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    Emily Fazio

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Building a Flagstone Patio in One Day

August 21, 2012

Cheers to Pete for producing the perfect flagstone patio. He’s tired.

One man, one day, one brand new flagstone patio.

I can’t take any credit for our latest patio project; the guy’s a flagstone rockstar, single-handedly bettering our backyard and making an outrageously cool, functional, and livable space.

We spent all day Sunday relaxing, which, to us, implies doing anything but staring/working at computer screens. That’s how Pete found himself building a small flagstone patio by himself in one day, while I sanded and stained the kitchen cabinetry.


Getting in the way of Pete's patio, but legitimately working on the cabinet staining based on the color of my hands.

Side note: Hi to my neon pink sneaks from 2005. I still have those kids 18+ years later.

Flagstone installation is like DIY Crossfit with natural material weights (think: buckets of sand and 200 lb. rocks). We gave you guys a heads up that this was going to be happening in the near future, but two patios in one month in 1/10-acre lot must be some kind of Guinness World Record. I don’t know, I’ve been too busy staining to give them a call.

Step 1: Make a Plan for Your Flagstone Patio

Our new flagstone patio would form a wide path between the deck and the garage gate. Measuring your square footage goes a lot easier once the children and dog are distracted.

Planning for the new patio. Photo taken in early August.

Step 2: Cut Away the Grass For Your Flagstone Patio

Grass and weeds, be gone! Depending on the type of crusher run, sand layer, and the thickness of your stones, you may need to excavate out a few extra inches of soil to make room. We wanted the stones to be flush with the remaining grass.

Prepping for the flagstone patio.

Step 3: Create a Base For the Stone Patio

Crusher run tamped and topped with an inch of sand is truly ideal if you have the resources, but in this case, we just had some leftover sand from the previously built patio. We hoped that the weight of the stones was enough to anchor each one in place. If you were building a patio with smaller pavers, a sand layer alone will not be enough to prevent waving and shifting over time.

Make sure your sand is graded away from any foundation walls.

Laying sand underlayment and adjusting the grading.

Step 4: Lay Flagstones in Place

Laying a simple patio in a day might be easier if you’re working with premade pavers guaranteed to fit together without question, but irregular natural flagstones are more challenging. As you’re puzzling your pieces together, always start by placing the stones that you know will get the most foot traffic. Work to ensure that they are properly spaced, even, level, and your top stone picks.

As you fill in the rest of the stones, you’ll have to use a sledgehammer or a cut-off machine to get your stones to the sizes you need. (I use a STIHL TSA 230 in this post published years later, which is, incidentally, also about cutting flagstone.)

Installing the first row of flagstones, the main walkway from the deck to the garage.

Step 5: Add Sand to the Cracks of the Flagstone Patio

You’ll notice in the next picture that at some point while positioning stones, Pete went rogue and cut away more grass to introduce a soft curve to the patio design. Once the stones are puzzled and level, sloping just enough to guarantee water runoff, use a broom to fill sand into the cracks. Polymeric sand is great, but as a warning, in wider gaps like these, it is sure to crack over time. While it definitely does help cut down on weeds that grow between the cracks, in many of our various flagstone installations it has crumbled rapidly as stones shift and settle.

Spreading the sand between flagstones.

Happy dog, happy patio.

Finishing the DIY flagstone patio.

Soft sand between 1" gaps in the flagstone. Not polymeric!

Finished flagstone patio.

A couple of notes on this construction:

  • We did not use crusher run beneath this patio. Rationale: We’ve both lived with patios and pathways created using only sand underlayment that do not flex/bend/break/warp dramatically, and are optimistic that this one will be a-OK too. The stones are a lot heavier than simple bricks and pavers, after all. While we had a lot of extra sand, we were fresh out of the crusher. And even though we know it’s not “the way” to do it right, we wanted to save ourselves $50 in stone and $50 in delivery charges and see how this worked. Live and learn and sometimes experiment to save money.
  • There’s no polymeric sand either. We used normal sand in the cracks. We may just wait and see how the stones flex/bend/break/warp after a season of freezing and thawing. We also kind of like the idea of having grass or moss between the stones in this part of the yard, but mostly didn’t want to put polymeric between stones that were likely to shift a little bit over time.
  • Its curved edge was a nice finishing touch, rather than making the new patio a rigid square/rectangle. The shape actually now mirrors nicely with our round patio.
  • We still have a LOT of stones left over. More to come on how we’re going to use those babies. When you order flagstones, be prepared to use them forever.

Honestly, what an awesome backyard transformation this whole flagstone undertaking has been.

Finished flagstone patio, and a howling dog.

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Backyard  / DIY  / Outdoor Living

Emily
I'm a home improvement enthusiast, living a very merry DIY lifestyle. I've been a freelancer writer for 10+ years and you can find my work on popular home and garden sites, like HGTV.com. Follow me on facebook and instagram, or drop me a note.

