Project guide
Laying a walkway or garden path
A path is a small driveway with the same rules and none of the tonnage. The one thing people skip is compaction, on the theory that nobody drives on it — and then it settles anyway, because frost does not care what you drive.
TYPICAL 120 SQ FT · 2 DAYS · BASE 3–4 T
The sequence
How the job actually runs
In order, with the tool each stage needs. Skip a stage and it comes back as the stage after it.
- 01
Locates
A path along a house is where the gas service comes in. Five business days, free.
- 02
Mark the run
Paint the curve before you dig it. A path you set out with a hose on the lawn reads better than one you set out with a tape.
- 03
Dig out
Four to six inches of base, an inch of sand, plus the paver — about eight inches of dig for a pedestrian path.
- 04
Base and compact
Two lifts, four passes each. A plate on a narrow path is fast; the slow part is barrowing the stone to it.
- 05
Screed and lay
One inch of concrete sand off rails, then lay from the straightest edge you have.
- 06
Cut the curve
Mark the arc with a string and cut to it wet. Forcing wedges into a curve is what makes a path look homemade.
- 07
Restraint and sand
Edge restraint even on a garden path, polymeric sand swept dry, plate over the pad, water it in.
How big, how long
The three sizes people ask for.
Day counts are for one or two people working at a homeowner’s pace, not a crew’s. Book the longer number.
Typical jobs
| Front walk | 60 sq ft | 2 days |
|---|---|---|
| Side path | 120 sq ft | 2 days |
| Garden run | 250 sq ft | 3 days |
Tools this job uses
- Toolcat
- Plate compactor — ask us
- Cut-off saw — ask us
- Vacuum lifter — ask us
Anything marked “ask us” is a machine in the yard that is not on the rate card yet. Send the request with your dates and we will tell you what it costs before you commit to anything.
The planner
Your numbers, not an average
Tell it the size and it works out the material, the days and which machines you actually need — including the ones you do not.
Tell it about the job
Square feet. Length times width, near enough.
This is what decides the lifter, and usually it decides against it.
What that takes
120 sq ft walkway · 6 in base · two of you
- SURFACE
- 120 sq ft
- BASE
- 3–4 t
- SPOIL
- 4 yd³
- BEDDING
- 1 t
- SURFACE ORDER
- 120 sq ft + 10%
- COMPACTOR
- 1 day
- SAW
- 0.25 day · 1 blade
- LIFTER
- not needed
- BOOK
- 2 days
6 in of base. Walkways and patios. Four inches is the common minimum; six is the honest Simcoe number, because of freeze-thaw.
2.2 yd³ in the ground. Order the top of that range — what you order over what the hole measures — compaction, spillage and over-dig.
9.4 in of dig. Soil bulks when it is dug. The pile is always bigger than the hole. You will want a bin.
1 in screeded concrete sand. Screeded bedding sand. Thicker sand does not fix a low base — it becomes the low spot.
Extra pavers for cuts and breakage. Five per cent on a plain rectangle, ten with curves.
2 lifts of 4 in. Maximum depth of one compaction lift. An eight-inch base is two lifts, not one pass.
About 27 lineal ft of cuts. Per 14-inch general-purpose segmented blade, cutting concrete pavers. Clay brick, granite and rebar cut this down hard.
About 7 lb a piece. You do not need the lifter for these.
Dig 1 · base 1 · lay 1 · cuts 0.25, less the overlap between them. Laying at 140 sq ft a day, two of you.
Estimates from average jobs — ground, grade and weather vary. When in doubt, book the extra day: it is cheaper than a second delivery. And order your stone before you book the machines.
The tools, and the ones you can skip
| Tool | Verdict | Days |
|---|---|---|
| Toolcat3 tonnes in and 4 yards out. That is the whole reason to have one on site. | Worth it | 2 |
| Plate compactor2 lifts, four passes each. Compaction is never the bottleneck — spreading is.Not on the rate card yet — ask us and we will tell you what it costs and whether it is free. | Needed | 1 |
| Cut-off sawAbout 27 lineal ft of cuts, 1 blade. Cut wet.Not on the rate card yet — ask us and we will tell you what it costs and whether it is free. | Needed | 0.25 |
| Vacuum lifterAbout 7 lb a piece. You do not need the lifter for these. | Not needed | — |
From experience
What people get wrong
Skipping compaction because it is only a path.
