Building a paver walkway

Measure the area to pave and draw it to scale, on paper or with the measuring tool.

• Write down the length of each side and what it meets: nothing (a free side), the house, a step, a slab or existing paving.
• A free side needs an edge restraint and a base that extends past the pavers. A side against the house or a step needs an isolation joint.
• Mark on the sketch where water must drain.
• Choose the product (paver or slab, thickness, formats) and the pattern. Angled patterns such as 45 degree herringbone or circles multiply cuts and waste.

Enter these values in "Your project": every quantity in this guide comes from them.

Shape curves with a garden hose before painting them. Note every join: step, stoop, driveway, city sidewalk.

The base thickness depends mostly on the native soil. Sand and gravel drain well. Silt and clay hold water and swell when they freeze: they need a markedly thicker base and a geotextile.

• Look at the soil in a garden bed or a hole that is already open. A handful of moist soil that rolls into a sticky ribbon is clay; soil that crumbles and feels gritty is sand. Do not dig a test hole before the locate is done.
• If unsure, choose "I don't know": the calculation treats it as clay, the cautious assumption.
• Find the downspouts. Extend them so they discharge onto lawn, away from the foundation, and not onto the paving.
• Decide where surface water will go: to the lawn, a drain or the street, never toward the house. Do not send it to the neighbour in a way that makes their situation worse.

On a walkway, run the slope across it, toward the lawn. Water that ponds on a walkway turns into an ice patch in winter.

Make a free request to Info-Excavation, online or by phone, before digging, even for a small area. The RBQ asks contractors to file it at least 4 business days before the work: allow the same lead time. The request stays valid until the stated end date, for at most 180 days.

• Describe the exact area, including the extra base width.
• Member network owners mark their lines on the ground with paint or flags, or confirm there is nothing.
• Some networks, including those of some municipalities, are not members: call them directly.
• Members locate their own networks. Lines that belong to you (feed to a garage or shed, drains, irrigation lines) are yours to find.

Power, gas, telecom and water service lines often cross the front yard: wait for the marks before digging along the walkway.

A front walkway is part of the front yard, where municipal rules are often stricter than in the back.

• Several Montreal boroughs cap the paved share of the front yard; in Saint-Laurent, paving is limited to 40% of the front yard with a 1 m green strip along the lot line.
• Several require light-coloured materials, with a solar reflectance index of at least 29. Verdun accepts permeable paving with joints of at least 8 mm.
• Elsewhere, call the planning department: ask whether a permit is required, how much of the yard may be paved and how close to the front lot line the walkway may come.
• Write down the answer and its date.

Book everything at once so the steps follow each other without waiting.

• Stone and sand are sold by the metric tonne or by the cubic yard. A 10-wheel truck delivers up to about 15 tonnes; beyond that you need a second trip or a 12-wheel truck. Your quantities are in "Your project".
• Pick a firm unloading spot close to the work, covered with a tarp, that the truck can reach without damaging the lawn or existing paving.
• Compare rental periods: a weekend or a week often costs less than several separate days.
• Plan spoil disposal (container, truck or ecocentre) under your municipality's rules. Excavated soil takes more volume than it did in the ground.
• In spring, load restrictions during the thaw can delay deliveries.

For a small walkway, compare delivered bulk with bagged stone and sand picked up at the store: depending on the quantity, either can be cheaper.

Mark the outline with paint. Drive stakes a little outside it and stretch strings at the height of the finished paver surface.

• Give the strings the planned slope, away from the house and never toward it: at least 1.5% per Techo-Bloc, 2% per Permacon.
• Widen the painted outline by the extra base width on every free side: the base extends past the edge restraint by at least its own thickness (see "Your project").
• A rented laser level makes this step much easier on a large area.

Stretch a string on each side of the walkway at finished height, with the cross slope toward the lawn.

First remove the sod and topsoil and set them aside: they will finish the edges later. Then dig to the excavation depth shown in "Your project", which adds up the paver, bedding and base thicknesses, over the full width of the base.

• The bottom follows the same slope as the finished surface: measure the depth under the strings at regular intervals.
• Do not disturb the soil below the bottom; if it was disturbed, compact it again.
• Near locate marks, dig by hand.
• Load spoil straight into the truck or container when you can.

A 1.7 t mini excavator fits most yards. With narrow access, you dig by shovel and wheel the soil out, which can roughly double the work time.

