Brick Paver Driveway – West Bloomfield

Custom Landscape services started a brick paver driveway project this week in West Bloomfield, Michigan. We started the paving project by removing the existing concrete driveway. After hauling all the broken concrete off site we excavated the soil 16″- 18″. We used all of the excavated soil to create a beautiful landscape berm along side the drive way, which we later planted maple and spruce tree on. Before we back filled the excavated driveway we layed out a GEO-TEXTILE fabric to stabilize the ground to ensure a good solid foundation for the brick pavers. We started the paver foundation with a 3″ aggregate compacting every 6″-8″ with a vibratory rolling compactor to ensure no future sinking of the brick pavers. This process is repeated till 12″- 14″ is achieved. At this point we use a finer crushed aggregate 21AA  about 4″-6″ is installed and compacted as well. After all of our gravel base is installed and compacted, we then start setting our grades and pitches with a finer sand called slag. This material is a crucial point in installing brick pavers because, the brick pavers are layed directly on top of this bed of sand. It is very important to have your pitch correct so you have proper drainage and do not have standing water. We only use about 1″-2″ of slag sand. After slag sand is installed it is wet with a garden hose and compacted. At this point, we lay out the entire area to be to be brick paved.Our client chose a smooth brick paver by unilock. The Unilock brick pavers were installed over the entire area to be paved. At this point, we mark the entire perimeter of the brick paved area to be saw cut. At this point, we installed a darker  color brick paver as a border accent. After border bricks are layed out we began to install a concrete edge to restrain the brick paver edge. Our client chose a polymeric jointing sand to fill the joints on this project. This will help insure no wash out from water run off will occur.