Hardscaping Question for the Pros... What Base Material for a Brick Patio?

[leejp]

I have a couple of brick patios in my new house that needs to be pulled up and redone. The previous owner (actually his wife) did not prep the base properly (in fact, she didn't put down ANY base material... Just bricks on top of the heavy clay based soil I have so the patios are sloping towards the house.

I intend to save the brick and reuse. These are paving brick, not concrete pavers. They're in good shape still, I intend to scrub each one down prior to reuse. I've gotten a couple of books and read a lot of how-to quick sheets from the local hardware stores but I am still a little bit lost when it comes to the base material. I'm in upstate, NY so the patio goes through a freezethaw cycle. Here are the choices that I have been advised with...

4-8" Stone Dust (the one I'm leaning towards)
4-8" Item 4 (Mixture of gravel and crushed stone), referred to as "pack"?
~?" gravel + ~2" sand
~?" gravel + ~2" stone dust

I plan to excavate down ~8" and run the compactor on the clay soil before laying the base. I've leaning towards the stone dust since just about everything I put over it in the past (shed, AC unit...) has not shifter. Once compacted and wetted down... it's like mortar.

Additionally... the paving brick is more irregular in size (vs concrete pavers). Should I use sand or stone dust to fill in the gaps?

[stoneseller]

I'd recommend 6" of CR6 or CR8, applied 3" & compacted, then another 3" & compacted. Then 2" of coarse sand, then your pavers.

If the area is prone to standing water or lots of runoff, or if you are going over tree roots, substitute #57, #6, or #67 crushed aggregate for the cr6. This will give better drainage. A layer of typar between the aggregate & sand would help keep the sand from migrating into the gravel.

[stoneseller]

Forgot to say,

Coarse Sand in the joints. Polymeric stabilized sand is even better, but a lot more $$.

I don't like a stone dust base more than 2" deep, it never tightens up well enough any deeper