How to Lay Landscaping Blocks on a Slope
- 1). Walk the slope and use wooden stakes to mark out the areas where you plan to add landscaping blocks. If laying a walkway, look for spots where the incline is slight and wind the walkway so that some areas are horizontal to the slope to give people a rest.
- 2). Connect the wooden stakes with a piece of string to create an outline for the walkway.
- 3). Clear the areas within the outline of grass, weeds and debris with a shovel. Continue to dig until the surface is eight inches below the ground.
- 4). Tamp the surface of the soil with a tamping tool or a mechanical plate compactor. Tamping the soil will prevent the stones from shifting as the ground settles.
- 5). Spread a four-inch layer of gravel over the surface of the walkway and tamp it. Lay landscape fabric over the gravel to inhibit weed development. Pour a two-inch layer of sand over the fabric.
- 6). Insert metal edging along both sides of the walkway to prevent them from shifting over time.
- 7). Lay the first landscaping block on the bottom corner of the walkway and tap it with a rubber mallet to press it into the sand. Place the next block beside the first one, tapping it with the mallet. Continue laying blocks in your chosen pattern, leaving a consistent spacing of 1/8 inch between each block.
- 8). Pour fine-grained sand over the walkway once the last block is in place. Use a stiff broom to work the sand between the crevices of the blocks and sweep off the excess.
- 9). Mound gravel along the sides of the walkway as a border to direct excess water away from the walkway. Subsurface water can destabilize your foundation or cause frost heave damage.
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