Building Your Own Patio With Natural Stone

TOOLS

You may not use all of these, but it is best to be prepared with a shovel, rake, rubber mallet, hammer, chisel, level, work gloves, 2x4s, straightedge, weed control fabric and sand. Bring along any other tools you like to use!

SELECT ENOUGH STONE 

Be sure to grab enough to cover slightly more area than your final project size. A variety of sizes will be necessary.

PREPARE THE AREA
Determine the layout of your project and remove any sod, loose topsoil or organic matter.

WEED BARRIER

Cover the compacted soil with filter fabric or weed control fabric. This will keep weeds from growing between the flagstones and it will help prevent the flagstones from settling.

SAND

Spread about 2” of sand over the weed fabric. Use a straight wood stud or other straight edge to level and smooth the sand. Moisten the sand with a fine spray until it is firm.

PLACING THE STONES

Lay the flagstone out on the moist sand. Move pieces to locations where the natural shapes make fairly close joints with the neighboring pieces.

A little extra time spent on the stone layout (similar to putting a jigsaw puzzle together) will assure a professional looking job and will save a lot of time that would otherwise have to be spent in shaping the edges.

HAMMER & CHISEL

If necessary, the pieces of stone can be shaped to fit a specific area. Using a chisel and hammer carefully chisel a notch on the line where you wish the stone to break. Always wear gloves and safety glasses when cutting stone. Notch only a small depth at a time. Work back and forth along that line until you feel the notch is deep enough.

Lay the notched stone over an edge, so the edge is lined up on the notch. Firmly tap with a hammer on the portion to be removed while holding the main portion with your other hand. Tap back and forth until the stone breaks. Take your time! If you get impatient and hit too hard the stone won’t break on the notch.

When you are satisfied with the layout, place a 2" x 4" on each side of the work area. Use another 2" x 4" as a straightedge that goes over the stones and rest on the 2" x 4"’s at the sides. Shim the height of the 2" x 4"’s at the sides until the straightedge is just above the top of the thickest piece of the flagstone.

LEVEL & GRADE

Carefully remove one stone at a time and place sand under each until it is the same height as the thickest stone, and almost touches the 2" x 4" that is used as a straightedge.

Use a ​rubber hammer to tap each stone firmly into place or to level the stones. When you are satisfied that the flagstones are all the same elevation you can fill the small gaps between the stones with additional sand or with topsoil if you want grass or moss to grow between the stones.

TRY ANY OF THESE GREAT STYLES & COLORS: