DIY Backyard Brick Patio

When we moved into our home in the country we were so excited to finally have a large, fenced-in backyard. Of course, it needed a lot of work. And after a year of living here, it still does!!

We had this odd rectangular space that was covered in a mix of gravel and weeds with a wonky wood border. It seemed like a prime spot for a back yard brick patio where we could put a table and chairs, an umbrella, and a barbecue. Here’s a photo of the space in the dreary winter weather with our pup Valentina roaming around.

My husband loves scouring Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace for cool, unique items for his projects, but also enjoys finding great deals on tools, equipment, or items that people no longer need or want. One day, he came across someone wanting to get rid of hundreds of bricks. They were free but we would have to figure out a way to pick them up and haul them away. His creative wheels started turning and he thought they would work for our backyard brick patio. 

We were able to borrow a truck and Dennis loaded around 500 bricks into the back and brought them home. OK – 1 brick may not seem very heavy on its own but try moving 500 from the back of a truck to your back yard. Even with a wheelbarrow, we were pretty exhausted by the end. Also, 500 bricks sounds like a lot but once they were laid out, we realized we’d need about 2000 to fill the entire space. Clearly, this was going to take a lot longer than originally imagined but we were excited about the outcome, so being patient was worth it. 

Over the next few months, we worked on clearing out the gravel and weeds in the space. This wheelbarrow became one of my best friends!

There was a firepit in the middle of this space and we decided to remove that so we would have one uninterrupted surface.

I think we ended up with 3 more loads of bricks in varying amounts. Some were free and some were pretty inexpensive, around $.50/brick. It took some time because Dennis would often let me know about bricks that were available for free but there would be some sort of ridiculous catch – like they were 2 hours away, or still in the ground and we would have to dig them out. To me, that was someone hoping for free labor to prep their next home improvement project! Or they still had tons of mortar attached meaning we’d have to spend a bunch of time hitting them with various hammers to make them usable. We weren’t in that big of a rush. 

After all was said and done, I think the outcome is pretty good. We should have done a bit more to level the ground and put in weed barriers but since this back yard brick patio isn’t going to be permanent, it works for now. 

You can see more of our back yard brick patio in this post about another DIY home improvement project about refurbishing a wooden farm table and metal bistro chairs. Enjoy!