Brick Patio - Edging?

ok - spent most of the day digging 6" Deep over a 450 sq/ft area of my back yard, in order to lay a brick patio. I have pretty much everything figured out other than edging. As it's sunken and will be level with my concrete path on one side, my house on another edge and my garage on the 3rd edge, there will only be 1 open edge which will be dirt. Do I need to get some kind of edging to keep the brick in place on that 1 dirt edge, or any of the other edges for that matter? I intend to back fill any gap on that edge with dirt, which we have an abundance of right now!

Once you get the bricks down and the suitable fill between them, backfill on the last edge with dirt. Pack it down, and you might have to add a bit more after it rains. I helped a friend do his, we put the sprinkler on it for an hour or so and made sure everything was tight. Once it gets a good soaking and dries, it sets up almost like cement and grass will grow right up to the edge of it.

Have a Coolaroo canvas sail / shade thing to hang from the house over to the garage once it's done. Then add some misters and I have myself my outdoor entertainment area

I would lock it in with a retainer strip. Cheap, easy to install and will stop any possible shifting of that one edge. You can then back fill over the plastic retaining strip to make it seamless.

Neighbor suggested I just mix up a batch of cement and cement the first row.

I wouldn't cement the row. Just get metal edging, that way you can still move things around as you're building it if you need to. Metal edging last for pretty much ever, is easy to install and gives you a solid line to work off of.

i'll agree with putting in edging on that one side. after time it could definitely shift around a little. concrete is a little overkill though i think. even just plastic edging from home depot or someplace would work ok. they have a few different options to choose from

Laying patio is damn hard work. Got the main body of said patio done. Gotta rent a tile saw this weekend to finish up all the cut pieces. Plus do the edging on the far end. Here's how she's lookin right now.

that looks great, Roger. My patio consists of the 12" paver blocks...I used pressure treated 2x4s around the edge. They make plastic landscape edging that's pretty thin, and you can get it cheap at Home Depot / Lowes, etc. It stakes down.

Or....

You can just let the grass grow up to the edges...It's amazing how well that can shore up the edge. The downside is you'll probably get grass between the pavers.

It looks good Rinky.

Did you put a good quality landscaping cloth or plastic down to prevent grass or weeds from coming up?

By the way... here's a security tip: It's not a good idea to keep a ladder hanging on an outside fence. That is an invitation to "second story men".

Thank you.

Yupp - layed 30 year landscape fabric underneath the sucker. Will still get weeds growing in the cracks tho from seeds falling into em - will deal with those as they appear.

Good job I don't have a 2nd Story with regards to the ladder I guess! Single level home.

Looks Great! You cut brick with a brick chisel though...

http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/dp_brick/article/0,,diy_13788_2270117,00.html

Scroll down to figure H.

Actually you use a brick wet saw. I am sure a good sized tile saw will work fine. You can use a chop saw with a masonry blade as well if you want, but it is pretty messy. A chisel will work of course to.

http://www.drillspot.com/products/42375/MK_Diamond_150597_Brick_Saw

Chisle did a horrible job - rough edges. Gonna rent a 10 or 12" Diamond Wet Saw - will only need it for a few hours.

glad to hear you didn't use plastic. Plastic sucks.

you can go with no fabric/plastic....just give the ground a good dose of groundclear before you lay the sand.

Even with fabric/plastic, you'll get shoots of grass that a squirt of Roundup will take care of quickly.

Yep. Just be careful. Fingers getting cut off make this creepy "Ping!" sound.

Nice - I'll dig it all up and dose it with Groundclear!

Well we finally got the edges cut in on Sat. Here's the Before / After.

Before.


After.

Nice improvement. Now you just need shade.

Got one of these on order. Coolaroo Shade Sail - 17'9" square. Gonna hang from the House to the Garage. Might be fun come monsoon time when it blows my house away tho!