Brick patio. Herringbone on a 45.

In this space there was an exhisting “Dry layed or Hardscape” patio that had to be removed. Unfortunatly if they have not been properly installed they tend to sink over time. In this case some type of burrowing creature either a mouse or a mole had undermined the patio causing large portions of it to sink. The orginal patten on this patio was done by the home owners father. It was a circular pattern that basically started with a round section in the center of the patio with concentric rows of brick radiating out to the edge in a circular pattern. It was pretty cool, however it would have been too expensive to try to recreate it.

After some discussion with the home owners they decided to go with the pattern you see here, Herringbone on a 45 degree angle. Personally I am glad they did, It’s one of my favorites. It also happens to be one of the most difficult patterns to lay. The way this has to be layed out differs depending on the size of the brick being used. If you get that lay out wrong and your joints don’t line up and It looks terrible. It is also very important that the pattern is centered properly, so you end up with the same cut pieces on either side. If the cut pieces grow or shrink as you go from one end of the patio to the other, It does not look right. It is also important for the area that this pattern is being done in is square. With other brick patterns if something is a little out of square you can hide that with the size of your mortar joints. That doesn’t work with herringbone. There is little to no adjustment that you can make that doesn’t throw the whole thing off.

Another consideration to be made is in the future. Do you want to have to deal with the possibility of portions of your patio moving of sinking. Another issue that can occurre with hardscape is plants can take root between the bricks. Meaning if you don’t maintain your patio roots can penetrate and cause things to move around. Also, then there are unsightly weeds growing that have to be periodically delt with or they take over.

So, If you are looking for a maintenance free more permanant solution. Then you will want to pour a reinforced concrete pad and lay brick on that. Thus eliminating all of the problems I just mentioned. Barring some catastrophic failure or incident this patio isn’t going anywhere and will look the way it does now for years to come.

This patio is located in Lititz, Lancaster county.