The prior owner of our 1930 home in Willow Glen (San Jose, CA) passed on to us a large number of bricks and garden stones which I have been using for the last ten years in my landscaping. Most of the bricks are very old and worn, some are half-melted clinkers, others are still new-looking with crisp corners. Several years ago, when we replaced the old leaky swimming pool with WP668, our 1916 backyard caboose, we had to take up several long brick walkways. Since then, we have been re-using the bricks in new walks. Some of the original walkways are in the Jack-on-Jack (or Stacked Bond) pattern, others are in a Basket Weave classic brick pattern.
To get ready for our annual Easter egg hunt and garden party, we installed several new walkways using old bricks. The new walks went in places where the walking surface was uneven or hard to roll a cart or wheelbarrow over. In the new walks, we used both Jack-on-Jack and Basket Weave patterns to match what was already there. Most are set in sand on top of weed cloth with wood borders. On one high-traffic section, we used concrete borders and mortar. Even though it took a week of work and what we have now is very different from what was there before, none of our thirty party guests noticed the change. The advantage of using old bricks in new walks is that if you are careful, they look like they have always been there.
2006 – Removing Pool and Bricks
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April 2009 – installation
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April 2009 – new walk finished
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another new walk
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Daniel at work
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Daniel and WP668
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WP668 Caboose, April 2009
Images Copyright 2009 by John Plocher and Katy Dickinson
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