I got these unusual old bricks from a friend. I'm fond of them because they say "Pacific" and I've lived in the Pacific NW most of my life. I wanted to use them for something special but I only had 28 bricks. My husband made this little patio off our concrete pad to hold my grill. It's the perfect size and leaves me more space on the concrete for other things. Here is how he did it.
Supplies:
- 28 bricks
- 4 bags play or all purpose sand
- tools; pickax, shovel, rubber mallet, level, broom
Steps:
- First, he pressure washed the bricks and we planned out our pattern. We chose to alternate the bricks, making 4 squares of 8 bricks each. This filled up 6 rows. The 7th row consisted of the nicest bricks facing forward.
- He marked out the space needed and removed the top 6 to 8 inches of soil.
- Starting at the corner of the concrete pad, he first placed a couple of inches of sand then the brick. He used a rubber mallet and a level to make sure that the brick was at the right level and in line with corner.
- He continued adding sand and bricks, with about a 1/4 inch gap between (he used a tile as a spacer). It was a time consuming process with many adjustments.
- After all the bricks were set, he added more sand on top to fill in the cracks. He then swept the sand flat.
- He gently used a hose to wet down the sand, avoiding washing the sand out of the cracks. This was repeated a couple of times until the cracks were tightly packed with sand.
We expect that we will need to fix a few of the bricks over time, maybe adding more sand later in the year. It feels very sturdy and perfectly fits my little Weber grill.
