Brick is the original paver. Long before concrete pavers came in dozens of shapes and finishes, streets, sidewalks and front walks were laid in fired clay brick, and some of those century-old surfaces are still in service. On the right house, brick paving is still the best-looking surface you can put on the ground.
It is also the paving choice where the details matter most. The difference between a brick patio that looks better at twenty years than it did at two, and one that is flaking and heaving by year five, comes down to three decisions: the brick itself, what goes under it, and how it is laid. Here is how to think through each one before you commit.
What is brick paving, and how is it different from concrete pavers?
Brick paving means clay pavers: units made from clay and shale, shaped, and fired in a kiln at high temperature. Concrete pavers can look similar from the street, but they are a different product, cast from cement, aggregate and pigment and then cured.
That difference shows up in ways you will notice over the life of the surface:
- Color. Clay brick gets its color from the clay and the firing, so it holds that color through decades of sun. Concrete pavers are colored with pigment, and their surface can weather and fade as it wears.
- Range. Concrete pavers come in far more shapes, sizes, textures and large formats. Brick is mostly the classic rectangle, in a narrower palette of reds, browns and flashed tones.
- Character. Brick reads as traditional and permanent. It pairs with brick architecture in a way that a concrete product imitating brick rarely quite matches.
- Budget. Clay brick generally costs more than standard concrete pavers and less than natural stone. Our paver patio cost guide and paver driveway cost guide break the numbers down by material.
Neither is the better product in the abstract. The better product is the one that suits the house and is built correctly.
Does clay brick hold up to Michigan freeze-thaw?
Paving brick does, as long as it really is paving brick. Brick made for paving is fired dense and hard so it absorbs little water. For a climate like ours, the grade to ask for is a severe-weathering rating: Class SX under ASTM C902, the standard for brick used on patios, walks and residential driveways. That rating exists for exactly what a Southeast Michigan winter delivers, which is brick that gets saturated and then frozen, over and over.
The most common way brick paving fails here involves no paving brick at all. It is building brick, salvaged from a chimney, a garage or a teardown and laid flat as a patio. Wall brick was made to stand upright and shed water. Laid flat, it stays wet, freezes, and the faces start to flake and pop off within a few winters. Reclaimed brick can be beautiful, but only if it was made to be walked or driven on in the first place.
Where does brick paving work best on a property?
Brick earns its keep where the house and the paving are seen together:
- Front walks and entry courts, where brick ties the landscape to a brick facade. On the older housing stock in Grosse Pointe and Birmingham, it is often the most period-appropriate choice.
- Driveways and aprons, laid in a pattern built to handle turning tires.
- Patios and terraces off a brick home, where the paving can pick up the same tones as the walls.
- Borders and banding. A brick soldier course or inlay framing a concrete paver or natural stone field gives much of the brick look for less of the brick cost, and it is one of the most effective design tools on a large hardscape.
What decides whether brick pavers last?
The brick is the part you see. The base is the part that decides whether it stays flat.
Much of Macomb and eastern Oakland County sits on heavy clay soil that holds water rather than draining it. Paving over that ground well means excavating to the depth the surface calls for, bringing in aggregate, compacting it in lifts, and pitching the finished surface so water runs away from the house instead of sitting under the brick. A driveway gets a deeper base than a patio because it carries vehicles. That base work is the same for every paver installation, and choosing brick does not change it.
A few details matter more with brick than with other pavers:
- Sand-set, not mortared, for most surfaces. Mortared brick over concrete has its place on steps and porch caps. For patios, walks and drives, a flexible sand-set system over compacted aggregate moves with the ground through freeze-thaw instead of cracking at every joint.
- Edge restraint. A soldier course and a locked perimeter keep the field from creeping outward, which traditional brick patterns will do without it.
- Tight, filled joints. Polymeric sand swept into the joints locks the units together and resists washout and weeds.
Which brick paving patterns suit Michigan homes?
Pattern is partly taste and partly engineering:
- Herringbone interlocks in every direction, which makes it the strongest choice for driveways, where tires turn and push the units.
- Running bond is the classic offset brick look. It suits walks and paths, and on a driveway it is laid across the direction of travel.
- Basketweave is the traditional pattern for patios and garden paths, and it is better suited to foot traffic than to cars.
Our guide to popular paver patterns shows how each one reads on a patio versus a driveway.
When should you plan a brick paving project?
Paver work can go in whenever the ground is workable, which in Southeast Michigan runs roughly spring through late fall. Spring is the busiest stretch of the year. That makes fall and winter the right time to settle design, materials and scope, so a spring project is ready to schedule instead of waiting to be designed.
On a larger property, brick paving is rarely a standalone job. It meets the grade, the drainage, the planting beds, the lighting, and often a wall or a set of steps. Designing it as part of a landscape plan rather than as a single patio is how those pieces end up looking like they belong together. It is also simpler when one contractor handles the design, the hardscape and the planting around it.
Is brick paving right for your home?
If your house has brick architecture, a traditional design, or a front entry that deserves more than poured concrete, brick is worth a serious look. Great Lakes Landscaping designs and installs brick and paver hardscapes across Macomb, Oakland and St. Clair counties from our Chesterfield headquarters. Contact us or call (586) 754-7336 to talk through materials, patterns and scope for your property.