In this video, This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook explains how to repair a brick patio.
Steps for Repairing a Sunken Brick Patio
- Use a flat bar to pry all the full-size bricks from the sunken area of the patio.
- Number each cut brick removed from the edge of the patio using a crayon.
- Dig out sodden clay or soft mud from the patio with a pointed trowel.
- Use a 4-foot level to determine the finished height of the brick.
- Fill depressions in the sand bed with ground limestone.
- Use a hand tamper to compact the limestone.
- Add 1 inch of sand, then check with the level to ensure there’s a 3-inch space for the bricks.
- Set bricks back into place, tapping each one down with a rubber mallet.
- Sweep fine-grain sand into the joints between the bricks.
- After the first heavy rainfall, sweep more sand across the patio to fill voids between bricks.
Delaying a patio repair only makes the problem worse. During a This Old House project in Chicago, homeowners Tim and Allison discovered that their sunken patio had settled more every year over five years. As Roger observed on site: “The more the water puddles here, the more it’s gonna settle.” Eventually, the pooling water began overflowing into the basement stairwell during heavy rains — a reminder that a small dip in your patio can lead to much bigger problems if left unaddressed.
Sand alone is a poor choice for the base material beneath brick, because it never fully compacts to support the pavers. As one This Old House project demonstrated, you can scratch a finger all the way through a sand-only base — it simply doesn’t pack up hard enough. That’s why filling depressions with ground limestone, which compacts into a firm, stable layer, is essential before resetting the sand bed.
Pro Tip: When removing bricks from the sunken area, be especially careful with any cut bricks along the edges. As Roger, a This Old House landscape contractor, explains during a project in Chicago: “We break one of these, we gotta go get a saw and cut another one. So I want to number them. If you just take and put a number on each one. We’re gonna take them out, and make sure they go right back in the same spot again.”
