How to repair and upgrade a garden path?

Question

We have a brick garden path. The ground has subsided over time and so it is now bumpy, and also the bricks get very slippery when it is wet (dangerously so).

I was wondering if there were any ideas as to how to fix these problems:

* without having to remove everything 
* without excessively raising the height of the path
* that will still tie in with the rest of the house.

I was wondering whether to lay sandstone pavers over the top but am worried about increasing the height and also I suspect slipperiness would still be an issue.

EricL · Answer

Hello @cludelessdiwhye

I also recommend having a look at this guide - How To Pave A Pathway. It's an excellent guide that will show you how to re-pave your pathway should you decide to re-lay it.

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric

TedBear · Answer

Hi @cludelessdiwhye, I have re-laid pretty much every paving brick in our paths from front of house to back. It's the easiest and most effective way to deal with leveling problems. Get yourself some scraps of timber lengths (or steel of there's some around the place) 100 x 50 at about 2M lengths to use as edging (so you need 2 of them, fairly straight). Decide what the top height will be at each section and lay the temporary timber edges along each side adding about 100mm width. Make up a scraper out of a piece of ply (or anything similar thickness) that is wider than the path and temp. edging and abt 50mm deeper than the thickness of your bricks. Cut out a notch at either end of the scraper which will be the exact thickness of the bricks. After compacting the pathway soil (doesn't need to be too firm for a walkway) set the edging timbers to match the final path top, then use the scraper to scrap out excess soil, adding base soil if necessary. This will have you a good base to lay your bricks.

By setting the top of the temporary edging timbers to the same height as your existing path ends, you will find that the bricks you lay will be at the correct height to fit in with the existing path and whatever surface you wish to match up to at the end. To get the match-up very accurate, just use the scraper along the existing surface edge, which will scrape out the exact amount of soil for the brick to sit upon.

I even them out, section by section as I go, using a short (~400mm) length of 100x50 which I lay over the surrounding bricks and thump it down with a rubber mallet, moving it around to get all the surrounding bricks to sit down level to each other.

I hope that description makes sense. It has worked for me for fixing pathways.

Dave-1 · Answer

Good Afternoon @cludelessdiwhye

:) My vote would be to lift, relevel with fresh sand or even 8mm gravel and a good clean of the surface of the bricks.

I would start at the far end of the path (next to a slab or whatever is set in place so your path is level at that point. Then work your way down the length adjusting and backfilling as you go. The ground is already compacted from the years the bricks have been in place so really not a lot of compaction is needed.

The sand or gravel will help with drainage and keeping the bricks drier than they have been.

I have pavers with gravel under them and they really have stayed dry and in place the last two years. I have often thought how to fix issues if I get them (paths are built on raised clay pathways, reclaimed from the surrounding area) and really lifting pavers and level plus replace isnt a hard job, a boring job maybe :) but with spectacular looking outcomes.

You know the pattern of bricks so no cutting or remeasuring is needed. You could add an edge to them if you want (especially if you rise the bed a reasonable amount)

You have me thinking about my pavers now, I am revamping my front yard and do have weeds growing up between them (resisted so far to use weedkiller) so next option is the same I am giving you :)

Dave