Two Tips for People Who Want to Add a Brick Patio to Their Property

Posted on: 27 July 2018

If you want to add a brick patio to your property, here are some helpful tips that you may want to keep in mind.

Hire a professional bricklayer instead of taking the DIY route

If money is tight and you have some experience with DIY, you might be tempted to build the new patio yourself.

However, it is highly unlikely that your efforts will produce the same high-quality results that a professional bricklayer would be able to, as laying a series of bricks so that they are both perfectly uniform and level is far harder than it might initially seem.

In short, bricklaying requires a great deal of skill, knowledge and patience, as well as a keen eye for detail.

If you lack these qualities, you may end up creating a subpar patio that not only looks terrible but is also hazardous to use. For example, if you fail to create a level surface for your patio (i.e., if some of the bricks are positioned at a greater height than others), the people who eventually stand or walk on it may end up tripping and falling.

Furthermore, a poorly constructed brick patio could also lower the value of your property and perhaps even make it more difficult to sell in the future, as prospective buyers might find the prospect of paying to replace the structure very off-putting.

As such, it is far better to have a tradesperson who offers bricklaying services take care of this project on your behalf.

Ask your bricklayer to add a coat of paving sealer to the finished patio

When your bricklayer has finished installing your patio, you should ask them to add a coat or two of a paving sealer paint to the exposed sections of the bricks.

This sealer product will serve as a barrier that will prevent water from seeping into the brick's pores and causing damage. This is a crucial step, as too much exposure to moisture may result in an issue called 'spalling', where sections of the bricks start to flake away.

Spalling is particularly common in brick patios and driveways, as rainwater will not drain off these horizontal surfaces as quickly as it would off of a brick wall.

As such, if you do not have a sealant added to the patio at the end of the construction process, any rainwater which later lands on the structure may end up seeping into the pores of the bricks and cause them to flake.

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