Hello,

I live in Mass, think snow, and want to lay a 7' brick walkway. Tore up the concrete to put ut in. The debates my husband and I are having is:

1: Whether to poor a cement pad underneath it or ground rock and dirt. We are thinking about frost heaves.

2: I want to put sand in between the bricks and not cement them together.

As a brick layer I Always have a 4" 2b clean stone base then 4" on concrete with expansion joints in the concrete. I do a brick pattern that allows me to also put in a control expansion joint lining up with the joint in the Crete. Also usually lay a brick band on the concrete edges.

Being where you live I would more than likely go with the stone clean stone base and then the crushed stone base and set the brick with no mortar. You can then salt the crap out of the walk and only kill the plants and dirt around the walk. Great news is you can use the walk on icy days and not break your neck.

MY choice as a Mason is NO mortar/Crete. If the walk gets funky later just re -set brick