Flagstone Patio

Phase 2 of our deck area involved laying a flagstone patio around the deck and out to the fire pit. We figured laying stones can't be that hard, and also this type of work is expensive to hire out, so we watched a few youtube videos, bought 2 pallets of flagstone second hand, and got digging! The digging wasn't too bad. We once again managed to convince my parents to come out and supply some free labour. Wheelbarrowing the dirt over to the growing pile that Jacob affectionately dubbed "Mt Korclair" was the bottle neck in our operation. With all of that I estimate that the digging approximately 500 square feet took about 8 hours with 3 people working most of that time.

Next, we graded everything the way we wanted; away from the house and garage, and level around the deck. Then we brought in the crushed gravel. We got this delivered from our local stone yard. It cost almost as much for delivery as it did for the stone, but I figured it saved us a lot of extra time and effort. Once we leveled the gravel 3-4 inches deep, we topped off the gap with 1-2 inches of stone dust. This part took longer than I expected - probably another 4-6 hours. Next step was to add the stone. This took far and away the most time. Trying to configure the stones in a way that minimized gaps took a lot of rearranging. In addition, the stones are really heavy so we would get tired after an hour or so. We took our time, doing a little each night after work and putting in a little more work on the weekends until we were satisfied. Again, we are pleased with the (almost) final project. We still need to add polymeric sand to the gaps in the spring, but you can get a sense of the final product. Can't wait to get some stairs on that deck!