Compact every lift. Frost heaves a path the same way it heaves a driveway.
Cutting a curve with wedges instead of a saw.
String the arc, cut it wet, lay to the line.
Barrowing four tonnes because it is a small job.
Four tonnes is about forty wheelbarrow loads. That is the moment a float and a machine start looking cheap.
No edge restraint on the garden side.
The soft side is the side that moves. Restrain both.
Laying straight onto the subgrade.
Base, then sand, then paver. A path set on dirt is a path you rebuild.
Before you dig
The parts that are not optional
One sentence and one link each. We rent machines — we do not read by-laws for you, and none of this is legal or engineering advice.
Book your locates first. Free, and it is the law.
Ontario One Call is free, and a locate is legally required before you dig. Submit the request at least five business days before you plan to start — infrastructure owners have five business days for a single address, and there is no guarantee they use fewer. Book it the day you decide to do the job, not the day the machine lands.
Ontario One Call — locate requests for homeownersCut wet, or split instead of sawing.
Cutting concrete pavers dry throws respirable crystalline silica, which Ontario regulates under O. Reg. 833. The control is water suppression or a process that makes less dust — splitting rather than sawing is explicitly the safer route. A paper dust mask is not respiratory protection.
Government of Ontario — silica on construction projects: legal requirements (O. Reg. 833)A protective pad before the plate touches finished pavers.
Running a plate compactor straight onto a laid surface chips corners and cracks faces, and on large-format slabs it does it on the first pass. Use the roller pad or the rubber mat, every time. On slabs over about 18 inches, do not run the plate at all.
Be clear about this
What we do not supply
The machines move material around your site. They do not haul it to the curb and they do not bring it in. Sort this out before you book anything.
- Aggregate deliveryGranular A and concrete sand come from a pit, by the tandem load. We rent the machine that spreads it, not the truck that brings it.
- Spoil removalA bin, or a dump trailer from somebody who has one. The Toolcat moves the pile around your site; it does not take it away.
- Pavers, slabs and blockFrom your supplier, with the cut allowance added.
- GeotextileOver clay, it is the difference between a base that lasts and one that pumps mud into itself.
- Edge restraint and spikesWithout it the field creeps and the first spring shows you where.
- Polymeric sandAnd the patience to sweep it in dry.
- Hand toolsScreed rails, string line, level, rubber mallet, knee pads. Bring your own.
Questions
The ones we get asked
How deep is the base for a walkway?
Four inches is the common minimum for foot traffic; six is the honest Simcoe number, because of freeze-thaw. If a wheelbarrow or a garden tractor will ever cross it, treat it as a driveway.
Do I need the Toolcat for a path?
Only if the material has to move more than a wheelbarrow's distance, or through a gate the machine does not fit. Four tonnes of base is about forty barrow loads — decide with that number in front of you, not after.
What tools do I actually need?
A plate compactor and a cut-off saw do ninety per cent of it. Everything else is hand tools you probably own.
Can I lay a path in a weekend?
Sixty to a hundred and twenty square feet, yes, if the stone is already on site. Order the material for the week before, not the morning of.
Showing our work
Where these numbers come from.
Anything marked [VERIFY] is trade convention we have not yet put in front of a supplier. It is good enough to plan against and we would rather say so than dress it up.
- [VERIFY] Trade convention — not yet confirmed against a supplier or a published standard
- Normal-weight concrete, about 2,400 kg per cubic metre — the standard value
- Ontario One Call — locate requests for homeowners
- Government of Ontario — silica on construction projects: legal requirements (O. Reg. 833)
Next
Related guides, and where we work
Laying an interlock driveway
The base is the job. The pavers are the part everyone photographs, and they are two of the seven days — get the eight inches under them right and the driveway outlives the house. Read the guide
Building a patio, including large-format slabs
A patio is the job where the format decides everything. Small pavers are a laying job; twenty-four inch slabs are a lifting job, and the two are planned differently from the first load of stone. Read the guide
Renting in Barrie
Inside the flat-rate delivery core — one trip covers drop-off and pickup. Equipment in Barrie
Renting in Orillia
About 35 minutes from the Barrie yard, quoted flat by distance. Equipment in Orillia
Tell us the dates. We will confirm by text.
Pick the machines, send the request, and we will handle the hauling.
kempenfeltrental@gmail.com · 7am–7pm, 7 days