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3 Hour Flagstone Patio

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When I first started doodling an outline for my yard makeover, I drew a huge portion of the backyard as flagstone.  But I just couldn’t afford to do the whole thing. Instead I opted for a smaller flagstone patio.
How to install a flagstone patio in under 3 hours - Smart Girls DIY
We’ve been really happy with the gravel patio we put in, plus the gravel worked well as both a walkway and a patio. But I like the gravel even better now that it has the flagstone patio. It definitely gives the table a proper place to sit, not just in the sea of gravel.
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How to install diy gravel decomposed granite

Fast forward 3 years and I finally decided to buy a pallet of flagstone.  My first “patio” went pretty smoothly, so I decided to try some more.  There is an area in the backyard where I have a table and chairs and it can be kind of annoying when the chairs dig into the gravel.  So I decided to put in another flagstone patio.  I laid out the flagstone where I wanted it, with hubby helping with the heavy lifting, on a Wednesday and I installed it on Sunday.

This is what it looked like on Sunday at 1pm.
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And it was all finished by 4pm!
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I started with the piece under the red bowling pin. And worked my way from one adjoining piece to another.
tutorial how to can I
Even though my husband and 11-year-old had to leave (2 LAX games), I had plenty of help.  From the pajama squad that is.
tutorial how to can I You can do it with two preschoolers

How I installed a simple flagstone patio:

It’s a good thing I decided to take step-by-step pictures, because I had not even started the blog at this point.

One: Decide which piece of flagstone to work on.  (I am working on the one in the middle.)

step-by-step directions
Two: Pick up the piece you’re working on so you can dig out underneath it.
easy step-by-step directions
I put all the gravel I dug out in this bucket.
Then I dumped the gravel into another that needed it.
You’ll be left with a hole the shape of the flagstone.
Three: Put it back down to see how it fits.  Is it at the right height?
Four: Pick the piece up again.  Remove more if necessary.  (I didn’t need to)
Five: Add stone dust beneath the flagstone and smooth it out.  (I love stone dust.  I packs together so tight it’s like cement.)
Six: Replace the flagstone and check for level.
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Seven: You have to check for level with all the surrounding pieces (at least the ones that have been set already).
Keep checking.
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Eight: Adjust where needed.  I add some of the bigger gravel pieces this time too.
And replace.
Nine: Give a little press and wiggle.
Ten: Fill under all the edges with more stone dust.  If you find you are pushing a lot in, pick the piece up again and find all your low spots, fill those in and check for level again.
This was the part the pajama team was good at.
Eleven: Now fill in the areas between the flagstone. (I used a mixture of stone dust and gravel.  The dust will help hold the gravel in place.)
I only filled in the cracks where this piece adjoins a piece I’ve already finished.  Don’t fill in near the pieces you still have to do!
And there you go.  One more piece done.
Most of them left to go.  🙁
After you’ve set all the pieces, you need to spray down the stone dust (or sand or dirt, whatever you’re using).  This will make it settle so you can see where you need to add more.  It also makes my flagstone look purdy!!
4 year old helper

And there you go.  It was finished before 4pm.  Hubs and my assistant weren’t even back from the LAX games yet!

gravel stone dust diy how to install

Let’s see, so the patio was finished in 3 hours, with help from a 4 and 5-year-old, who decided they wanted me to set up the kiddie pool half way through, with no one else around to help.  So what I’m trying to say is… YOU CAN DO THIS TOO!  

Be sure to check out more of my outdoor projects!

Reader Interactions

Comments

    • Thanks so much!! It is a great feeling when I sit down and admire the yard, knowing I did it all myself is very rewarding. Thanks for stopping by!

      Reply

  5. Great post, good info and coolest of all…done while the hubbby was out. I hope you don’t mind that I’ve reposted it at my gallery, “The Blog Post Office”. It’s like a reverse linky. Please let me know if you are not happy with that, I can always remove it for you. But I’m really hoping you won‘t mind as all the posts will be a gallery of wonderful items.

    Thank you so much, Victoria Lavender

    Reply

    • You give the best comments!!! I am so glad to hear that my post was helpful to you. And easy to follow. I find myself doing things with my left hand (even though I’m right handed) just so I can take step-by-step pictures with my right hand. Please come back and visit again!!! Thanks for the kind words!

      Reply

  8. Our back yard is all rocks…previous owners didn’t want the hassle of grass etc., so we were thinking of doing something like this…now I’ll definitely being doing it! Got a fire pit back there??

    Reply

    • Hi Mimi!! We’ve got a combo of gravel, wood chips and grass in different areas. Yes, fire pit is just to the left of this. My brother and his wife were over yesterday and we ate at this table. They don’t make it over often and had never eaten out there and they really loved it. Said they’d eat right there every night. We’ve got a couple zip lines out in the woods too. 🙂

      Reply

  9. Great project that goes fast. Been there done that many years ago, so a word for preparation. You must have something to keep the gravel from going out into the yard. You have lovely retaining walls that work for that, but on an open lawn, edging pavers or heavy duty landscape ties are necessary.

    Reply

  10. I love the look of flagstone. The patio you have here looks great, really natural. It can be tough to put in a patio yourself, but if you do it right, and use flagstone, it can really look great.

    Reply

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