17 Comments


Michelle
August 21, 2012 at 2:59 pm
Reply

Looks awesome, Pete & Emily. Staining cabinet doors is totally legit labor btw.



    Emily
    August 21, 2012 at 10:11 pm

    Thanks Michelle :) Wait until you see the cabinet update in tomorrow’s post. It’s been project I’ve been working through every single day.

Elisa
August 22, 2012 at 11:17 am
Reply

Can’t believe you did this in one day. Pete, you are a man’s man. Looks awesome.



Marylou
August 22, 2012 at 11:44 pm
Reply

Can’t wait to see the final cabinet project…in person I hope sometime too….flagstone looks great….your Cody is so funny with his picture perfect howling!



Lillie J. Hopkins
July 28, 2013 at 4:35 am
Reply

It’s awesome indeed! What a transformation! Putting flagstones was a great idea and i’m totally impressed with how you guys did it for just a single day. It must have been fun and tiring at the same time but the results are really great. I’m excited to see the final cabinet project!



    Emily
    July 29, 2013 at 9:30 pm

    Thanks for the comment, Lillie. If you’d like to see the final cabinets, here is a link: http://www.merrypad.com/beforeafter/#kitchen

Bonnie R. Stamey
August 15, 2013 at 1:56 am
Reply

Wow! Perfect! I’m impressed! You did a great job there and to think you did it by yourselves in just 12 hours? Amazing! It turned out really well. It was a brilliant idea to install flagstones on the pathway. Oh and by the way, the cabinets were amazing!



    Emily
    August 15, 2013 at 12:04 pm

    Thanks Bonnie!

RB
April 29, 2014 at 11:04 am
Reply

Hi Emily – My husband and I are planning to do a small flagstone patio. I’ve been doing some research and came across your great blog. Really appreciated your posts about planning and executing the two small patios in your yard. I wonder – now that it’s be a couple of years, do you find that either of the mothods you guys used is holding up/staying in place much better than the other? I’d love to just use a few inches of sand and avoid dealing with the crusher and polymeric sand. We’re looking at an approx 10×4 area, between the stairs to our small deck and where we have the grill sitting in the yard. It’s shady and doesn’t grow grass very well, so I get muddy feet every time I go in and out to the grill. Thanks a lot, appreciate any guidance you have. Happy to have stumbled upon your blog!



    Emily
    April 30, 2014 at 9:44 am

    Hey RB! Exciting project! The round patio that we did with the crusher and polymeric still looks as good as the day we finished it. No issues with shifting over the last few winters, no weeds coming up through the cracks, if we were to do this project again, that’s the way we would go for a permanent installation. However, the smaller patio we did here in this post with just the sand is actually holding up really well too. There is a little more tendency for the stones to shift or feel a little bit bouncy (although, face it, they each weigh 100+ lbs, there’s not a TON of movement), but what bothers me the most is that the weeds do pop up pretty regularly through the cracks and are a pain to remove. I’m constantly trying to sweep little tree helicopters from between them. I can’t use the blower on the surface as easily because it will dislocate the sand that is in between the cracks. It works, and it is holding up well, so for a grill area it might be totally fine for you, but if you want it to be a nice, permanent space where you can also put a few chairs and not have to think too much about upkeep, the crusher and polymeric sand is worth it in my book. I hope this helps you, and good luck on your project! <3 flagstone.

    RB
    April 30, 2014 at 10:32 am

    That’s super helpful, thanks so much. Crusher and polymeric it is!

Haris
April 30, 2014 at 10:34 am
Reply

I tried something similar recently on my yard. Thanks for posting. It was a lot of help, altough I prefered concrete for the patio.

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-install-asymmetrical-stone-tiles-in-you-bac/

That because the stones were not as heavy and they needed to be steady. Also I put concrete between the gaps!



Dana
April 5, 2020 at 11:49 am
Reply

Hi, I came across your post while researching flagstone patios and I love what you guys have done! I was curious where you purchased the stones? I haven’t found anywhere with large stones like you have used.
Thanks!



    Emily
    April 6, 2020 at 8:40 am

    Hey Dana, thanks for the nice comment. Check stoneyards in your area. The New York and Pennsylvania-area quarry stones will likely look different than stones sourced in other areas of the country, but those who stock landscaping materials in your area will be better able to help you learn more about the options.

Chloe Loh
April 12, 2020 at 8:37 pm
Reply

Hi Emily! Can you let me know where you got these flagstones from?



    Emily
    April 20, 2020 at 10:13 am

    A local stone yard! Inventory likely varies a lot based on geography.

Home smiths
October 5, 2020 at 7:29 am
Reply

That’s super helpful, thanks so mucht’s awesome indeed!



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