Scroll down to the heading that says How to install stone dust in between your flagstones. In fact, Ive seen many hardscapes home owner installations, where natural dirt, I mean local soil, was used for the foundation. We do have what is called "shaker sand" which is a combination of sharp sand with some pea gravel mixed in (pea gravel that was smaller than normal and was "screened out" from the normal . My paver patio, installed by a previous owner, had no base at all. Its looks like a flat matte color where there was poly sand and where no poly sand you see a beautiful high gloss high color finish.this is the best analogy I can think of. see if it works. Be sure to hose off and dont let muriatic acid sit long, as it can deteriorate the joint materialmuriatic acid eats cement. (a careful pass with the pressure washer shouldnt damage the stones. Most of my jobs are in Pennsylvania. Will this work to fill the cracks of should I attempt to find a finer material? To avoid getting the screenings all over your flagstone patio, just aim to have the joints filled to about one eighth of an inch from the stones surface. No one seems to be recommending DG or granite sand until you. Would you advise just sealing the mortar? Ahoy, but I do see one application for this gravel glue messas a back-top alternative. Otherwise, the DG gets everywhere. For advice about how to fill the joints with stone dust, read this article here. One questionwould mortar work better than poly sand? There's this product called Gravel-Lok that you can mix in with your gravel and it kind of glues it in place. You fill a wheel barrow full of gravel, add some glue, mix it up with a shovel, dump it into place and rake it out level. Stiffin it up a bit so it's not so loose. The wood rotted and has been removed leaving about five hundred feet of trench to fill. I have tried poly sand (with the correct amts of watering)but find that the sand forms a crust, other areas may be soft and mushy, and if I dig down it is not solid. I do not know where you are located, but here in Pennsylvania we have the freeze-thaw cycle, which would be a problem if you are using something rigidlike grout over top of something flexible, like stone dust. Well I understand that the stones may be too small. Year and years later, no problembut then I have seen hardscapes built by other contractors, that used white gravel for the foundationand seen jobs like that fail. Should I just wait until it dries out? Its an 8 long stone, so now its sitting 2 high. Hi Devin Thanks for all your comments. In Colorado, I believe they are sold as crusher fines. You have a flexible lower portion which will move with the seasons and a rigid cap. Then the additional couple of truckloads of gravel, actual 3/4 minus, will bring the driveway up to 4 or 5 inches thick. Our monsoon rains also might wash it out. Also, no to weed barrier? I have a dry laid flagstone patio in the backyard, and am exploring some joint filler options. I a, not sure what or how the original owners did the flagstone patio. Cool, Im glad that worked out from youand Ill use those two flagstone photos, for next time someone asks a similar question. Then gently give it a few taps with a mallet to seat it into place. It consists of 3/4 gravel mixed with the same screenings that I was speaking of in the article. I appreciate your guidance. I dont use landscape cloth beneath a patio. My solution (short of removing it) was to dig the pea gravel into the soil by about 1 spade deep. My guess is that this is a type of decomposed granite or screenings? I have good sandy loam soil. I hope for your sake, and the contractors sake too, that such a fate can be avoided. Pour the concrete into the mold and level it out with a trowel. Others seem to crack every 4-5 years (near roof leader downspouts and a few other areas that take longer to dry out due to adjoining vegetation). Good luck with your flagstone project! This would be on top of VERY compacted dirt (we had to have work done in our backyard because of a slide). That number will improve, over the months, as stones settle in. Seee this post here on sand cement or gravel. Just curious - where did you get the idea of using poly-sand for that application? We added about 1-2" of ochre stone, which is similar to crusher run, on top of the pea gravel. Whether you're looking for a step-by-step guide on fixing an appliance or the cost of installing a fence, we've here to help. This, I believe, answers your need for a walkway where most of the gravel stays in place, yet is still permeable. They laid it out very beautifully and was pleased with their work. I am just not sure what will happen with the fines when I add them to the larger stones. Theres other ways to deal with weeds, but this article is getting long. Scrub the top of the flagstones using diluted muriatic acid, with a shop book. The 10-in. Maybe half of those patios also have limestone screenings as the leveling agenthalf an inch to inch and a half limestone screenings beneath the flagstones as well as an inch or so on either side of the stones (the joints)never once have I seen a freeze-thaw issue, or any cracked flagstones on any of these jobs. Im so glad I found your webpage. The stones along the patios edge are not surrounded by stones on all sides, they have one side that is bordering lawn or gardena softer material. Wondering if you might have a quick second to let me know your thoughts on a recent dilemma. "I have learned so much thanks to the searchable articles on the FHB website. I noticed almost the same effect/thing on the dirt in the garden. I am located near Blakeslee and want to get quality screenings for my flagstone project. Also do you use stone enhancer to intensify the color of the flag stone? The end result is a firm walking surface which is also permeable, allowing water to pass through. What do you recommend for replacing the grout? but no sand. Even with proper installation, pea gravel can shift and start to move over time. Devin, What a great article. com should give you all the help you need in this regard. Anyway. After reading your article, Im confused.. Is polymeric dust the same thing as screening? Either fulling the joints with soil and seeding, or, during the excavtion Ill carefully remove the sodthe grass itself plus 2 of soil and roots along with it. Im glad we didnt go with polymeric sand! Patio is sloped but not very