How to Lay the Perfect Pavers: D.I.Y.

 

“My favorite sign of spring this year was the arrival of new sidewalks, courtesy of my town. It meant I could finally install a permanent brick border along the edge of my front yard — the first step in converting it to a native-plant garden.

 

Paved borders bring order to unruly outdoor spaces, and my patch of struggling grass and thriving invasives is certainly that. They’re straightforward to install, the necessary materials and tools are few, and the method is the same whether you use clay, stone or precast concrete pavers.

 

With an eye on a summer of gardening, laying a border is our project this month.

 

Before we get to work, a word on the clay bricks I used: They are true pavers, which are made of dense clay that’s vitrified — fired at an extremely high temperature — to make them impervious to heavy loads, constant moisture and repeated freeze-thaw cycles. That’s why they’re typically used for roadways and pedestrian plazas. If you want a clay-brick border, you’ll want to use pavers, too. They cost more than the conventional bricks used for walls, but will last much longer. (I got lucky: My pavers were dug up when our town installed new sewer mains, and the road crew was happy to let me have them. They were in fine shape after spending a century in the ground.)

 

Once you’ve chosen your material, it’s time to gather the rest of what you’ll need:

 

Tools and Materials

 

    A straight-edged spade is really the only hand tool you’ll need. Use it to cut a neat edge for your border, slice out sod, and excavate the trench that your paving material will lie in.

 

    A hoe and tamper will make a couple of these steps easier, but the spade can do the hoe’s job and a piece of 4x4 timber, a cinder block or a heavy round of firewood can stand in for the tamper.

 

    Use two stakes (I used shims that I had lying around) and a length of string to set a straight border line. To lay out a curved border, use loose string or rope. A piece of scrap wood about half an inch thick will help you set a consistent gap between bricks or other straight-edged pavers.

 

    A level (or any straightedge about two feet long) will help you keep your pavers level as you lay them in place.

 

    A stiff-bristled brush helps spread the dry sand that fills the gaps between pavers in the final step.

 

    As you dig, put the soil and sod onto a tarp. It will make cleanup a lot easier

 

    I did this job by the book, using a premixed paver base (typically made of crushed rock), followed by a layer of leveling sand, and finally polymeric sand (sand mixed with a moisture-activated binder) to fill the gaps between the pavers. The first two provide a much more stable and durable foundation than bare dirt or gravel alone, but I think plain, dry paver sand is fine as a filler for a garden border, and it’s much cheaper than polymeric. You’ll find all of these at garden centers and big hardware stores.

 

Step 1: Lay out your border and cut the trench.

 

The edge of the sidewalk gave me a straight edge to lay one end of my bricks against, and I used two sticks and garden twine to set out the other edge of the trench in which they’d eventually lie. In an open garden bed, you can use two strings arranged in parallel to define both edges at once. To set their width apart, just place a paver at either end of the border line and align the strings with their ends.

 

Using your spade, cut deeply into the soil along the entire length of the string(s). Then dig your trench between the cut(s). If you’re laying your border in an existing lawn, crosscut the sod into strips and pull it out in neat pieces. You can use them to patch any gaps later, or to re-sod bare areas elsewhere in your yard.

 

For a border that lies flush with the surrounding terrain, dig down the thickness of your paver plus three inches, to create room for the layers of base and leveling sand.

 

I wanted my border to protrude about an inch above the sidewalk and adjusted the depth of my trench to match.

 

Step 2: Add the paver base and leveling sand.

 

Aim for two inches of paver base and one inch of leveling sand.

 

 They usually come in half-cubic-foot bags, and a bit of math will tell you how many of each you’ll need. Always buy an extra bag or two — it’s a pain to have to return to the store mid-job if you need a bit more than the math indicated.

 

Pour the base into the trench. Dragging your spade like a hoe — or, if you have one, using an actual hoe — spread it into a more or less even layer. Then tamp it down firmly. You’ll see that I tamped mine at an angle, so that the laid bricks would meld better with my sloped yard. In most cases, you’ll want to make it level.

 

Repeat with the leveling sand. This is the true foundation of your pavers, so take the time to get it as close to perfect as you can. Check it in a few places using a paver — does it lie flat and flush with the lawn surface? — and scrape out or apply more sand as needed.

 

Step 3: Lay your pavers and fill the gaps.

 

With the foundation in place, laying pavers goes quickly. Just drop them in place, keeping their ends aligned. (A site-specific note: If one end of your border has a fixed edge, like mine does where the sidewalk and front walkway meet, place your first paver there. It would be a nasty surprise to start at the other end and wind up with too wide or too narrow a space for the final paver.)

 

Use your slat of scrap wood to keep the joints between the pavers regular. Every foot or so, use your straightedge to check that they’re level with one another, and adjust outliers by adding or removing a bit of the leveling sand.

 

Once the whole row is set, rap each paver a few times with a rubber mallet or the side of your fist to bed it in the leveling sand.

 

Step 4: Fill the gaps with polymeric sand.

 

Lastly, pour the polymeric sand into the gaps between the pavers, sweeping the inevitable spills into the gaps with your brush. Do this in several steps, rather than overfilling at the start and having to remove a lot of excess. It’s standard to fill the gaps to within an eighth of an inch of the paver tops; I left considerably more room to show off the bricks.

 

Lightly mist the polymeric sand with water for a few minutes to activate its binder. You want it saturated but not waterlogged.

 

It’s time to admire your work. You can deal with the tarpful of dirt and sod tomorrow.” [A]

 

A. How to Lay the Perfect Pavers: D.I.Y. Heffernan, Tim.  New York Times (Online) New York Times Company. Apr 24, 2026.