A Complete Guide to Brick Patterns for Walkways

When creating a brick walkway or garden path, one of the fun choices you get to make is what pattern to use. If you’ve ever shopped for clothing, wallpapered a room or picked out curtains, you know how important pattern is in design. There’s a particular character in symmetry and simplicity, and in a pattern with bold organic movement, another personality altogether. Pattern can fudge dimensions — giving the illusion of taller or narrower, more expansive or less. It can even lead the eye, saying this is where you should pay attention.

The pattern you choose for your brick walkway is no different — and no less consequential! The pattern interplays with your choices of brick color and texture to complement your home and punctuate the landscape with your unique hardscape aesthetic.

Understanding Brick Patterns for Walkways

The pattern (also called bond) you choose for your brick walkway is important for style and function. The primary patterns for brick pavement are just four in number — running bond, herringbone, basketweave and stack bond — but between these you have innumerable possibilities for expression. Variations on the patterns may combine or interrupt them. Color and texture changes can highlight certain elements of the pattern. The direction you choose to run your pattern will even impact the energy flow. This last one may sound a little woo-woo but feng shui is real, man: You lay certain patterns across the walkway and now your front yard is a school zone. But, if you want folks to stop and smell the roses along a garden path, that would be the entire point!

Then there’s the practical stuff. Some brick patterns work better on a curve than others and offer less vibration for wheels. A couple of patterns can be laid with virtually no cutting if you have flexibility on the walkway width. Some patterns are simply easier to lay. Patterns vary in strength.

The first use of herringbone for pavement was on roadways in ancient Rome, and it has stood the test of time for its staggering strength. The common feature of structural brickwork is a staggered pattern bond, meaning subsequent rows (courses) of brick are offset so the joint between bricks is overlapped. We see this in running bond too, used on buildings and our pathways even further back than Roman times. Craftsmen and architects over the centuries have kept the stagger for its strength and appearance. They also saw brick’s rectilinear shape as a superpower of design versatility, and they imagined how the patterns could evolve beyond the stagger. Weaker patterns with continuous joints like basketweave and stack bond came into use in decorative applications or with structural reinforcement as needed.

…Which brings us to our walkway. We’re not holding up a roof or even a car, but we do want our installation to stand up (or lay down securely, rather). Let’s look at the four primary brick patterns for walkways, noting which situations they work the best in and additional possibilities they present for design. For this discussion, we’re presuming a standard brick that’s twice as long as wide, but thinner bricks in 3-to-1 proportions can use these patterns as well, just a little differently.

Popular Brick Patterns

Running Bond

In the running bond pattern, the second row is laid a half brick off the first row, resulting in continuous rows that are staggered in relation to one another other. Running bond works in traditional settings in weathered finishes and variable colors and can serve a modern aesthetic when laid in a single neutral color.

• Possibilities: Run in the direction of travel for movement or across a walkway to slow the energy down. It can even be run diagonally for whimsey. Works well on curves.
• Difficulty: Running bond is a popular pattern because it’s pretty strong and easy to lay, but you do have to mind your straight lines. A with-traffic layout can mean minimal brick cutting, just at the beginning and end.

Herringbone

In this zigzag pattern, you form an L with two bricks, so the short side of one brick abuts the long side of the next toward one end. Herringbone is an attractive and lively pattern that adds visual interest to any style hardscape.

• Possibilities: Use the 90-degree layout for a stairstep appearance and less drama. Use the 45-degree layout in the direction of travel for movement or across the path to point to the destination with the peaks. Either 45-degree layout works on curves. And not just a pretty face, herringbone is the strongest pattern, so it’s great for more heavily trafficked walkways.
• Difficulty: Herringbone is not for the saw shy, particularly the 45-degree layouts that require cutting of every other edge brick at minimum.

Basketweave

This pattern involves a two-brick course in which a pair of bricks is laid vertically and the next pair laid horizontally and so on. The next row takes the opposite approach to give the effect of weaving. This one is sometimes called a double-basketweave to set it apart from a variation that has one brick weaving with two. Basketweave may evoke a classic English garden, but its firm geometry expands its use into modern environments too.

