I've used crushed stone many times for hard surfaces such as barns and parking pads. I have not used it for anything that needed to look nice. I agree with annz, in that you will want to accent in some way if used. Even the crushed stone will turn up if your dog gets into it. It is quite literally as hard a concrete as long as the surface stays intact. Once you break the surface though... ... the important thing to do is moisten it up and tamp it as soon as you see it starting to open up. If I knew how to put pictures in here, I would let you see my situation. There were a couple yards of pea gravel left from construction (drain fill because it won't compact) and I decided to use it as filler in a walk area and expanded drive until paving could be done. Even with the big white pavers on top, I'm constantly sweeping the stuff around and my yard has basically become 50/50 grass/ pea gravel. Even the existing asphault has become completely infected with it. I think long term crushed stone will be best all the way around. Certainly if you can afford to put some stepping stones on it soon. The big bonus is it will be there when you are ready to lay down the paver walk later. I don't know if annz is refering to the same post or not, but within the last couple days there was a big discussion on pea gravel for a patio. Look it up for a lot more opinions. Good Luck!

lazygardens: What drained out is mostly silt and sand -- like the thick muck you might scrape up from the bottom of a river. It looks like it would harden into an impermeable layer on the landscape fabric. Perhaps it would soften again when wet. There are some smaller pieces that we hope to sift out of the fine silt, and use that as fines. We finished about 1/2 of the path yesterday before quitting for the day due to fatigue. We'll finish next weekend.

Hello - I'm trying to layout a curved front path -- aproximately 3.5 feet wide and 30 feet long that curves like a J to the front door, over our existing lawn. We have plenty of sandstone from a side patio. The sandstone is square and rectangular -- averaging about 2-3 square foot each. My question is how best to use this existing sandstone to achieve an attractive curved dry set path. I have seen some paths in our neighborhood that use square stone but they seem to curve over a longer distance than hours -- and I assume the gaps between stones over a longer distance can allow for a sweeping bend w/out being too large. I'm not sure I can achieve this on a shorter path. Are there any Web references, photos, guides you can suggest? Rules of thumb for laying out an attractive flagstone path? Should I consider breaking up the stones into irregular shapes to better accomodate a curved path? Can I combine the square stones and some broken stones and still achieve a polished/professional look? Can I have larger and irregular gaps in a dry set path, using square stones, so I can achieve the bend in a shorter distance -- and just fill those gaps with sand/crushed-stone? Will it look okay? Thank you for any suggestions.

Base thicknesses vary, depending on where you live (freeze/thaw cycle), but here in Chicago we would normally have 10" of total excavation for a brick patio with 6 1/2" of CA-6 gravel base, 1" of bedding sand and then the brick. Your attached photo shows the correct limestone for a patio base. But regardless of where you are if you don't do all the excavation now you will have to remove massive amounts of material to get to the proper depth later. Decomposed granite makes a very nice patio and is all the rage right now in the Midwest. If you opt for that scenario, then simply excavate 4-5", lay down a soil separator, spread and compact your limestone and then add the decomposed granite. 3" of limestone and 2" of granite works nicely. Compact the granite and you are "good to go" Here is a decomposed granite pathway, done in 2006 that I photographed a couple of years ago. The only downside is that they are not kind to bare feet. Otherwise they are a great aesthetic.