much. The only problem with dust is the stairs on the outside (front) edge of the stairs. Many thanks! My process is described in this article: how to fill flagstone joints. Seriously, how much rain did you get? I have had a flagstone patio installed over 10 years ago. I have thought of using the polymeric sand to keep out both as much as possible. Then I need to study how it behaves, over years. Or you could look into planting some sort of ground cover like a creeping thyme or something. Here is a link that might be useful: Klingstone Paths. We suspected that the sand had to be replace or refill/reapply, we just didnt know what was causing what we were seeing. What if we just remove some and place screenings on top of sand? YES, its supposed to be fun and tiringyoure doing it right! But I would toss it together with stone dust, mixing the two, and consider it an acceptable joint material, so lang as its at least half stone dust/screenings and so long as its mixed fairly well. Additionally, the stabilization method will depend on what your final product is going to be. If its built upon concrete, then it should be repaired with mortar. . Sure, you could do that. I want to re-fill the joints of my existing dry laid bluestone patio. Do you have any ideas of what the cause could be? Theres some things I dont know here.how long ago were the mortar joints done? Ive created a 15 x 15 flagstone patio using 1.5-2.5 mostly flat, some irregular stones. Sand? Theres household cleaners out there, they sell them at the big box stores, probably grocery stores too maybe idk, but its a citrus extract and you have to be careful when cleaning with it because it dissolves some types of plastic. But the real complaint that I have against this gravel glue epoxy whatever were talking about, the real complaint is that it just does not look good. Wow thanks for those great articles! Id remove the polymeric sand and replace with decomposed granite, stone dust, 1/4 minus/whatever they call it in your area. But maybe some minor irregularity of the pitch and/or grading around the patio caused water to heavily move through one area. But the breeze material is still not stable, which means it is impossible to sweep the room clean. I have heard many hardscapers claim that its impossible to remove the polymeric sand haze. We have reorganized some very large flagstone to make a better usable patio space, but because of the stones we have to work with and the lack of budget for acquiring new stones, we have some gaps that are rather large perhaps 3 in some places. I will check out your website further. Other methods. Yes, I travel for work. 2" joints may be too big for polymeric (read the bag/box). It is apparently about 12 yrs old. I think I also have another issue that I wan to ask about. Anywayssince you just used local soil, and built it yourself rather than hiring a mason, we can pretty much just say Well, it may not be perfect, but its got heart!. Or sand, if need be. If the patio is dry laid, on a sand/gravel or stone dust foundation..then theres should not be anything portland cement based in the joints. (P.S. 3. The decomposed granite in the second link also looks right, but it will probably cost more. What did I do wrong? And, if so, is there a way to do this so you dont see the border material for the finished project? The local product I found looks identical to yours. Naturally it failed. The look is great, however, it is too soft for their liking. The result might be messy, but would probably be a good base for something else (brick or stone?). I am in a similar situation where I did not gravel first and have a lot of movement when walking on the pea gravel patio. But that was 8 deep of crushed gravel, not just a 1/2 joint. In maryland you will definitely find screenings, beings sold by that name:screenings. I realize it would be better to remove everything but Im not up to doing that. Might be able to spread it around and then water it with a sprinkler to activate its stickiness. I recently laid down a flagstone patio in sand and used sand to fill the joints. I dont know if it would do any harm though, but it might. The industry standard for flagstone installation these days, is still basically to use the methods, tools and materials used in concrete paver installation and adapt them to natural flagstone. Yes, it stops the joint material, sand/stone dust in place, but it hardens up, then cracks up, then you got these broken up pieces of mortar. I like this idea but they are quite an expensive solution to fix this $32 load of gravel 2. This will stop the problem of decomposed granite clumping. Void forms beneath flagstone.joint settles in and fills that voidthen you top off joint. Offering consultation services has really made things easier on meI used to get emails, phone calls and even text messages from random people looking for free advice. Hi Devin. Do I start with stone dust and then add a top layer of topsoil? Screenings are heavier than regular sand, thus theywill not wash out quite so easily. Ive never seen any ratio of cement to stone dust/sand that works. The location is climate type 9b, Northern California. But Ive seen em fail down south, and out south west, too. One of the benefits of a gravel driveway is that it is relatively inexpensive to install, typically around $1-$3 per square foot. Screenings are crushed stone. I might get a bag and experiment with a small section, maybe at the start of the driveway. The joints are too wide. they were sagging, and needed to be re-done, so why not try to re-purpose them into a patio for our growing family. I was told to lay my flag stone like a puzzle with a 3/4 in space in between, and use a mallet to get the flagstones to be level with one an other. Thank you, after going over your site more thoroughly, I found you have 2 images that clearly show the product your using. Just sitting on a little sand and a lot of clay. Very informative articles. Fill joints with screening. 903 landscape supply is the place: https://www.903inc.com/. I was wondering I have put all my random flagstone down on the screening. Based on the photos, it seems they didnt remove all the mortar, more a partial job? see if it works. Its an old articlebut its been updated recently. I used the natural dirt to lay and level and pressed the flagstone cracks with the same.
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