Relaying a brick driveway

Mr. CooL ICE

The driveway to the house has been annoying me for a long time. It was once neglected and never really recovered after all the growth had been cleared away. There are long dips along where the wheels are when the car is parked, and a bit of a bulge beside them. It is impossible to keep the weeds away from the surface alone. I took out a few bricks and there's a network of weedy roots underneath them. Had the driveway professionally power washed last year and I filled in the cracks with driveway sand. It looked clean for a few days until the weeds reared their ugly heads again.

When I took out a few bricks that time, it looked like there was dark, sandy soil underneath. Possibly some gravel underneath that, but I'd need to take out a decent section of it to explore fully. I can't find any evidence of existing reinforcement.

I have a few days off later this month and I'd like to attack it, weather pending. My plan is as follows:

1. Section by section, take up the bricks and clean them off.
2. Scrape off the top layer of the sandy soil and remove all traces of weeds.
3. Place down some form of reinforcement (rebar or steel mesh - veering towards mesh).
4. Pour on dry concrete mix on top of the mesh.
5. Place the bricks back on top of the (still) dry concrete mix and level everything from the top, by starting with being level with the public path.
6. Gradually add water to the top of the bricks to feed the dry mix underneath.

Am I mad for even trying this? Any feedback is appreciated.

Also, I've pondered laying down some form of geotextile but honestly not sure if it would be necessary. Also would need to figure out how to work around the water manhole panel thingies.

Pictures aren't the best, but it should give an idea.

Girl Geraldine

What you are proposing is only messing and won't achieve much. Re-bar mesh is for reinforcing within concrete - i won't do much or anything just laid underneath dry mix. And patching bit by bit will just be a bad way to go about it. The dry mix you propose, unless you whack it very very well, will all subside when it gets wet. It'll make a dogs dinner of it.

Like any job, if you are going to do it, to it right, or leave it alone.

Proper job here would be to pull up all the bricks. Dig out at least 200mm of whatever junk underlies the bricks, and dig out any soft spots of weak ground.

Lay out a layer of geotextile. Put down at least 150mm of Cl.804 and whack it with a heavy duty whacker plate. Give it as many passess as possible. Make sure your levels and gradients are good at this stage.

Then have a steady supply of lean mix concrete and lay out about a 50mm layer and set your bricks down into this. Don't mind this bedding in sand business. It never works.

Brush plenty dry sand/cement 1:1 into the joints.

There is a fair job of work to do it right.

But from your pictures, it doesn't look bad enough to warrant it. It is not that bad. Just roundup the weeds. Pack dry cement down into the bigger joints.

10-10-20

I'm in agreement with Girl Geraldine - nothing there which can't be improved with some small work.

These brick driveways are like that - they do need attention over time, but nothing there justifies a full rip and replace.

I did pull up some areas of mine to do some spot-repairs, such as where roots had pushed under the bricks in a linear fashion or the edge bricks had splayed outwards due to the failure of the underlying cement sub-base, and relaid the bricks to good effect.

Lumen

Would resin jointing compound help? Once the joints have been cleaned out.

Mr. CooL ICE

Thanks all.

Going by the above, I will tackle on my days off but I won't put in the sheer amount of effort I had intended. I do want to remove the roots as roundup has only done so much in the past. I want them to stop sprouting up every few weeks.

Also, there's a chance the raised parts could well be a root that pushed them up; I haven't dug up those bricks but there is a history of rampant roots around the area of the driveway. I possibly jumped the gun by blaming the car.

CreadanLady

There's nothing overly wrong with that driveway, judging by the pictures you gave anyway. You are getting carried away.

You might be usuing the wrong spray. Roundup will kill, but it won't stop re-sprouting.

you need something like simazine, or whatever the equivalent is these days. Pre-emergent weedkiller that stops seeds and roots from sprouting. Sterilizes the ground for up to a year.

thefa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058294848/relaying-a-brick-driveway

How did you get on in the end/ how did you deal with it?

I’m after moving into a new place with cobblelock and have power washed away a lot of weeds but there’s some growing back within a week. Also there’s gaps on the edges where old tarmac has been eroded away. I was thinking of putting in sand but presume that won’t fully stop the weeds or will get washed away.

Mr. CooL ICE

I took the above advice and decided against ripping the whole lot up. Instead, i took it in sections and would rip up approx 1 sq metre at a time and remove weeds from the sandy soil underneath by hand before laying the bricks back down.

It was slow because I'd do 1-2 patches at a time after, say, kids went to bed or at the weekend. But the dreadful summer of last year kicked in and dry days ended up fee and far between. And when it was dry enough, I needed to tend to overgrown grass.

Right now, the driveway is patchy. About 40% done from last year is mostly clear but small weeds have reappeared over the last few weeks. It's like pissing into the wind sometimes but I'll get it done eventually.

Oh and yeah sand will just wash away with a bit of rain. I made that mistake before. A 50:50 sand cement solution is what I plan on using when this is all done.