Landscape Epic... Brick Driveway Going In!!
Day 46 was the official start of brick laying!. This is a fascinating process to watch. There is allot of skill and good engineering to make a good brick driveway. It starts with a solid and level road base... which we definitely have. Next you add sand on top of the road base. The way you get the right amount of sand is through a process called "Skreeting" (I think this is how you spell it?). Anyways, it involves laying down pipe (5/8 inch copper pipe) and then covering it with sand till it just covers the pipe (Photo 1). The significance of the pipe diameter is when a brick is placed on it, the top of the brick will be about 1/8 inch above the concrete garage/walkway end-point interfaces (this will allow for a drop due to a later step of compaction). Once the sand is leveled (Photo 2), the pipe is carefully removed and its "void" is filled in with sand and leveled.
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| Photo #1. "Skreeting" The Sand. | Photo #2. Final Leveling Of The sand. |
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| Photo #3. Scott Laying The Solider Course. | Photo #4. Laying Down The Basket Weave Pattern. |
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| Photo #5. Basket Weave Pattern. | Photo #6. Half Of The Driveway Laid. |
Once the sand is laid and leveled, the driveway is divided in two via a chalk line down the middle. Chalk lines are made every 32 inches down the the length of the driveway. The significance of 32 inches is it represents the set of bricks required to make the Basket Weave pattern (Photo 5). Before the "Field" of bricks is laid... a Soldier Course of darker brick is laid against the outside edge of the driveway/walkway (Photo 3). The Soldier Course provides a border accent. Once the Soldier Course is laid, the Basket Weave pattern begins starting at the driveway end moving up towards the garage. The brick is laid within each of the 32 inch chalk line "grids" (Photo 5). This prevents waving brick lines and keeps everything straight!
During this process plywood is placed on the brick to distribute the load to allow "walking" on the brick. The brick is "fragile" at this point until it is top filled with more sand and compacted. Tomorrow they should finish the driveway/walkways.
