I previously installed a brick patio set in sand, and it came out really
good. On my new property, I was thinking of trying something I read in a
book. It said you can mix 1 part mortor to 3 parts sand (dry) to lay the
bricks on. Then leave 1/2 gaps in the brick and use the same mixture when
you fill the gaps in. Then wet it all down, and you have a much more solid
surface and the sand won't wash away. The only way I have heard of before
is laying a solid surface first and then laying the bricks in wet mortor
and then grouting, or the dry lay method. Anyone heard of doing it the way
I described?
Thanks.

It stiffens the mix considerably. Do it if you weren't happy with sand
alone.

We did something similar to this.
We placed a 3" "rat slab"; set out brick on that; swept a mix of sand &
cem.ent into the joints; sprinkled the surface to set the mix.
Some of the joints didn't set properly, but the drive is in good shape
18 years later.
TB

" wrote in
oups.com:

We did something similar to this.
We placed a 3" "rat slab"; set out brick on that; swept a mix of sand &
cem.ent into the joints; sprinkled the surface to set the mix.
Some of the joints didn't set properly, but the drive is in good shape
18 years later.
TB


What is a rat slab? And how big were your joints?

Steve wrote:
I previously installed a brick patio set in sand, and it came out
really good. On my new property, I was thinking of trying something
I read in a book. It said you can mix 1 part mortor to 3 parts sand
(dry) to lay the bricks on. Then leave 1/2 gaps in the brick and use
the same mixture when you fill the gaps in. Then wet it all down,
and you have a much more solid surface and the sand won't wash away.
The only way I have heard of before is laying a solid surface first
and then laying the bricks in wet mortor and then grouting, or the
dry lay method. Anyone heard of doing it the way I described?
Thanks.

Personally I like the idea of no cement. The cement makes repairs more
difficult. The walk and drive I put in about 35 years ago using no cement
in the mix is still there and looking good. While I was living there I did
two maintenance jobs on it, one after about two years and again about ten
years after that. In both cases it only involved about 5-10% of the total.

--
Joseph Meehan

Dia duit

You have the right idea but use less cement. Maybe a
1 to 5 part sand mix will be plenty hard. Don't plan on
doing any easy repairs as this will all set up pretty hard.
You don't need such a large gap. Even with a slight gap,
sand can be broomed into the joints and when wetted, will
never move laterally.

You can buy a similar mix pre-mixed. It's called sand topping
mix. Would save you a lot of work.

thetiler

On Sat, 29 Apr 2006 00:31:31 GMT, "Joseph Meehan"
wrote:

Steve wrote:
I previously installed a brick patio set in sand, and it came out
really good. On my new property, I was thinking of trying something
I read in a book. It said you can mix 1 part mortor to 3 parts sand
(dry) to lay the bricks on. Then leave 1/2 gaps in the brick and use
the same mixture when you fill the gaps in. Then wet it all down,
and you have a much more solid surface and the sand won't wash away.
The only way I have heard of before is laying a solid surface first
and then laying the bricks in wet mortor and then grouting, or the
dry lay method. Anyone heard of doing it the way I described?
Thanks.

How I did my patio - 38 years ago. Our soil is just sand so that
helps. First I set up the forms using 1X 6 pine. I did this in three
10'X24' sections. I leveled it all with about 2" pitch in 24'. Then I
dumped in 10 bags of cement in a section and roto tilled the section.
I shoveled the edges in to make them deeper to have a mono-
lithic "pour" so the edges would be deeper. Then I leveled it with
a board and wet it down with a hose. I kept it damp for a week or
more. After letting it sit for about a year, I then put a 1/2" layer
dry mix of sand cement down and placed each patio brick on
the dry mix. After doing as many as I could reach I tamped them down
to get them level using a 2X4. When done I hosed the whole thing off
and kept in damp for a few weeks.
Now her is the step I missed. I should have put a sealer on the
bricks befor brushing in the dry sand cement mix. So it took some
acid and a few years of wear to get the dry cement off the brick
faces. Anyway it still looks great and have very few cracks.