Laying bricks on a concrete base, mortar bed or sand?

[Mr Chibs]

I've built a canopy over what used to be a very old garage. I've been left with a sloping (old concrete base) at least 120mm thick.

I would like to lay old handmade bricks as a base (maybe herringbone), preferably on top of the concrete.

I was wondering if I could lay similar to block paving on a base of sand, which I would attempt to level up, so may be 50mm at one end and next to nothing at the other end.

Would this work, or would a full mortar bed be the way to go?
What would you recommend for the mortar mix?

TIA

Chibs

 

[Bonni]

Block pavers are uniform in size and fit together quite tightly, then grouted with kiln dried sand.

Bricks are not uniform in size, and thus they tend to have approx 10mm beds and perps of mortar around them. I've never bedded bricks on sand, and with the irregular sizes, not too sure how that will go tbh.

Also, the bricks would vary in width, so not sure how flat that would turn out because as again, concrete pavers are uniform in size. So with bricks varying, the mortar bed and perps takes up the discrepancy in their sizes.

 

[Mr Chibs]

Thanks for this, picked some bricks up this morning, they are very different in sizing, and after seeing them, thought the sand method is out of the question as you've mentioned.

If I go ahead I'll use 4:1 mix and bed them on a 20mm or so, and I'll pack up the other end with some offcuts so the mortar won't be a 50mm.