Here is a great “How To” install brick pavers.

Brick pavers are starting to be a top choice for home renovating of patios and porches.

You should start out by checking the major chain stores, Home Depot & Lowes to compare prices. I then had luck stopping at smaller stores that concentrate on pavers and tile. I found that these smaller stores often beat the price of the Home Depot’s and Lowes superstores. Oftentimes their overhead is less and they concentrate on helping individual consumers moreso.

I chose the half pavers for my screened in porch area. These are pavers that are sliced down the middle. There really is no need to use the full brick pavers for patio’s and porches.

When starting installation, make sure that you have a small electric cutting saw. This was the life saver as far as my installation was concerned. It only cost one hundred dollars and with a diamond tipped blade, it cut right through the half pavers.

Step 1 of installation is to lay down approx 1/8 of an inch of thinset. Thinset is a cement type powder substance. Mix it with water until you get a thick paste. Let it sit for 15 minutes and you are ready. Lay down the thinset with a grout tool. One side is flat and the other side has ridges. Use the ridged side to run up and down the thinset prior to lying the paver on it.

After setting up the thinset, you are ready to lie the paver down. Put the paver down and press gently to the proper level. Clean up any over run for the thinset. Then do the next with your next paver.

You can make multiple designs with the pavers. Also use different colors. I kept it simple with my job as I did not want to do a lot of cutting and switching of the pavers.

After you have placed all of your pavers down, let them sit overnight.

In the morning, it is time to mix the grout. Grout comes in many colors. Make sure you pick the color you want to show up in between the pavers. I chose white.

Mix the grout the same way that you mixed the thinset. Then, with a rubber bottomed hand tool (they will show you which tool at the store), push the grout down between the pavers. As soon as it is built up, move all along the pavers.

This can be a long and tedious process. Stick with it as it will be well worth it. After you have chosen a sufficiently large area (approx 5 square feet), you will need to clean off the pavers with water and a sponge. This is VERY tedious. Try and get as much of the grout off the pavers as possible.

I did this by constantly switching out the water. Then, in the morning, I had to do it again. In the end it came out very nice.

Good luck!