Irregular Paver Walkway

Recently we built a paver walkway in Indian Head, Maryland using Belgard’s Mega Arbel Pavers with a 6″x9″ Border.

Before Paver Walkway

A blue brick house with a chimney and front porch is surrounded by grass and trees, with building materials placed outside.

After removing any existing concrete/grass/debris and before installing a new walkway, patio or landscape it is important to think about drainage. A few questions to ask yourself before starting your building process are:

How will this effect my drainage?
Does my grade slope away from the house?
Where is the water coming from?
Where can I send the water so it doesn’t damage my home, yard walkway/patio, etc.?

In this situation, the water was coming from the gutters. We decided to extend the downspouts underground using schedule 40 PVC pipe and daylight them far enough away from the house and walkway where the water would not cause any issues.

After making a plan for the drainage, we were able to start our dig out and base prep.

A person works on landscaping a house front, with dirt path, wrapped materials, and green lawn. Trees and vehicle are visible in background.

After digging out to the correct depth, we compact the existing soil with a plate compactor. The numbers we add together to come up with this depth are:

6 inches CR6 Gravel (compacted every 2 inches
1 inch Concrete Sand for a bedding layer
The thickness of the Concrete Paver which in most cases is 2 3/8 inches
Subtract 1/4 inch from that total (for compaction after the pavers are placed on the sand)

Our total in this case comes out to 9 1/8 inches.

It is always good to check your elevations often while installing the gravel as this will dictate which way your patio or walkway is pitched. You should ALWAYS pitch your patio or walkway away from your home or any other structure (1-2% slope min.).

After digout with CR6 gravel and working on the step going to the front porch

A person works on house renovations with gravel, wheelbarrow, and tools in a yard. Blue tarp covers a gravel pile.

After the 6 inches of CR6 Gravel is installed and compacted (CONFIRM YOUR GRAVEL ELEVATIONS BEFORE INSTALLING SAND!!!!), we are ready to spread our 1 inch of sand and screed it out using 1inch screeding pipes and a level. It is extremely difficult and a bad idea to try and adjust elevations using the sand. If you add too much sand, it can cause settlement issues in the future.

A person works on a sand path beside a house. Construction materials and tools, including a trailer and Bobcat, are visible nearby.

Once the Sand is screeded out, it’s time to LAY PAVERS!!!

Two people working on a stone pathway in a yard beside a house, surrounded by greenery and outdoor furniture.

Belgard Mega Arbel Pavers are like puzzle pieces and must be put together in the correct pattern to avoid issues. We also recommend pulling the pavers from multiple pallets so the colors are well blended.

Two people lay flagstone paving outside a house, using a Bobcat machine and various construction tools. The project appears in progress.

… installing more pavers…

A partially constructed stone pathway with scattered bricks leads to a house. Two people are working, with construction tools visible around.

After the Mega Arbel Walkway is laid out slightly larger than we want it, we snap a chalk line where we would like to install our border pavers (Belgard Origins 6″x9″). Once we have a perfectly straight chalk mark, it’s time to cut the Mega Arbel Pavers!

For curves we often use a flexible Fascia Board to mark where to cut (this requires 3 people – 2 people to hold the board and 1 person to mark the pavers).

Once the border pavers are in, it’s time to install our edge. Most people will use a plastic snap edge secured with spikes to hold in their pavers, however we do a portland cement and sand mix called bond beam to secure the edges.

Now that we have our edges secured, we install the Polymeric Sand (a.k.a Polysand). Polymeric Sand gets swept into the gaps between the pavers to lock everything together. Check out this link to learn more about how Polymeric Sand works. We use Techniseal Polymeric Sand.

Once the Polysand is swept between the gaps, we compact the pavers again using our plate compactor with a rubber mat attachment (we use the rubber mat attachment to avoid scuffing the pavers). The compacting of the pavers allowed for the Polysand to drop further down into the gaps… WE NEED MORE POLYSAND!

The next step is to install more Polysand onto our paver walkway (we will be posting a tutorial video of how to install Polysand in the near future). Once we’re done sweeping more polysand into the gaps between the pavers, we use a leaf blower and lightly blow off any residual polysand.

Then we wet down our new paver walkway using the shower setting on a standard hose nozzle … and

VOILA! We have a Paver Walkway!