than a cut edge on a paver that has a rounded or eased edge - you can't fake those.

R

[gfretwell]

You have to be careful. A lot of pavers have different material in the middle than the top surface. If you try to radius a new edge it may come out a different color. Since they are cast, it will certainly be a different texture.

[James "Cubby" Culbertson]

I suspect that won't be a problem as we're not going with a straight color anyway. The color scheme would probably cover up any anomolies. As well, I won't be cutting the wear surface, only the edges which won't show anyway. Cheers, cc