More than just a track to your door, a path is an essential ingredient of a garden’s design, showing visitors their route. So, direct the traffic at your place with a simple wide walkway. No matter the style, from a scenic garden path to a long-lasting concrete path, the tidy route will bring some order to the chaos that can be your front garden.
This simple, 8-step DIY uses large rectangular pavers with a border of contrasting smaller pavers with stunning results.
Gather your supplies
- Road base
- Paving sand
- Pavers (we used charcoal 200 x 100mm Havenbrick pavers and 450 x 300mm Stradascape pavers)
- Sand and cement mix/mortar mix
- Jointing sand
You’ll also need
Plate compactor (hired); rubber mallet; stringline; straightedge; spirit level; float and/or trowel; tape measure; shovel; broom; rake; set-out paint; brick saw (hired – optional).
Here’s How
Step 1
Use tape measure and set-out paint to mark out path shape. Ours is 1525mm wide (1125mm with 200mm border header course).
Step 2
Excavate soil to a depth of 150mm. Spread road base to a depth of 80mm, then use plate compactor to compact down to 70mm.
Step 3
Spread 30mm bed of paving sand over road base. Before screeding, use paver to establish correct height level against bordering surface. Set up a stringline along lawn borders to keep edge straight.
Step 4
Use straightedge to screed sand down to correct level, checking periodically with spirit level.
Step 5
Starting at end of path, lay header course of border pavers (200 x 100mm). Use spirit level to ensure they’re straight, then tap into position with mallet. Continue laying border pavers along side of path.
Step 6
Lay large rectangular pavers (450 x 300mm). The pattern used here required cutting pavers to fit and a brick saw was hired for this purpose.
Step 7
Lay border pavers along other side. Mix up a batch of sand and cement mix to haunch sides, spreading mix on a 45° angle.
Step 8
Sweep jointing sand over surface to fill gaps between pavers.
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