A narrow walkway is often dug by shovel or with a very small machine; "Your project" takes into account the access width you entered.

Rake the bottom even. If it is sand or gravel, compact it with the plate. On clay or silt, remove soft pockets, do not soak the soil and compact it only if it is dry enough. Techo-Bloc also suggests amending clay with lime and crushed stone before compacting it.

Then roll out a non-woven geotextile on the bottom and up the sides, with generous overlaps (about 30 cm, estimate), so the fine soil does not rise into the stone. On silt, clay or unknown soil it is required; on sand or gravel it is still useful.

Spread the MG-20 stone in thin lifts and compact each lift before adding the next. Your project's number of lifts is in "Your project".

• Dampen the stone lightly: too dry, it will not tighten; soaked, it turns unstable.
• Run the plate in several directions with overlapping passes until it no longer leaves a mark.
• Keep to the lift thickness the plate can compact: about 100 mm with a 22 kN forward plate per Techo-Bloc. A lighter plate needs thinner lifts; a reversible plate allows thicker ones.
• Keep the slope on every lift and take care with the last one: the bedding must never be used to correct the base.
• Montreal targets 95% of modified Proctor on its work. Without a lab test, the practical sign is a surface that no longer moves under the plate or under your heel.

On a walkway, a standard forward plate is enough if the lifts stay thin; in a tight curve, finish the edges with a hand tamper.

Install an edge restraint on every side that does not bear against the house, a step or existing paving.

• Plastic or aluminium edging sits on the compacted base, never on soil, and is anchored with spikes driven into the stone.
• On a straight side it is often installed before the bedding, following the string; along a curve or a cut edge it goes in after cutting. Follow the product's instructions.
• A 45 degree concrete haunch, reinforced where traffic is heavy, is sturdier than plastic edging.
• Timber is not an acceptable edge restraint.

Both sides of a walkway are free: install edging on each side. In curves, use flexible plastic edging.

Lay two pipes of 1 in outside diameter on the base as rails. Pour concrete sand between them and pull it level with a straightedge, following the slope.

• The bed stays loose: nobody walks on it and it is not compacted before laying.
• Screed only the area you will pave today; cover the rest if rain is coming.
• Pull the rails and fill their grooves with sand using a trowel.
• If the base has a low spot, fix the base: the sand is not for corrections.
• Do not use stone dust as bedding: it holds water.

Start from a square corner or along a fixed line, then lay the pavers by hand, tight together, moving forward on the laid pavers rather than on the bed.

• Pull from several pallets at once, top to bottom, to blend colours.
• Check joint alignment with a string regularly; Montreal asks for it every 4 to 5 m on its work.
• Along a house foundation, a step or a slab founded below frost, leave an isolation joint through the full paver thickness so frost does not lock the paving.
• Pavers drop about 10 mm when compacted: allow for it where they meet lawn, thresholds and drains.

Mark the cuts with a pencil along the string or the curve, then cut with a diamond saw or a guillotine.

• Cut wet or with a vacuum attachment to limit dust.
• Avoid small pieces: a cut piece keeps at least one full original side. Shift the pattern instead so you finish with larger pieces.

Joins are where things move with frost and where feet catch.

• Against a step or stoop founded below frost, leave an isolation joint: the step does not move, the walkway does.
• Against a paved or asphalt driveway, bring both surfaces to the same height after compaction, allowing for the pavers settling about 10 mm.
• Along the lawn, finish the pavers flush with the soil or barely above it, so water runs off to the lawn and the mower passes without catching.
• If the grade forces you to add a step, see the steps guide: a lone step in the middle of a walkway is a fall hazard.

Pick a dry day with no rain forecast for the period stated on the polymeric sand bag.

1. Run the plate fitted with a urethane protective pad at least twice over the whole surface to seat the pavers in the bed. Stay clear of edges that are not yet restrained.
2. On fully dry pavers and joints, sweep the polymeric sand into the joints.
3. Compact again in several passes in different directions, topping up the joints with the broom.
4. Remove all excess from the surface with the broom, then the blower. A stray grain leaves a stain once wet.
5. Wet the surface exactly as directed on the bag.

Put the topsoil and sod back along the edges to hide and protect the edging. Pick up offcuts, spikes and packaging; return deposit pallets if any.

Inspect the work after wetting it: water must run off without puddling. The finished surface sits slightly above drain grates, never below.

In the first spring, walk around it: a paver that moved, a joint that emptied or an edge that is opening is easier to fix early.