Patio Gravel Base

Tan has  been busy tamping in Toronto, Canada.

He's building a brick patio.

Let him fill you in:

"Hi Tim!

I'm going guild a brick patio in my backyard. I just covered the ground with garden fabric, dumped gravel on top and I compacted it.

Should I put stone dust, compact  and lay bricks over it right away or I need to wait for a few months?"

Here's my answer:

Tan, you're good to go and can finish the job now.

I say this assuming a few things.

First, if you had to do any regrading of the soil, I assume you compacted it before going to the next step.

You didn't need to use garden fabric as I feel that was a waste of money. If your intention was to have it stop weeds, the weeds will grow in the tiny spaces between the brick after you're all finished.

When you added the gravel, I also assume you put it in about 4 inches thick and compacted it with a vibrating plate compactor machine.

If you hand tamped it, then you probably should have only worked 2 inches at a time.

Adding water during the compaction process really helps if there are sand-sized particles in the gravel.

The same applies for the stone dust. Adding water during that installation process really allows the particles to interlock.