How to Form a Curved Walkway

A curved walkway of bricks may improve your home's value.

Adding a curved brick walkway to the front of your house will not only differentiate our home from others on the street, it will also improve the overall appearance of your property. Curved walkways are more appealing than simple straight walkways as they provide a nice visual feature to your home. With some simple planning you can easily design and install a curved walkway on your property. Not only will you save money by installing it yourself, you may also increase the property value of your home.

Things You'll Need

• Shovel
• 2-by-4- inch lumber the width of your walkway
• Level
• Crushed gravel
• Sand
• Pavers

Instructions

1. Design the curved walkway on paper first. This doesn't have to be too detailed, but you should know how long and wide the path will be. Planning will help when it comes time to buy the bricks for your pathway.

2. Remove the current walkway, or stake out you new walkway following the design you sketched. To keep the width of the walkway even as you lay it out, cut a two by four piece of lumber to match the width of your walkway and place this between the stakes when you are installing them.

3. Dig out your walkway. Remove any grass that may be in the path of new walkway. If needed use this grass to fill in the area where the old walkway was that is outside of the new walkway design. Dig down 3 to 4 inches to allow for a layer of crushed gravel follow by a layer of sand for the best possible base.

4. Purchase the bricks, crushed gravel and sand for you walkway. You should only install brick on sand. This will give the bricks a good surface to adhere to.

5. Pour a layer of crushed gravel into your walkway. This gravel should be between 2 to 3 inches deep. If you have good water drainage the gravel can be 1 inch deep, if your water drainage is poor then the gravel layer should be 3 inches deep. Use the 2-by-4 inch lumber you used to keep the width of the walkway the same to even out the gravel.

6. Add 1 to 2 inches of sand. The sand needs to be even and level. Use the 2-by-4 inch lumber with a level placed on top to keep the sand base level and even for the entire length of the walkway. This may take some time, but getting this stage right will ensure you have an even walkway.

7. Lay the bricks down in your new walkway. There are a number of different designs you can use with your bricks. The important part is to keep the pattern consistent.

References

• Homeadditiontips: Installing Brick Walkway
• ThisOldHouse: Patterns for Curved Brick Walks