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Gardening with Stone

Flagstone patio; will this work?

17 years ago

I want to lay a flagstone patio in my backyard and have been reading everything I can get my hands on. I think I have a rough plan laid out but would like suggestions as to whether or not this is the correct way to be going about it. I plan to dig out a level bed about 6" deep and border with some sort of cut stone 8" tall and 2" wide. I want the border to box in the perimeter of the bed and stick up out of the ground about 2". Next I plan to lay 2" of hard packed, crushed stone, covered by landscaping fabric and then 4" of well packed, sharp sand on top. At ground level and inside my 2" high border I plan to arrange (and meticulously level) the approxmiately 2" thick flags. Next, I want to sweep polymeric sand in the joints and wet. Originally I had planned to use regular building sand but don't want it to wash out or track into the house.

Am I missing anything important? I want the cut stone border to hold in the sand bed but should it be as deep as the crushed rock bed? I'm plan to use the landscaping fabric to prevent sifting of the sand into the rock bed over time. I live in New Orleans where it rarely freezes and has a good amount of rain in the spring. Any suggestions?

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Comments (6)

gottagarden
17 years ago
I think you are better off with 4 inches of crushed stone in the base, because you will need someplace for all the rain to go. What is the subsoil like? Will you have drainage issues? Overall it sounds like a good plan, and you are lucky not to have to worry about freezing.
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tabathagk101
Original Author
17 years ago
I think its pretty sandy. The house was just completed a month ago and I have yet to sod the yard. Should my stone border go down as deep as the entire crushed rock bed? Could I use a 6" high wood frame around the inside perimieter and then just set the stone border 2" in the ground? I want the whole thing to be about 2" above ground level and don't have any problems with drainage.
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I'm a lurker here who is a homeowner and not a pro, and has little design knowledge/ability (which is why i lurk!), but I have used EnviroStone! We just finished laying a 500 sq ft flagstone patio ourselves with it and are very pleased. EnviroStone is designed for wider joints (the same company has different products for narrow joints). For your application, I think you would need to be able to dig ALL of the mud out of each joint. There is a PDF you can download online with the EnviroStone specs/instructions and it says that you should not have any other filler material in the bottom of each joint, otherwise that can wash out from under the EnviroStone and make the joint unstable. I don't know whether they just say that to make you buy enough product to fill all of the joint depth, but it made sense to us, so we followed that. We had a base of 3" compacted crush-and-run (like crushed stone, i think), topped with 1" of granite sand (we got a landscape company to do that part). Then we levelled the flagstones in the granite sand, and then we filled in the joints with EnviroStone and watered down. So far (only 2 months), it looks great and the stones feel solid. It was also easy enough to install to be a DIY job (easy for me to say, as my brother and husband did it all!). I think having a solid/level base is important -- especially in the North where you get more frost movement (we are in Atlanta). I am adding a pic of our patio to show how wide our joints are. We did this as a DIY project, so I'm aware that it doesn't look like a pro job! Hope this helps -- if you decide your base is good enough and you can dig out all that mud, i think EnviroStone would be a good option.
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Are you using landscape fabric between the crushed stone and sand layers? I believe you should. I'm not familiar with lannon stone. How large are the stones? We just built a patio using large salvaged bluestone slabs. They were extremely heavy and hard to level. It was tough, and a huge job. The uneven bottom surface of the stones made it especially difficult. If lannon stones are smaller and have a smooth bottom, you shouldn't have much trouble. To discourage weeds(and ants) you can use polymeric sand instead of regular sand between the stones. Just sweep it into the cracks and wet it down (don't do it if rain is predicted -- you don't want too much water). It sticks to itself, but allows drainage, Okay, and here's my cheat: to get the correct slope, I took a 6' 1x6 and liquid-nailed a 1x2 to its wider face at the proper slope. l lay the 1x6 on edge across the stone and put the bubble level on the 1x2. If it showed it as level, the slope of the patio was right.
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gottagarden
17 years ago
A wood frame set in the ground will rot. Even pressure treated will eventually rot, it will just last longer.

"At ground level and inside my 2" high border I plan to arrange (and meticulously level) the approxmiately 2" thick flags."
That means the ground will be holding in your sand, since the flagstone is the only thing above the surface, correct? If that is the case your border is not holding anything in, and is merely decorative, you do not need it to go all the way to the base.
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johnfromperrycopa
17 years ago
I forgot to mention in my other post that I use landscape fabric, but I put it down first before I put my modified stone base in. The purpose is to keep the modified stone base from working down into the subsoil, especially if you have some clay like I do in the area where I am building a walkway.
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redebde_yahoo_com
13 years ago
somewhere in new orleans, my husband and i saw a patio of large flagstone pieces with monkey grass growing between the pieces of stone. we like the irregular, organic look. we have a contractor who is half way done laying the stone (he is a month over schedule and has not shown up for a week so we may be looking for someone to finish the project) and we plan to plant the monkey grass ourselves. the stone is sitting in 4 inches of sand. we are not sure about the best way to plant the grass and still have the stone securely supported with the sand. our current plan is to dig through the sand to the dirt with a long thin tool like a screw driver and mix the dirt into the sand while planting. has anyone done a similar project? any suggestions?
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ilovesummer661
12 years ago
... so how crazy is this ... ? ... there is a lovely flagstone patio in the tiny backyard of my 90 year old home ... and i would like to move it ... there is an "ugly zone" in my yard and the ground is really pitched ... and that's where i'd like to put it ... any advice?
where the patio is now i'd like to pour concrete then build a deck which would come right off my mud room ... is this going to cost me a fortune?
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