Nice job there.
nice! do bricks like that normally hold up well? they dont chip up around the edges and whatnot?
:tup: Looks great, Jack!
What made you choose brick, over an elevated wood deck?
Looks great jack, but a assload of work
:lol: It looks like she’s holding the bricks down like a pro!
:lol: I keed I keed.
I think I had the same patio umbrella as you - LEDs in the arms, big solar deal on the top, dark green, maybe? If so - be damn careful of that solar panel, it can break off very easily - mine brushed on a low-hanging tree limb when I moved it and “pop”.
Looks good, and love that loaded down truck shot :tup:
Thanks for all the replies guys… next party we can all spill beer all over it 
That color is great. She helped a lot… until she didn’t feel like it anymore, then I had to get on her case. She likes to act on my ideas… just not in a physical sense.
Really? Why is that?
I actually threw that 200+lb tamper on the bricks to settle it one more time and they held up perfectly. The guy on the tractor that was helping me is my neighbor, Frank, and he has had brick for his patio forever, no problems. If you pour concrete, it will crack. If one of these chips or cracks, pull it out and replace it.
The deck that is in some of those pics is getting torn down for the 2 car garage. The garage is going to reach back to the patio… so it will all be at the same level, or at least close. The deck would have been nice if I wasn’t expanding… but I didn’t want to get rid of that tree, and that would have been in the middle of the deck.
If that is what is stopping you from doing this. Don’t let it. This took 2 days… if I had to do it again, I could have done it in 1. It helps to have the right tools.
Bobcat or small tractor
Tamper - preferrably gas powered
Long level
String level
1" pipes. These set the depth of the screenings after your grade is set
A friend or two. You’re going to be putting down the bricks as fast as you can move. You’re gonna need 2 people to hand them to you. Once you memorize the pattern, laying down the bricks flies by.
Yup, same umbrella. Fortunately, that tree isn’t very close to it. It works surprisingly well.