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Hello, we are about to lay some brick paving in our courtyard, which includes some areas directly next to our house. We are planning to lay our brick pavers on sand (with compacted road base underneath), but are wondering if we should be incorporating a different treatment for the bricks that directly abut the house? We might place some pots along the building line and want to make sure when we water them the water runs away from the house. Would it be better to have mortar joints for these bricks along the building edge, or are sand joints sufficient provided that the levels are correct?
Thank you!
Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @HayleyMC. It's brilliant to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about laying pavers.
As long as you follow this helpful step-by-step guide on How to lay paving for a path, in particular, step 11 on how to lock the sand in between the pavers, you'll find the majority of the water will follow the slope and run away from the house. However, if you have concerns or have experienced moisture issues in the past, you might like to use a sand and cement mix or alternatively install a drainage line directly underneath the pavers to capture the water that seeps through. We generally use a sand mix because cement typically cracks with the movement pavers experience.
There are also products like Dingo 20kg Powerloc Paving Sand, a polymer-based sand product. The binding agents prevent it from being washed out, and the polymer provides flexibility so it doesn't crack like sand and cement.
Do you happen to know what brick run your dampcourse is in? Typically any moisture that enters the ground next to the wall is prevented from travelling up the wall by a dampcourse line. As long as your pavers are below this line, any moisture that seeps through them shouldn't be able to get back inside your home.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Mitchell
