Oven leads to more work..

[PizzaJNKY]

Its amazing. Now that I am almost done with my oven, I now want to do more work in my backyard.

My next plan is to lay full sized brick all around the oven. I have seen photos of patios that have paving stones, and noticed that they just lay on the sand, and but up tight against each other.

Does anyone know if you can put mortar in between the bricks, so that it kinda looks like a wall that just lays flat on the ground, and if so, do you think it would even look good?

The reason I would want to mortar them down is that my yard is extremely high maintance, huge weed problem, so I figured the mortar in between the bricks would prevent weeds from coming through.

[sarah h]

I think unless they were set on top of a solid cement pad, the joints would crack. Even then, it could be a problem.

A kettle of boiling water works well on weeds and is a cheap and easy solution - wear shoes and long pant though when pouring .

[CajunKnight]

If the pavers or bricks are layed out and spaced you can dump dry mortar mix and sweep it into the cracks. a gentle misting of water will set it up. But as stated before if you dont have a hard surface uder the bricks the mortar will crack. Also if you use the mortar in areas with extreme cold the mortar will be broken aout during the first or second freeze. It would be best to just lay out bricks and sweep sand into the cracks. This will give the same look. You can also put ground kill / soil sterilizer down before laying bricks and watering it in to kill anything that was there. Good weed and grass killers go a long ways in removing the grass also. The only mortar joint I have seen work like this is brick layed over a concrete slab.

[PizzaJNKY]

Thanks Sarah and Cajun Knight. What was I thinking anyway? I must be getting delusional, when my oven is finally done, I bet I wont want to mix any more mortar for a very very very long time.

[n2iko]

Here in the northeast we generaly put fine sifted sand between the cracks after the pavers are laid. Dump a barrel full on the top of the surface and push it around with broom. When all the joints are loaded up remove the excess. A squirt or so with weed killer controls the unwanted vegatation.


--mr.jim

[Les]

JNKY,

They make a sand that has polymers mixed in. The stuff is almost like a gritty glue when it gets wet. You apply it like a regular paver sand and wet it down, after it dries - bullet proof. Thats what I used, and ants haven't even attacked it yet.

Les...

[cplain]

Quikrete has product called "Power-Loc" Lay pavers down, sweep into cracks, mist and it sets. You can read about it at:
http://www.quikrete.com/Media/news-r...7-PowerLoc.pdf

QUIKRETE® - PowerLoc™ Jointing Sand