How To Lay Flagstone In 5 Simple Steps – Gardener Corner

How To Lay Flagstone In 5 Simple Steps

Introduction

Nowadays, people tend to use more and more flagstone in decorative boulders, landscape features and wall stone since it provides an attractive natural look. Also, thanks to its non-slip surface and irregular shapes, it’s also widely used to pave in the walkway, stairs and patios.

Flagstone comes in different types, sizes and color, which makes it difficult to choose the suitable types. But installing flagstone is also not easy at all. If you don’t know how to lay flagstone in the best way, try to read this post.

Types of Flagstone

Some common types of flagstone are sandstone, bluestone and quartzite. Besides, there is a wide range of other flagstones which are found in specific areas.

Sandstone

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This flagstone is regarded as a sedimentary rock which is formed by various layers of sand. These layers adhere together thanks to the cement material which can be iron oxides, calcite, clay minerals or silica. The color of the flagstone varies from dark red, buckskin gold to pink.

In summer, its surface still stays cooler despite the high temperature. However, this kind can be damaged in freeze and cold weather because it’s quite porous and able to absorb water.

Bluestone

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Bluestone belongs to a kind of blue-gray bluestone; however, it’s far denser. The main components of bluestone are mica, feldspar and sand. Its color comes in a variety of colors, such as blue, gray and purple. In order to prevent its color from resisting salt water or chlorine, it’s necessary to seal it carefully.

Quartzite

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It’s a form of metamorphic rock with a non-slip, smooth and glossy surface. Thanks to heat and pressure, sandstone is transformed into quartzite. It has many colors, including green, gray, blue, gold and silver. This makes the pavement more and more lively.

This kind of flagstone is resistant to tear and wear. Plus, it can stand up to rain, cold weather and even the harsh chemicals. It’s also more resistant to stain than sandstone. However, because it’s hard, cutting it into many shapes for laying may cause many troubles.

Limestone

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Like sandstone, limestone is also a sedimentary rock, but it’s composed of calcite. It has many colors including black, yellow, beige and gray. It’s weather resistant and long-lasting as well as has the natural split surface. It’s suitable for humid climate areas. However, it can be damaged by the reaction of acid.

How to Lay Flagstone Steps By Steps

Because of the irregular shape of the flagstone, the process of installing flagstone is not simple. If you want to install dry-laid flagstone, let’s follow these following steps:

Step 1: Prepare for Project

The thing that you need to do first is to determine what type of flagstone is suitable for the area that will be covered depending on your pavement’s purpose. The flagstone comes in various shapes, colors and sizes. You can choose whatever color you like to create a colorful pavement. If you want to install a garden path, it’s compatible to choose smaller and more irregular flagstone.

However, you also need to consider about the thickness of the flagstone. To prevent it from cracking, we had better pick kind with more than 1 inch thick. Its size will be decided based on the large of the area. From that, you can calculate how much stone that we need. We should purchase 10 percent more than the number we anticipate.

Step 2: Excavate the Marked Area

In this step, you should limit the area by using a marking paint and then dig out everything in the marked area. Let’s remove all the roots, sod and glass by a shovel, lawn mower, or even a garden tiller. The thickness of the flagstone decides how deep you need to dig.

Step 3: Create the Foundation

The foundation is suggested composing 3 layers: landscape fabric, gravel and sand. A landscape fabric layer helps to set the foundation apart from the soil and prevent all kinds of the glass from growing. A gravel layer is optional, but it’s truly necessary for those living in wet or rainy areas as it makes water run off more easily. And then pouring sand over the foundation.

Step 4: Install the Flagstone

This process is similar to the puzzle game because of the flagstone’s different shape. Therefore, it requires your high level of patience. You need to level them to another so as to fit them together. We recommend you to lay bigger flagstones on the perimeters so as to create the stability.

If the stone is too large to fit or doesn’t have the wanted shape, you can cut it with a chisel or rock hammer. Noticing that the space between one and another is the same, and making sure that the pavement is extremely smooth. After that, let’s take a rubber mallet to tamp each stone down.

Step 5: Fill the Joints

In this final step, you need to choose what type of joints that you need to bind the flagstones together, such as pea gravel, gator dust and decomposed granite. These joints are good-looking but require more maintenance. In order to fill the joints, just put the joints in the space between two flagstones and then sweep it.

The above part including 5 basic steps shows you how to lay flagstone in the best way. For more detail, you can watch the below video.

Conclusion

This post illustrates some types of flagstone and the way to install it. Therefore, we believe that after reading this post, you can surely know how to lay flagstone. If you have an intention to build a walkway in your garden, don’t hesitate anymore.

When the installation is finished, you can grow various kinds of flowers around the pavement such as lavender, obscure rose, jasmine and bird of paradise to make your garden more wonderful. Hope you will get your desired pavement!

Trent Rhode
 

Trent Rhode is a freelance writer, perpetual student of ecology and life, and ecological garden designer and landscaper based in Ontario, Canada. He is founder of the permaculture design company Living Landscapes Eco-Logical Design. Trent lives on his off-grid rural homestead and farm with his partner and two dogs, where he runs a permaculture plant nursery and is currently setting up an ecological gardening education center and permaculture internship program.

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