How to lay block paving

Inspired by a helpful YouTube guide. This walk-through is based on the popular UK video "How to lay a block paving driveway in 4 days" from Abel Landscaping, a UK landscaping company based in Liverpool. It shows the complete process from excavation through to the finished driveway and is worth watching to understand the pace and scale of the job before you commit.

1. Plan the layout and mark out

Decide on your paving pattern — herringbone is the most popular for driveways because it locks together under traffic — and work out how many blocks you need. Add 10% for cuts and breakages. Order everything at once if you can; colour batches can vary between deliveries.

Mark the area out with pegs and string lines, accounting for the fall — you need water to drain away from the house, not towards it. Typically a fall of 1:60 is adequate. Plan drainage carefully if you are anywhere near the house foundations or a neighbour’s boundary.

2. Excavate to the correct depth

For a driveway taking normal car traffic, excavate to approximately 200 mm below finished surface level: 100 mm for the sub-base, 50 mm for the sand bedding layer, and 50 mm for the block thickness (typical concrete block pavers).

Hire a mini digger if the area is large. Doing it by hand is character-building, but digging out 30 square metres of soil by spade is a very long day before you have even started laying anything. Make sure spoil removal is sorted beforehand — it adds up in weight and volume faster than most people expect.

3. Lay and compact the sub-base

Spread MOT Type 1 crushed stone (hardcore) to a depth of 100 mm, working in layers of no more than 75 mm at a time and compacting each layer thoroughly with a plate compactor. Do not try to compact a thick layer in one pass — it will stay loose underneath and the surface will settle.

Hire a plate compactor from a tool hire company — this is essential kit, not optional. After compacting, check your levels carefully at this stage. Errors in the sub-base are very hard to correct once you have moved on to screeding.

4. Fix the edge restraints

Concrete haunching along all edges holds the perimeter blocks in place and stops the whole driveway spreading outward over time. Lay a strip of concrete along each edge of the excavated area using 1:6 mix, and bed the first row of blocks into it while it is still wet so they are locked in position.

Edge restraints are one of those things that experienced pavers do automatically and first-timers sometimes skip. Do not skip them. The finished job relies on the edges not moving under traffic.

5. Screed the sharp sand bedding layer

Lay sharp (concreting) sand to a depth of 50 mm and screed it flat using a straight board pulled across screed rails set to the correct finished level. This is the most precise part of the job — take your time and get it right.

Do not compact the sand before you lay the blocks. The blocks compact it as you bed them in, and the plate compactor drives them down to the final level at the end. If you compact the sand first, you end up screeding again anyway.

6. Lay the block pavers

Start from a straight, square edge and work across the area without walking on the sand you have just screeded. Lay blocks tight together by hand, working the pattern accurately. On a herringbone layout, snap chalk lines to keep the diagonals true across a large area.

Cut edge blocks using a block splitter (hire one) or an angle grinder with a segmented diamond blade. Wear eye and ear protection — block cutting throws sharp fragments and is very loud. Measure twice per cut; the blocks are not cheap.

7. Compact and brush in kiln-dried sand

Once all the blocks are laid, run the plate compactor across the whole surface to bed everything down evenly and lock the pattern. Sweep kiln-dried jointing sand generously across the surface and compact again so the sand fills the joints fully. Repeat until the joints are completely full.

The jointing sand is what makes the whole thing lock together as a flexible surface. Under-filled joints allow individual blocks to rock and eventually sink. Top up the sand a few weeks after laying once it has settled — a bit more will always be needed after the first few frosts.

When to call a handyman

If the driveway is large, close to inspection chambers, drains, or a slope, or if you need a new drainage channel fitted as part of the job, it is well worth getting professional help to get the levels and drainage right from the start. Redoing a finished driveway is expensive — much more so than getting it right first time.