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How to Level a Brick Path

Crushed stone and masonry dust work equally well when bringing a brick path back to level.

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Board Broom Chalk Level Pry bar Rake Rubber mallet Stiff brush Stone dust Tamper

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How to Level a Brick Path

computer-generated transcript - may not be 100% accurate

" Over time, a brick path can become uneven due to weather or use. Here's how to level a brick path or patio to bring it back to its original state. Use a long board or a level to determine which bricks need to be raised. Lightly mark the beginning and end of the brick rows with chalk. This will help you to identify the bricks you need to raise. Using a stiff brush, brush the sand or crushed stone from between the bricks in the 1st row you want to remove. Gently lift the 1st brick up using a small pry bar, then remove the brick by hand. Store the removed bricks face up in a clean area. If you can, try to kneel beside the work area to remove the remaining bricks, and try not to disturb the existing bed. Check with a long board to make sure that you removed all the bricks that are below the grade. Next, smooth out the existing bed and add enough material to the bed so that a new brick will fit about 1/8 of an inch higher than the existing walk. The preferred bedding material is stone dust, but masonry sand works well too. To tamp the stone dust down flat and firm, pick some scrap wood and build yourself a wooden tamper. There are commercial products for this purpose, but this gadget works just as well. After tamping down the stone dust measure the brick height again. The new height of a test brick resting on the bed should be just slightly higher than the surrounding bricks to allow for settling. Here's a tip. Run a single course of bricks across the area to set a reference for the height and level of the rest of the bricks. Work your way across the space lining up each brick to the next by adding or removing stone dust. Tap each brick firmly to set it in place. You may have to go back and adjust a few bricks to get them all even with each other. When all the bricks are laid and tapped in place, fill the gaps between the bricks with stone dust. Use a brush to distribute the stone dust deep into the cracks. Wet the walk to distribute and settle the sand. Walk over the top of the new bricks to work the sand down into the cracks. Add additional stone dust to fill in the gaps and water again until the cracks are filled to the surface with stone dust. Sweep across the bricks to remove any excess stone dust, and the project is complete."

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