Newbie Needs Brick Patio Help

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raj824 Upper Marlboro, MD Mar 23, 2009

Hello All,

I'm new to the site and to gardening/landscaping in general. I'm in the process of putting my best food forward and I have a question about installing a raised (for lack of better term) brick patio.

Do I have to exacavate in order to build a brick patio, or can I frame on top of my grass and begin the process from there, like I would if I were to exacavate? In other words, can I frame, put my gravel and sand down on top of my grass, level everything, and then add my brick?

What are the cons?

Thanks for your help.

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Yuska San Antonio, TX(Zone 8b) Mar 23, 2009

Depends I would guess on the type of grass you have. I wouldn't dare try it here because St. Augustine grass can evidently pierce anything short of steel {!} Even if the grass didn't come through, the large running stolons underneath would cause an uneven surface. You might want to consider an impenetrable barrier of plasttic sheeting first.

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Mar 23, 2009

I guess it depends on how high you want the top of the patio to be off the ground...if you look around at sites that tell you how to build these, you're advised to have a certain number of inches of gravel/sand or whatever underneath the bricks. If you can do that and have the patio at the height you want then there's no reason you couldn't do it that way. But if it'll make it too tall then you may want to excavate a bit. I do second the recommendation for some sort of weed barrier underneath.

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Smokey_SC Piedmont, SC(Zone 7b) Mar 23, 2009

You run a great risk of everything getting uneven as the grass dies. Any place that dies first is going to let the bricks move. Any clumps that are larger than others will make the bricks move. Sorry that is a bad idea. Use Roundup to kill the grass and then excavate the area. You will save yourself a lot of work and heartache. Go to 'diynetwork.com' or ' hgtv.com' and type in 'brick patio'. I have seen them do this many, many times and they never do it on top of grass.

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