A Backyard Evolution or.. How to do a flagstone patio.. and some other stuff…
When we moved into our house, I had my eye on the backyard. Molly has told me in the past that she gets to take care of the interior and I can have the backyard. Now, she’s not as excited about some of my proposals as others… for example, I’m not allowed to put in a fire pit. I guess that’s probably good though, because there’s nowhere that far away from our house… so I don’t want to start the house on fire.
Anyway, about a year ago, we began the evolution of the backyard. It began with planters.
This is the only “before” picture I really have of this area of the yard. Couple of things to notice… the fence on the left is falling down, the planters are in pieces and there’s not much grass. There’s just a lot of dirt and weeds.
Anyway, we got the planters done:
That’s the garden toward the end of the summer. Notice the weeds and lack of grass in this area.
Up next was fixing the nasty fence:
Then, it was the retaining wall..
Before..
After…
Notice again… the lack of grass.. and the extra dirt I brought out when building the wall.
Now on to the beef of the post.. and if you found us from Google because Molly made me say “How to build a flag stone patio” in the title, this is what you’re looking for..
Anyway, this is the before:
The first thing I did was measure the yard to check the square footage of the place. Then we went to the Stone and Soil yard. (They’re a big thing around here in these parts.) The guy there helped me figure out how much of everything we needed. Basically, what you need for this is decomposed granite and your choice of flagstone.
Our flagstone was an ashy color with rose/pink areas. Very nice.
The first step is to put down a layer of decomposed granite. Depending on where you live, you’ll need a deeper layer of granite. It doesn’t freeze here, so we didn’t need it that thick. Basically 2-3 inches deep. If we had to go deeper, we would’ve dug some of the top layer of soil off.
Looks better already! We also used a stamper to go through and compact the granite for a solid foundation.
We put some metal edging at the end of the yard where the water flows. Otherwise, the rock and the granite would slowly wash away.
Then comes the fun part, beginning with the edges, start laying out the stone. Use a rubber mallet, extra decomposed granite, and a level for this first border area to get the stones to lay flat.
Best part about that though is not only do we have a nice new patio, but our gas meter is shiny and new as well. (We had a leak in the meter and one underground. It was minor, but we probably wouldn’t have smelled it if we weren’t out there working in that area of the yard.)
Now that the patio is down, you then throw decomposed granite on top of the rocks and start sweeping. The goal here is to get it in between the rocks. Just sweep and sweep until all the cracks are filled in.
Decomposed granite is nice because it will eventually harden when it dries out. It’s not concrete hard, but it’ll hold the stones in place.
There you have it!! The final step that I will do (not done yet) is to spread some concrete powder on the cracks. Just make sure you get the concrete without pebbles. It’s just the dust and then you spray it with light water and that will help solidify the decomposed granite even further.
Now, the side-by-side:
And the best part is my parents got me a small metal fire pit with a screen on top. That will go in the front there of the patio and we’ll enjoy some backyard fires.
Anyway, about a year ago, we began the evolution of the backyard. It began with planters.
This is the only “before” picture I really have of this area of the yard. Couple of things to notice… the fence on the left is falling down, the planters are in pieces and there’s not much grass. There’s just a lot of dirt and weeds.
Anyway, we got the planters done:
That’s the garden toward the end of the summer. Notice the weeds and lack of grass in this area.
Up next was fixing the nasty fence:
Then, it was the retaining wall..
Before..
After…
Notice again… the lack of grass.. and the extra dirt I brought out when building the wall.
Now on to the beef of the post.. and if you found us from Google because Molly made me say “How to build a flag stone patio” in the title, this is what you’re looking for..
Anyway, this is the before:
The first thing I did was measure the yard to check the square footage of the place. Then we went to the Stone and Soil yard. (They’re a big thing around here in these parts.) The guy there helped me figure out how much of everything we needed. Basically, what you need for this is decomposed granite and your choice of flagstone.
Our flagstone was an ashy color with rose/pink areas. Very nice.
The first step is to put down a layer of decomposed granite. Depending on where you live, you’ll need a deeper layer of granite. It doesn’t freeze here, so we didn’t need it that thick. Basically 2-3 inches deep. If we had to go deeper, we would’ve dug some of the top layer of soil off.
Looks better already! We also used a stamper to go through and compact the granite for a solid foundation.
We put some metal edging at the end of the yard where the water flows. Otherwise, the rock and the granite would slowly wash away.
Then comes the fun part, beginning with the edges, start laying out the stone. Use a rubber mallet, extra decomposed granite, and a level for this first border area to get the stones to lay flat.
(Bad picture alert.)
From there, you start laying the stones out. Leveling them with the decomposed granite as you go. The trick here is to consider two things. The first one is how the stone sits next to the other stones. You want to make sure they’re even so as to not create a tripping hazard. The second consideration is the flow of the water. Make sure you angle any slope away from the house and in a direction away from the center of the patio. The last thing you want is a puddle of water next to your foundation and a puddle of water sitting in the middle of the patio.
Then just keep laying out the rock. Then force your wife to come lay out the rock.
She really liked me right about then. I think I heard her mutter, “Stupid backyard” a couple times.
The next step you can skip, but if your gas meter is getting old and you smell natural gas, then you call the gas company. They send out guys who then have to rip up the patio you just got done putting down.
Now that the patio is down, you then throw decomposed granite on top of the rocks and start sweeping. The goal here is to get it in between the rocks. Just sweep and sweep until all the cracks are filled in.
Decomposed granite is nice because it will eventually harden when it dries out. It’s not concrete hard, but it’ll hold the stones in place.
There you have it!! The final step that I will do (not done yet) is to spread some concrete powder on the cracks. Just make sure you get the concrete without pebbles. It’s just the dust and then you spray it with light water and that will help solidify the decomposed granite even further.
Now, the side-by-side:
And the best part is my parents got me a small metal fire pit with a screen on top. That will go in the front there of the patio and we’ll enjoy some backyard fires.
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