How to build brick edging for a driveway?

[bean]

We have had decomposed granite laid as a driveway.  We now want to edge this with 2nd hand bricks.  The driveway is higher than the surrounding "garden" How do I do this? 

[EricL]

Hello @bean 

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's sensational to have you join us, and thanks for sharing your question about your driveway.

I suggest emailing your pictures to workshop@bunnings.com.au and we'll post the photos for you. Once our members see your driveway, they'll be able to assess its layout. We can then make recommendations on how to proceed.

If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.

Eric

[JacobZ]

Hi @bean,

Having now seen your images, I would suggest that you start by digging a trench along the side of the driveway using a mattock. The trench should be wide enough to accommodate the bricks and deep enough to allow for the height of the bricks plus a base of sand and gravel. I suggest around 150mm deep should be adequate. It will also be beneficial to keep some decomposed granite separate from the regular dirt for backfilling purposes.

You could then install a Jack 1180 x 130mm Outdoor Oxy Shield Garden Edging to set a nice straight line for your pavers to butt up to.  

You should then add a layer of drainage gravel approximately 50mm thick and use a Trojan 205mm Tamper to compact the gravel to form a solid base. Once the drainage gravel is solidly compacted, you should then add a layer of Paver Bedding and Screeding Sand approximately 25mm thick on top of the drainage gravel. 

Once the base is prepared, you would then install the pavers using a spirit level to ensure pavers are in line with each other and a rubber mallet for slight height adjustments. The spirit level would be used to ensure no large height variations between pavers, not so much for levelling, as the border would want to follow the contours of the driveway.

Once you are happy with the border, you can then backfill with the earlier removed material and rake the areas to even things out.

You might like to check out How To Prepare And Lay a Base For Pavers and How To Lay Pavers for a visual guide on the process.

Let me know if you have further questions, I am more than happy to help.

Jacob

[bean]

Cool thanks heaps.  Would you need to cement under and behind the bricks to stop movement into the grass area??

[JacobZ]

Hi @bean,

Not necessarily. Because it wouldn't be retaining any significant weight, the brick being on a compacted base should allow water to drain and not cause erosion. 

If you were concerned about movement, you might like to use mortar instead of bedding sand to help lock things in place, but I don't feel that concrete would be necessary.

Let me know if you have any further questions.

Jacob

[Dave-1]

Afternoon @bean 

Your driveway edging sounds interesting, are you thinking of any particular shape you are going to make with the bricks?  I was thinking instead of something totally level, to have a slope and an edge to help funnel the water off the driveway and give it somewhere to collect when it storms. Think of a lying down L shape where the Long part of the L attches to the edhge of the driveway and the short of the L is the wall of the gutter. It would also work to head that to a runoff point or drainage pit.

Dave