If you are among the many home owners who do not possess your very own walkway to your front door, then help is on the way. No doubt you have grown tired of having to beat the path across your own lawn. Likely you are sick to tears of having to weed around the gravel path which you are using as a makeshift pathway. The answer to your frustrations lies in putting in a flagstone walkway.
This will both beautify and lend functionality to any person’s landscape, and all the while, not require you to come out of pocket with much money. In working with stone as your medium, you are capable of having planting pockets, as well as gentle curves in the walkway itself. It will likely surprise many readers to learn that this is in fact an easy project. It does not need any particular skills or even any technical knowledge. All that is really required is a strong back. This article goes through the step by step directions necessary to lay your very own flagstone walkway, utilizing only a couple of basic garden tools, flagstones, and a little bit of sand.
Contents
Materials and Items Necessary for the Project:
– Sand
– Flagstones
– Water
– A Garden hose
– Edging
– A Tape Measure
– Safety Glasses
– Wooden Stakes
– Flour or Inverted Marking Paint
– String Level
– Masonry String
– Round Point Shovel
– A Two By Four Board
– A Metal Rake
– A Garden Spade
– A Rubber Mallet
– A Chisel
– A Carpenter’s Level
– A Broom
Planning the Flagstone Walkway Path
The first thing that you will have to do is to decide what your path’s width and shape will look like when you are finished. Laying out a straight path is easier, since all that is required of you is to put stake at both the ending and starting points on both sides of the path, then tie a line in between. Utilize flour, or alternatively an inverted marking paint, in order to transfer this line on over to the ground itself. Where a curving type of path is concerned, employ a snaking garden hose in order to establish the boundaries, then mark the edges similarly on the ground.
Staking Out the Path
Next, you need to stake out your path. To do this, drive in wooden stake around both sides of the path, at various different points. Measure well and mark out a place a quarter inch higher than the ground on all of the stakes in order to mark clearly the final height of the path. Then, tie masonry string around every stake at the level of that mark. Employ a line level to make certain that the string stays level.
Preparing the Flagstone Walkway Foundation
It is time to prepare your path’s foundation. First install edging. Next you will commence digging out and taking away soil and sod in between the strings. This must be done to a consistent depth of two and a half inches from the path’s base all the way to the string line. Rake the ground well to smooth it out. Tamp it flat. Then consistently spread around an inch and a half of sand over the whole area. To ensure that the sand spreads out to a smooth and even surface, drag the two by four board over the sand. Tamp it flat.
Laying the Flagstones on the Flagstone Walkway
On top of the well compacted up sand, put down your flagstones. You should utilize a carpenter’s level to make sure that you actually achieve a flat and level surface. Place the stones down as you might lay out a puzzle, permitting gaps of a half inch to a single inch between each stone for planting or sand. Put in or take out sand from underneath every stone as is needed in order to maintain the level. Secure every stone via covering them with the two by four board and tamping them down well using a rubber mallet for the task.
Finishing Up the Project of the Flagstone Walkway
Now you need to fill in all of the gaps between the stones. This is accomplished by sprinkling a liberal quantity of sand across the pathway itself, and then sweeping it into the cracks. Take the garden hose and spray water lighting onto the walkway. Keep putting down sand, sweeping it, and spraying it until all of the gaps have been filled in. To achieve a softer appearance, you might plant the gaps using either sod or another ground cover sufficient for areas of high traffic.
Additional Information:
This Old House: How to Lay a Flagstone Walkway Video
Essortment: Flaying Flagstone Walkways
