How to lay block paving step by step

How do you lay block paving? Dig out and compact the subgrade, roll out a geotextile membrane, lay and compact MOT Type 1, screed a sharp sand laying course, lay the blocks in your chosen pattern off the longest straight edge, cut the edges, then vibrate the area in with kiln-dried sand in the joints. What decides whether it lasts is the sub-base underneath and how well it was compacted.

1. Dig-out and fall. Dig to depth (path ~300mm, driveway 400-450mm) with the fall running away from the house: at least 1:80 (1.25%) on a patio or path, 1:60 on anything a car drives over. Compact the bottom of the dig before anything goes in it.
2. Geotextile membrane. Keeps the subgrade and the stone from mixing, and keeps the sub-base at the thickness you paid for.
3. Sub-base (MOT Type 1). Angular crushed stone that locks together once compacted. Total 150-300mm depending on load, laid and compacted in 100-150mm layers.
4. Laying course (sharp sand). 30-50mm screeded level off screed rails — screeded only, never compacted.
5. Laying the blocks. Start the first course off the longest straight edge and work forward off the laid paving, so you never walk on the screeded sand.
6. Cutting the edges. Cut edge and curved pieces with a disc cutter or a bench saw, wet-cut to keep the dust down.
7. Jointing and compaction. Brush kiln-dried sand into the joints, run the plate compactor over a rubber sole plate, then top the sand up and brush again.

Block paving in the UK is covered by BS 7533, the standard for modular pavements, with the blocks themselves made to BS EN 1338. Both are written for adopted highways and footways, but the tolerances in them are a fair bar for a driveway too. These are the ones that get missed on site:

Two rows catch out experienced layers. First, the minimum fall is 1:80 on a footway and 1:60 on anything trafficked, not „some fall“. Second, the finished paving should sit 3 to 8mm proud of the kerb at the edge. That isn't sloppy work, it's deliberate: water runs off the paving onto the kerb rather than collecting against it.

Blocks go onto a dry, clean, unfrozen base. On an unbound laying course — normal block paving on sharp sand — the air temperature needs to be above 0 °C. Anything bedded in mortar or concrete, so kerbs, edgings and collars around covers, wants +5 °C to +30 °C. Outside that range you're working to a special method, not to the standard one.

The practical version for a one-man band: laying in frost isn't „at the customer's risk“, it's outside the method. If the driveway drops in spring, you'll be lifting it at your own cost. Same with rain — a saturated laying course compresses unevenly under the blocks.

At the edges, keep every cut to at least 30% of a whole block. Thinner slivers snap in the compaction and lift out after the first winter. If the pattern lands you on a thin strip, shift the whole setting-out by half a block or take one out of the opposite course.

Round openings — an inspection cover, a gully — get a square collar of concrete or small setts on a bound bed. The reason is simple: blocks can't interlock around a circle, and the first car over it will move them.

Lay against the fall, uphill, and always work forward off paving you've already laid. Anyone walking on the screeded sand leaves marks that stay visible as dips once the area is vibrated.

The sub-base has a guide of its own; what matters there is the order of the layers and the compaction. The common patterns are stretcher bond, block bond and herringbone at 45° or 90°, and herringbone spreads a wheel load best on anything a car uses. Set the pattern out before you order, and take the quantities off the setting-out rather than off the eye.

Allow 5% waste on a straight-laid rectangle and 8-10% where the pattern is cut at an angle all round the perimeter. A pallet of 60mm blocks covers roughly 9-11 m², so on a small job the waste allowance is what decides whether you order one pallet or two.

In detail: the sub-base under block paving, laying patterns and jointing. Quantities are quickest to check in the block paving calculator.

• Uncompacted subgrade or a thin sub-base → the paving settles and rocks underfoot.
• Soft building sand in the laying course instead of sharp sand → it washes out.
• No fall → puddles, and ice in them come winter.
• Empty joints → blocks work loose; the joints have to stay full of sand.