What should I use under the bricks to stop weeds?

[Dallas_Mc]

 

Hi all,

I’ve had to pull up the brick driveway to fix some stormwater pipes and before I put everything back down was wondering if there is something to keep the weeds from growing through around the bricks?

Web searches come up with various methods (mainly from the US), so any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Dave-1]

Good Morning @Dallas_Mc 

Im just commenting as Id be interested as well Having the bricks close to each other would limit weeds I suppose but I have gaps between mine so I will hang off your question

Dave

[Jewelleryrescue]

Hi  @Dallas_Mc

Standard   black plastic will stop the  weeds from underneath and  even steralise the seeds  while in the hot sun.

As they are  bricks  you will get some wind blown dirt and seeds in your brick cracks and weeds will grow from that after a time but a  high pressure wash or simple garden hose on  jet should help clean this dirt out.

If you sprinkle and broom in cement powder on top of the  bricks after re laying them it will act like the air bourne dust and settle in the cracks first and limit seed growing opertunities and hold the bricks firm.  Lightly and sparingly wet the bricks washing more cement into the  cracks. 2 hours later Simply wash off excess cement powder off the bricks surface not aiming at  brick cracks  so cement wont get blasted out.

[EricL]

Hello @Dallas_Mc 

That's spot-on advice from @Jewelleryrescue. Once you've levelled the sand base simply line the top of the sand with builder's plastic. This will prevent any any water or sunlight from reaching the germinating seeds in the sand. 

But it will be impossible to stop the weeds from coming in from the surface. But because of the plastic liner they won't be able to send down roots and it should be easy to remove them from between the pavers. Using a traditional sand and cement mix as gap filler is an excellent way to reduce weed infestation even more.

If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.

Eric

[wooshka]

I use this in all my paving jobs https://www.bunnings.com.au/dingo-20kg-powerloc-paving-sand_p0760478

A lot easier to use than doing a sand cement mix and flows down into any crevices easily, just make sure everything is super dry when you poor it on

[EricL]

Hi @wooshka 

Thank you very much for the suggestion, let me tag @Dallas_Mc to make them aware of your recommendation.

Eric

[Jewelleryrescue]

Nice  product and idea @wooshka