What Is Flagstone and How Do You Lay It Down?

Flagstone is a general term referring to any sedimentary rock that clears naturally into stepping stone shapes. Because of the large size and weight of flagstone, it does not require the extensive base preparation of an interlocking paver patio. In most cases, you can lay the stones directly on stable, well tamped soil, although a 2 inch bed of screened sand will make it easier to place and level stones of varying thickness. If your soil is very soft or unstable which means having severe frost you need to lay down a 2 to 4 inch layer of compatible gravel pub base material and compact it with a hand tamper.

Limestone, quartzite and slate are some of the most common rock types in the flagstone rock types in the flagstones for your patio or walkways, the flagstones should be at least 1 inch thick, but at 1 1/2 to 2 inch is better because flagstones are split and cleaved into more usable and manageable sizes, not cut, their shapes are slightly irregular, which contributes to their natural quality.

When you are laying out your stones for a patio or walkway it is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. As you are laying your stones you want to lay the stones in an eye-pleasing pattern, and you will want to fit them together good so you wont have to cut so many stones. Most of the time, the thickest stones are laid around the perimeter, which serves as a border, to help keep the thinner stones in place. Sometimes the largest stones are placed near the center of the patio and you can do this if you want to. When you are picking out your stones to use, it is best to use large and small stones and place them in a random pattern, with staggered joints. Most of the time, the larger stones are laid and leveled first, then the smaller stones are fitted in between the larger ones. This way you can be limit any cutting to the smaller stones.

Before you start laying your base materials, you can experiment with different patterns to make best use of the stones. When you are doing this you start at one corner or side, to figured out your pattern that you want. You do not need to dry-lay the entire walkway or patio, but you should at least play around with the stones to get a feel for how they will fit together. But if you do decide to dry-lay the entire project or walkway, you will need to keep the dry-lay intact, transplanting the stones one one at a time into the work site. Another way you can take a picture of the dry-lay and then you can use it as a reference for redoing the project in your work site. Also you need to keep the joints between the stones from 1/2 inch to not more than 1 1/2 inch wide.

Since flagstones weighs so much, it is a good thing to get plenty of help handling them.

When you are thinking about using flagstones to make a patio or walkways it is best to make a plan before you do the real thing.