Jim Becker
05-30-2005, 11:44 AM
It was ironic that Brian H was asking about laying flagstone today as that's been my Memorial Day Holiday Weekend project. There has been a very-hard-to-deal-with planting bed right behind the 250 year old portion of our home between the wall and a narrow walkway west to the driveway. (right outside my office window) A real pain in the tuckos to control and almost a hazard to "pedestrians". Well, it's gone, replaced with a widened flagstone walkway that serves to provide better navigation to walkers and also to insure any water is properly drained away from the house.
The area filled up is about 36" wide by 18' long, making for a 60" pathway terminated in a nice bluestone step up to the level of the driveway. The bluestone was the only "tread" that the stone dealer had in wide widths for, um...reasonable...ahm...cost. (not! ching...ching...) But it looks good and isn't going to move anywhere on it's own accord, either. The stone under the step and on the short wall to it's left in the pictures is off the property (from some old stone walls) and is the same limestone that the house is built from. This job wasn't particularly difficult, other than physical, although I should have left a little more gap between the initial stones I laid. In retrospect, I should have done a "dry fit" to get the exact spacing to match up the beginning and end of the 30" wide stones to the length of the inset drain. Next time...if there is one...
(14) 60-pound bags of mortar went into this job so far, with one or two remaining to grout the gaps between the stones as well as fill about a 3" area between the walk and the wall. (That will wait until next week, however...time to make some sawdust!) I may add a few more stones to the top of the short wall, too, to even it out, if I can find the "right ones" that are undoubtedly lurking somewhere along the 800' or so of old walls on the property.
Obligatory Pictures:
After cleaning out the vegetation and loose soil from the old bed, a layer of 3/4" crushed stone was installed and tamped after the drain was inlayed and hooked up. (I planned for this drain when I took the gutter drains underground several years ago)
The first stone gets laid
End of the day on Saturday just before the rains hit...'seriously underestimated the amount of mortar required so a trip to the 'depot to pick up more during the storm was effected
End of the day on Sunday with the entire walkway installed, the step seated in mortar and the small wall built
Detail of the step and small wall
The area filled up is about 36" wide by 18' long, making for a 60" pathway terminated in a nice bluestone step up to the level of the driveway. The bluestone was the only "tread" that the stone dealer had in wide widths for, um...reasonable...ahm...cost. (not! ching...ching...) But it looks good and isn't going to move anywhere on it's own accord, either. The stone under the step and on the short wall to it's left in the pictures is off the property (from some old stone walls) and is the same limestone that the house is built from. This job wasn't particularly difficult, other than physical, although I should have left a little more gap between the initial stones I laid. In retrospect, I should have done a "dry fit" to get the exact spacing to match up the beginning and end of the 30" wide stones to the length of the inset drain. Next time...if there is one...
(14) 60-pound bags of mortar went into this job so far, with one or two remaining to grout the gaps between the stones as well as fill about a 3" area between the walk and the wall. (That will wait until next week, however...time to make some sawdust!) I may add a few more stones to the top of the short wall, too, to even it out, if I can find the "right ones" that are undoubtedly lurking somewhere along the 800' or so of old walls on the property.
Obligatory Pictures:
After cleaning out the vegetation and loose soil from the old bed, a layer of 3/4" crushed stone was installed and tamped after the drain was inlayed and hooked up. (I planned for this drain when I took the gutter drains underground several years ago)
The first stone gets laid
End of the day on Saturday just before the rains hit...'seriously underestimated the amount of mortar required so a trip to the 'depot to pick up more during the storm was effected
End of the day on Sunday with the entire walkway installed, the step seated in mortar and the small wall built
Detail of the step and small wall