Setting Belgian Block Edging

16 years ago

Hey all,

Quick question that I am hoping some stone pros can help shed light on. I have a long driveway which comes down to meet a circular driveway to form a lower case "h" shape. The driveway is 1/2" gray gravel that compresses well, but needs edging to contain it.

I like the look of belgian block edging, but cannot make the financial or structural commitment to laying them down into a concrete base. Instead, I would like to take belgian blocks (4x4x8) and lay them the long way as edging (about 160' in total). My plan was to trench down about 3" below the gravel grade and fill with stone powder, wet it, lay the block in the stone powder (on the long side--only one course), then butt the next block up against it filling the joint with stone powder.

I know that no concrete base=potential shifting and frost heave, but I am OK with having to re-dig and make repairs. The big question is whether the stone powder would do the job or if there was another substrate/foundation that would work as well (sand?)

Many thanks for your ideas and comments.

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Comments (4)

User
16 years ago
I've seen it done with brick and it worked very well.
dcislander
Original Author
16 years ago
Agreed. I like the look of the blocks set in the long way as well. The big question is what to set them into. Would rather not do concrete, and not sure if sand or stone dust is the way to go--or even an inch of crusher run then stone dust. Do not want to overkill it since it is one flat course, then again I'd rather they not shift all over the place.
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dcislander
Original Author
16 years ago
Agreed. I like the look of the blocks set in the long way as well. The big question is what to set them into. Would rather not do concrete, and not sure if sand or stone dust is the way to go--or even an inch of crusher run then stone dust. Do not want to overkill it since it is one flat course, then again I'd rather they not shift all over the place.
User
16 years ago
If it's a 4x4 block, 8 inches long, setting them into a trench on a bed of sand would probably work nicely.

I've seen some brick patios that had "soldiers" (bricks buried in trenches half-way) as edging and they had few problems with settling and drift. If so, digging up a few and re-setting them every couple of years is not hard.