A paver walkway that lasts needs three things most people skimp on. It needs a compacted gravel base of at least 6 to 8 inches, an edge restraint spiked into that base, and a finished edge that sits flush with the lawn so the mower can ride right over it. Get those right and the pattern you pick is the fun part. Get them wrong and you’ll be pulling up sunken pavers in two springs.
I’ve seen it happen. More than once.
I keep about an acre, and every hard edge in my yard is something I either mow along or trim along. So I look at a walkway two ways: does it hold up, and does it make mowing easier or harder? A walk can do both if you build it right, and some designs play nicer with a mower deck than others.
How Wide to Make the Walk
Start with width, because it sets everything else, from how much you dig to how many pavers you buy. Landscaping Network’s walkway width guide gives a handy ladder. An 18-inch path is the bare minimum, 24 inches is functional, and 30 inches lets one person walk it comfortably. Thirty-six inches is the standard, and 48 inches lets two people walk side by side. It also says a path to the front door should be at least 4 feet wide.
For a side-yard path to the shed or the garden, 36 inches is what I’d build. It’s wide enough for a wheelbarrow, and it’s a width I can mow along in one clean pass. If you’ll ever roll a mower or a cart across it, think about where the wheels will go before you set the first stone.
Base Depth: The Part Nobody Sees
Every paver walk that fails, fails underneath.
So start there. The Unilock paver installation guide calls for a 6 to 8 inch minimum gravel base under a walkway, the same as under a patio. A driveway gets 10 to 14 inches. On top of the gravel goes 3/4 to 1 inch of coarse concrete sand for bedding.
That means digging, so call your utilities first. Unilock’s guide says to have the utility, phone and cable companies locate any buried lines before you start. Then the guide says to excavate 6 to 12 inches deep, depending on what you’re building, and deeper if the soil was disturbed before. Take out all the loose soil. Then dig at least 3 inches wider on each side than the walk itself, so the base runs out past the pavers and under the edging.
For the base itself, Unilock calls for 3/4-inch crusher run, a gravel and sand mix that locks together when it’s packed. To figure how much to order, run the walk’s length, width and base depth through a gravel calculator and it’ll give you cubic yards and tons.
Compaction and Slope: Do It in Lifts
You can’t dump 8 inches of gravel and pack it from the top. Unilock says to compact the base with a plate compactor in layers 2 to 3 inches thick, then add more and compact again until you reach the height you need. Each layer gets packed before the next goes on.
Build in slope while you go. The guide’s minimum is 1 inch of fall over every 10 feet, so rain runs off instead of soaking in. The finished gravel should end about 3 inches below where you want the top of the walk, which leaves room for the sand and the pavers.
That’s the base.
Then the sand. Unilock has you screed it over pipes set as guides, so the pavers sit 3/8 inch above the finished level before the last compaction pushes them down into place. Then pull the pipes and fill the grooves they leave with sand.
After the pavers and the edging are in, sweep them clean and run the plate compactor over the top. Unilock recommends at least three passes, each one in a different direction. A rented plate compactor is the cheapest check first on any walkway job. It costs a lot less than lifting and relaying sunken pavers next year.
Edging That Actually Holds
Unilock calls edge restraints a critical part of how long a walk lasts. They keep the pavers from creeping out sideways. Plastic and metal restraints both work, and so do concrete edgers. The one rule the guide puts in plain words is that edge restraints must always be spiked into the compacted base, never set on soil.
That’s why you dig wider than the walk. The restraint needs gravel under it to grab. Set it on dirt and the first wet spring lets it lean, and the pavers follow it right out into the grass.
Once the restraint’s in, bring the soil and sod back up against it. You want the grass to meet the edge at the same height, which brings me to the part I care about most.
A Clean Mowing Edge: Flush With the Lawn, Wide Enough for the Wheels
A raised edge along a walk is a trimming chore forever. You can’t run the deck over it, so you leave a strip of grass and come back with the string trimmer every week. A flush edge fixes that.
One wheel rides on the hard surface and the blade cuts right to the line.
Pavingexpert’s mowing strip page lays out how to build one. A mowing strip is a narrow band of paving, under 450 mm wide, that lets a mower pass over it, and it does away with trimming the edge after you mow. The writer runs a 100 mm clay brick strip, about 4 inches, around his own lawns. He says 200 mm, about 8 inches, may be more than enough at home, and he used 300 mm, about 12 inches, on bigger commercial jobs so a large mower could get its blades over the grass edge. The rule that matters is the same at any width.
Flat, and flush with the lawn.
It’s a small job. The dig only needs to be 60 to 70 mm deep, about 2 1/2 inches, and 50 to 75 mm wider than the strip so you have room to work. The bricks go on a 25 to 50 mm bed of coarse grit sand, about 1 to 2 inches. Don’t use soft building sand. It can go fluid when it’s waterlogged and let the strip sink. Tap each brick down with a rubber mallet to a string line or to the lawn itself.
Two notes for anyone mowing with something heavier than a push mower. The page says a strip that’ll take traffic from a heavy, tractor-type mower should go on a mortar or concrete bed instead, and my zero-turn’s wheels are exactly that kind of traffic. Keep the mortar out of the grass side, though. Turf won’t grow on it. The page says turf needs at least 25 mm, about an inch, of soil to root into. I wrote more about cutting trim time along hard edges in my fence line landscaping ideas.
Filling the Joints With Polymeric Sand
Unilock suggests polymeric sand to seal the joints, for the best protection against weeds and insects. It also resists washing out on a slope. The trick is in the depth. Alliance Gator’s FAQ says the sand should sit 1/8 inch below the top of the paver, or below the chamfer if your pavers have one. If you’re redoing an old walk, it says to clean out at least 1 1/2 inches of the old joint sand first.
Weather matters too. Alliance’s Gator Maxx sand handles joints up to 2 inches wide, works when it’s above 32°F, and is rain safe 1 hour after you activate it with water. Read the bag for the product you buy, because the times and widths aren’t the same across every brand and type.
Walkway Ideas That Make Mowing Easier
Now the fun part.
Here are a few looks I like. Each one goes on the same base, and each one finishes flush at the lawn.
A straight walk with a brick border. Lay the field in whatever pattern you like and run a row of brick along each side as the mowing strip. The border reads as a frame, and it’s the part your wheels ride on.
A gentle curve. Curves look great and mow fine if they’re wide and smooth. Tight wiggles make you back up and turn, even on a zero-turn. Pavingexpert notes that rectangular bricks leave open joints on a curve, which you can fill with mortar or close up by trimming the bricks into wedges.
A flagstone or stepping stone path. Stones set into the lawn are cheap and easy. Set every one flush with the grass, using the same mowing-strip rule, so the deck passes right over and you never trim around them.
Gravel with a paver edge. If pavers across the whole walk are too much money, a gravel path with a flush paver edge on both sides gives you most of the mowing benefit. My guide to river rock landscaping covers what goes under loose stone.
Whatever you pick, the order doesn’t change. Dig wide and deep, pack the gravel in thin lifts with a fall of 1 inch every 10 feet, spike the edging into the base, sand the joints to 1/8 inch below the top, and finish every edge flush with the lawn. Do that and the walk will still be flat when your mower’s worn out.
