First time laying a herringbone pattern on a patio and I messed it up bad

I had a small patio job last week in a backyard over in Springfield. Tried to do a herringbone pattern with some 4x8 brick pavers and got about halfway through before realizing my lines were off by almost 2 inches. Had to pull up 30 bricks and start that section over. Anyone else struggle with keeping the angles right on herringbone or is it just me?

2 comments

2 Comments

william_miller1mo ago

You ever had a buddy try to lay tile in his kitchen and end up with a pattern that looked more like a zigzag mess than herringbone? My friend Dave did that last summer with some slate tiles. He lined everything up by eye instead of using a string line, and by the time he got to the third row, the whole thing was drifting sideways. He had to pull up about two dozen tiles and soak them in a bucket to get the thinset off. Took him an extra day to fix it, but at least he learned to snap a chalk line every few rows now.

laurabennett1mo ago

Classic Dave move. I've pulled up my own tiles doing the same thing. @william_miller is right about the chalk line.