Step-by-step details on how to build a circular brick patio using recycled brick
   Step-by-step details on how to build a circular brick patio using reclaimed Victorian bricks. The idea of a brick patio circle developed as we unearthed more and more bricks from a variety of locations around the garden, the bulk of them coming from the gable ends of the number two boiler house knocked down by the previous owners. Only it wasn't that simple because the bricks originally fell to the original floor 7ft below ground level and then all manner of rubbish piled on top over several years.
Unfortunately, the bricks had first to be dug up from amongst old refrigerator parts, vehicle parts and general 'gunge' as can be seen from the first sequence of photographs. The best of the surviving bricks had to then be individually separated and the cement removed from each brick. An arduous task to say the least which took about 300 man hours. The final tally came to 2,133 good quality Victorian enginnering bricks, each brick weighing about 9.5llbs, about 30% heavier than their modern equivalent.
    For reasons of economy and of being able to match brick faces it was decided only to plan with the bricks we had and not to purchase any further bricks. The trickiest part came next as we decided on the diameter of the circle because each ring to the circle added an increasingly larger number of bricks. If that wasn't enough we decided to make the design more interesting. By wrapping part of the patio with a winding brick footpath down to the Pergola. However, with a finite number of bricks we did not want to discover until it was too late that the patio was either too big or too small.
  The concrete ring beam provided the best foundation for the perimeter bricks, securing their position as well as protecting the patio edge from water run off and from any future root damage.
Note the newly planted Pittosporum hedge adjacent to the right of the pathway.
 Aileen laying the final brick!
   The completed brick patio immediately prior to grouting in spring 2000.This picture is more momentous than it first suggests. Up to this point we seemed to have spent our first eight months in our new home clearing up and burning rubbish - all very disheartening when its a daily occurance without respite. However, this picture marked a definite upturn as we began to really construct the garden rather than destruct the overgrowth of the previous one.
 The winding brick path illustrating the abundant growth in just three years (August 2003) shows why visitors to this garden are awed by the progress made in such a short time and come back each year to see the incredible progress.
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