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Patio designed and built with brick pavers Building a brick patio is a simple, inexpensive way to add to the value of your home, and enhance your lifestyle.

Designing and building brick patios is a great home improvement project which just about anyone can achieve, so long as you have a strong enough back to cope with a little lifting and shoveling. The design process is relatively simple, and a lot of fun.

The brick patio design you choose will determine the look and feel of the space. The overall shape of your patio may be square, rectangular, oval, or an irregular straight edge or wave shape, depending on the shape of the space you have to build the patio on, and on what your imagination can come up with.

You also need to choose a brick pattern design. A simple basketweave pattern is easy to put together, and has a neat, elegant look, while a herringbone design creates a very sophisticated finish. A running bond design, which is the brick pattern you usually see in brick walls, is the simplest brick design of all. If you need some inspiration, you’ll find some inspired brick patio designs just by following the links from this site.

Tips for laying your own brick patio.

The simplest method for laying a brick patio involves excavating the area, laying a gravel base, then a layer of sand, and finally arranging the brick surface on top. For most people, this will require a couple of weekends, depending on how many willing helpers are available. The excavation process can be completed in about half the time if you hire a small shovel tractor.

A very important tip is to calculate the number of bricks you’re going to need, and buy all of the materials before you start. Make sure you have plenty of bricks. If you end up short, you may be unable to find more bricks from the same batch, so you won’t have a consistent color and texture. On the other hand, if you end up with extra bricks when you finish, you can keep them as spares to replace bricks which may break or wear down.

For more information on patio construction, please read this article on choosing patio designs.