They Pulled Up a Perfectly Good Front Walkway to Replace It With Old Bricks
Concrete pavers formed a clean path from the porch to the sidewalk, but their uniform gray surface felt newer than the 120-year-old house behind it. Changing the walkway offered a chance to bring an older material back to the front of the property.
Kelly Robson and her husband, Dave, already had that material sitting in their backyard. An old patio contained antique clay bricks mixed with newer pavers, and many of the bricks were still in good enough condition to use again.
Moving them to the front meant rebuilding about 100 square feet of walkway. Once the concrete pavers came up, the couple found something underneath that saved them from rebuilding the path from the ground up.
The Old Walkway Had a Base Worth Keeping
Removing the concrete pavers exposed sand over crushed gravel, both left from the previous installation. The layers were still usable, so the reclaimed brick could go over the existing foundation instead of requiring another excavation.
That also allowed the new walkway to follow the established grade and footprint from porch to sidewalk.
Old Backyard Bricks Became the New Surface
Antique clay bricks recovered from the backyard patio supplied enough material for the 4-foot-wide, 25-foot-long path. Worn faces, stains, chips, and shifts in color gave the pile none of the uniformity of the concrete pavers it would replace.
Since the bricks were already on the property, the main expense came later from the material used between them.
Five Bricks Fit Between Two Border Rows
A test layout established the width before the full installation began. Five horizontal bricks fit across the center with one brick turned lengthwise along each edge.
That combination created a defined border while leaving the center open for a running bond pattern.
String Lines Kept the Pattern on Course
Yellow string marked the outside edges and center of the walkway as rows moved toward the sidewalk. With reclaimed pieces varying in wear and shape, those reference lines kept the path from drifting off center.
Sand beneath each new section was graded before the next bricks went down.
Six Bricks Had a Detail Worth Saving
Among the reclaimed material were six bricks embossed with a Keystone symbol. Instead of losing them among the other pieces, the couple placed them down the center of the walkway at roughly 48-inch intervals.
The stamped bricks create small interruptions in the running bond that only become apparent when walking toward the house.
Running Bond Meant Cutting Some Bricks in Half
Offset joints prevent the rows from forming one continuous grid, but the pattern also creates spaces where full bricks will not fit. An angle grinder cut the half pieces needed along the route.
Each brick was then tapped into the sand with a rubber mallet, leaving brick dust around the work area as the path advanced.
Small Gaps Were Part of the Installation
Once the bricks reached the porch, narrow joints remained between the reclaimed pieces and around the border. Those gaps weren’t left empty.
Their final material would go over the completed path rather than underneath it.
Three Bags of Jointing Sand Finished the Surface
The couple used three bags of Quikrete PowerLoc jointing sand across the 100-square-foot walkway. At about $42 total, it accounted for their reported project cost because the reclaimed bricks were already theirs.
The polymer-containing sand was intended to fill the joints and add stability once activated with water.
A Push Broom Worked the Sand Between the Bricks
Jointing sand was spread over the completed surface and swept across the running bond until it settled into the gaps. A light mist of water followed.
The sweep-and-mist process was repeated before the walkway was left for about 48 hours.
Reclaimed Brick Changed the Approach to the House
The route from sidewalk to porch stayed where it had been, but the single gray surface became a mix of reds, browns, faded clay, dark marks, and stamped pieces.
Brick also brings a material associated with older construction to the entrance of a house already more than a century old.
Wear Is Part of What Makes the Path Work
Close views show rounded edges, dark patches, surface marks, and color changes from brick to brick. Even adjacent pieces carry different signs of age.
Uniformity would erase much of that effect. Here, the variations reveal that the walkway was assembled from material with a previous life elsewhere on the property.
Before and After Put the Backyard Bricks in Context
Gray pavers once created a consistent strip through the lawn; reclaimed clay now adds color and surface variation along the same route. The old backyard patio supplied enough brick to make that change without purchasing a new set of pavers.
Would you move reclaimed brick across the property for a front walkway, or keep the newer concrete pavers?
Image credits go to @highstreetmarket.