How to Build a Flagstone Patio in 3 Days

The project started with hiring Heather's dad to haul all of the flagstone we found on his farm from the stone walls to our rented truck. We budgeted one pack of Little Debbie snack cakes for this.

We made sure to select more stone that we thought we'd need because I wasn't naive enough to think that every piece would fit perfectly. We loaded just under 3,000 pounds of flagstone.

Just as I did when harvesting stones for our garden border project, I managed to get stuck in mud again. Heather's dad pulled me out with his tractor but we went over-budget on snack cakes.

All our stone laid out in a pretty row. Our neighbors thought this was the extent of what we were building. If only.

With the tulip bulbs relocated (seen in the above photo) the soon-to-be patio area was ready for excavation.

With excavation underway our daughter was in charge of relocating worms to worm refugee camps scattered about our gardens.

The elusive 16-year old rarely captured in photographs is not only witnessed awake, but witnessed WORKING. We had relocated a tree so we could gain more space on the existing patio.

While excavating the "easy" patio expansion we uncovered two ginormous tree trunks that had to be sawed and removed with truck and chains.

She felt the scene was dangerous so she opted for a helmet, or, "hemmet" in 3y/o jargon.

Excavated and ready. See how easy that was? Oh, the orange cone isn't there to indicate that there is a gigantic hole in the ground. There was some odd protruding metal pole and we didn't want to yank it out for fear that it was connected to something important. Like, our house.

With the flagstone patio areas excavated, we had reached the point of no return. Not keen on sourcing our own crushed stone and course sand, we had 6 cubic yards of grit (roughly eleventy tons) dumped in our driveway. The tarp was used to prevent sand loss from rain and curious children.

That big pile of crushed stone and giant pile of course sand has to be hand-shoveled into the excavated areas. 2-3 days? Total? For the entire project? Excavation alone took that.

Rolling and stapling landscaping tarp to prevent weeds, bugs, and spelunkers was, by far, the easiest of tasks. Because I could sit while doing it.

With the landscaping paper in place, the transfer of stone begins. Only two wheelbarrow loads were completely dumped in our lawn by children who didn't adhere my warnings that they didn't have the balance or biceps to transport the stone. Plucking cinders from our grass added considerable time.

This photo represents five of the more than 50 loads of loose stone dumped in the giant hole to act as our base. All of this had to be tamped flat...twice.

This is what hand tamping looks like. What's shown is only one of roughly 34,000 full-force tamps.

See? Look how easy it was to hand-tamp all that rock...twice. Once after a 3-inch layer of stone and again after a 2-inch layer of stone. Fun!

One of the Pro's of using a hand tamper is that I could fire up our work lights and work until midnight. You can't do that with a machine in a neighborhood and live. It was now time to repeat the tamping process with the sand. More fun!

They say by the time you finish one DIY project, another one surfaces. Case in point: this was the result of me just opening the exterior door to our basement. The door completely ripped from its hinges. Probably the result of my overzealous hand tamping.

Sand is tamped and ready for stone!

The flagstone patio expansion area was filled and tamped as well.

This is what happens when you tell your 3-year old to not walk in the freshly tamped sand.

Always frame the patio first and work from the outside in. We chose the heavier stones with flat edges for the sides so that they doubled as both border and anchors.

Don't let the string fool you into thinking I totally know what I'm doing. I'm sure I used it wrong but I placed it at the same height as the bordering stones so that I could maintain level and grade away from the house. The four stones you see in the middle are where the legs of the picnic table will rest. We pre-measured to make sure the table would be level and supported.

As you get near the end, you'll be searching for specific shapes in the remaining stone to try and complete the patio. Unlike a typical jigsaw puzzle, this puzzle gets more and more difficult to assemble the closer you get to the end. Especially when stones are too tall or too thin to be level with surrounding stones. To make everything level we had to either dig out sand or add sand one stone at a time to make each one the same height. A process that took For. Ev. Er.

When nature lets you down, chisel out your own needed shapes.

That was easy. It's complete! Looks good enough to walk on.

The beautiful part about flagstone is that you don't have to worry about perfect seams and tight fits. The nature of the stone is irregular so it allows for some margin of error. And even the errors look fantastic. Here's a little sample of the gaps we felt we could live with.

Another view of the labor of love we loved to hate.

Picnic table installed and ready for BBQs. If you're in the area, stop in. You can marvel at the stonework while I fire up the grill. Those who ogle over the work get extra helpings.