• Possibilities: The strategic use of alternating color can add personality. Laid on the diagonal, basketweave creates diamonds, giving it a jaunty appearance and more curve-friendly layout. This pattern isn’t as structurally strong as the other two patterns because of the continuous joints in both directions.
• Difficulty: Basketweave can be a fairly beginner-friendly pattern when laid straight, but a diagonal layout means a lot of edge-cutting. Also, maintaining the straight lines required for an effective basketweave can be a challenge because any parallel pair of bricks is a joint-width wider than the perpendicular pair under it.

Stack Bond

This pattern is also known as stacked bond, jacked bond or jack-on-jack and is as simple as it gets — a course of bricks laid precisely end to end, with the following row exactly the same so all the joints are in alignment. A stack bond is the province of modern style, offering a fresh, no-fuss look with precise lines.

• Possibilities: Stack bond can be laid with traffic or across it on straight paths. Since all the joints are continuous in both directions, this is the weakest pattern to use for a sand-set path. You can lay the pattern in a mortared installation for added strength or in a thin-brick veneer with special backers. A very effective use of stack bond is as a soldier course at a walkway’s edge, as an accent row to interrupt a pattern and as a transition course between patterns.
• Difficulty: Though the stack bond offers visual simplicity, it’s a difficult pattern for novices to lay because of the need to keep all those lines straight. That said, if your math works out, you could lay the entire walkway without cutting one brick!

Designing With Brick Patterns

The four bonds mentioned are the most popular choices, but variations and combinations will add pizzazz. Because of a single brick’s modest size, the smallest walkway will offer hundreds of unique opportunities for designing with pattern. Here are some things to think about:

Directions and Intersections

The direction you choose for your pattern will have an impact on its energy and focus. Running bond headed toward the house gets us there quicker; across the path it’ll slow us down. The direction will also provide opportunities (or difficulties) for incorporating a pattern shift at relevant points, like two walkways intersecting.

Edge Courses

Your border provides strength to a sand-set walkway and prevents the migration of smaller cut pieces from the edge of your pattern going walkabout into the yard! But what you do at the edges is also an important design decision. Edge your walkway with a soldier course — essentially a solitary course of stack bond — or running bond. Choose a brick color that contrasts or draws attention to portions of your interior pattern. You can use an alternative material as an edge course too — stone or wood — or maintain a minimalist look with metal edging that simply supports the installation.

Adjacent Structures

Your walkway may be interrupted by a tree, take a turn at a bench, intersect with the front porch. These are all opportunities to highlight the intersecting feature with a pattern shift. If you’re changing patterns, basketweave, stack bond and running bond can all play nicely together; herringbone might be a little harder to integrate. That’s where a single course of running bond or a soldier course will offer a tidy transition from one pattern to another. A soldier course makes a dramatic frame around columns and other interruptions.

The Use of Color

Using a monotone brick will minimize your pattern’s impact, giving the impression of an expansive and uniform surface. Using a multicolor (or range) brick can also minimize the effect of pattern and the very presence of the walkway if it mimics the variability of the surrounding landscape. Deliberate color changes or texture variation at the pattern-scale will add definition to the shapes you’ve created by drawing attention to both your pattern and the scale of the walkway.

Curves and Straights

We’re inclined to follow a path with the brick pattern, but you don’t have to. You can allow a curved path to weave through your pattern. Or… a dead straight path with a straight pattern bond can be interrupted with an unexpected decorative curve to dramatic effect. Also, you don’t have to maintain the same width for the entire course of your path so if you want to start big (say at the driveway) or end big (at the stoop), consider this in your pattern selection and the direction you run it. Herringbone and running bond are excellent patterns for varying width.

Mixed Materials

Don’t be shy about incorporating non-brick materials into your pattern — just ensure you have consistent height, so you don’t create a trip hazard. You may confront size discrepancies using different colors of the same brick too. The color of brick pavers is a result of the minerals present in clay as well as firing techniques. What this means is that the same brick can vary slightly across its color options. The patterns with the strongest geometry and most uniformity are the ones where size differences are the biggest aggravation.

Planning a Layout

When you’re planning your walkway, there are several factors to consider that will directly inform your layout.

Walkway Size

A primary walkway — say, from your driveway or the sidewalk to your front door — needs to be 48 inches wide for two people to walk side by side and 36 inches wide at minimum. A garden pathway could be as narrow as 18 inches but that’s very tight and you’re better off much larger. Aside from practical use, the width is important for pattern selection. It’s good practice to keep cut bricks to 2 inches or larger, because they’re too easy to dislodge when smaller. And symmetry across the path is important for some patterns so if your layout cuts a brick on one side, you better do it on the other! An edge course might use 4 or 8 inches from each side, depending on the edge pattern you choose. You can begin to see how an 18-inch path doesn’t result in fabulous math for a standard 4-by-8 brick layout. Many patterns simply read better visually wider.

Walkway Characteristics

Running bond and 45-degree herringbone are very curve-friendly patterns. Stack bond laid across the direction of travel and basketweave on a diagonal can also be interesting on a curve. If your walkway slopes, use a structurally strong pattern like herringbone.

Walkway Use

In a sand-set brick installation, proper edge restraint is what prevents your bricks from wandering off the path — called pavement creep. The more interlocking joints within your design, the stronger your installation, so you can’t beat herringbone or running bond for heavily trafficked areas.

Also, the brick pattern you choose will have an impact on the amount of vibration the walkway produces for wheeled travel, be that a wheelchair out front or a wheelbarrow in the garden. Running bond and stack bond with bricks headed in the direction of travel offer the least vibration. A 90-degree herringbone has less vibration than a 45-degree herringbone (The Brick Industry Association).

Maintenance Tips

Maintaining a brick pathway is pretty easy if you regularly sweep it clear of debris so life doesn’t take root in the joints. A garden hose and a stiff brush will work loose most grime. Don’t use a pressure-washer because it’ll dislodge the joint sand. For oil or more stubborn stains, test drive cleaning products on a leftover brick in the garage because some products can bleach or stain your brick. For moss or other growth that’s moved in, Pine Hall Brick, the country’s largest producer of clay pavers, recommends trying a 3-to-1 solution of water and chlorine bleach (and then stronger in tenacious cases), noting that might cause temporary efflorescence. Speaking of, de-icing products with salt can cause some efflorescence, and sand can grind some finishes. Magnesium chloride won’t effloresce.

There are three steps you can take during your walkway installation that will make maintenance easier later:

• Plan for adequate drainage. By definition, adequate is a slope of about 1 percent to 2 percent away from the house but consistency is the key. With conventional brick pavers, drainage can be accommodated in the underground portion of your installation and up top. Permeable brick pavement is the ultimate machine in this regard.
• Use the recommended joint size. The brick manufacturer will specify but it’s usually around 1/8 of an inch. Too tight and you can end up with buckling or cracked edges. Too loose and you encourage movement and growth in the joints.
• Use the recommended sand. Concrete sand, mason sand and polymeric sand are the usual suspects. Polymeric sand has a binding agent in it that reacts with water. It has the advantages of being a weed and insect deterrent, but you must follow the installation directions carefully or you’ll ruin your gorgeous walkway. Some brick paver manufacturers don’t recommend it.

Final Thoughts

You’ve seen at this point how expressive brick can be, and you want it to speak the same language as your home, even if it’s in a different accent! You have a particular home style and distinctive geometry in its features to draw from. If your home is brick itself, you can honor its bond or speak to it without perfect imitation. And the pattern you choose for your brick will say a lot about you too. A flat charcoal brick in a stack bond predicts that the homeowner is enjoying a pour-over in an Eames chair as much as a weathered brindle in a running bond says to expect a Persian rug in the foyer.