[ArtZander]

I am starting a project shortly that is made up of a walking path and a sitting area. The material she (the wife) has selected is “Blue Stone”. The walking path is going to be made up of pieces that are randomly shaped; total length about 30 feet and 3 to 4 feet wide. She also likes the look of the “Cracked Ice” design I saw in a posting on this website. I am not planning on cementing/mortaring the walking path.

The sitting area will be made up pieces that have been cut and squared up; 2 sizes, 18X18 and 18X24.

At this point in time I am intending to build the walking path in the following steps:

• Dig down about 12 inches.
• Put down 4 inches of packed gravel.
• Install a “soldier course” of 8 inch pavers around the parameter of the walking path on top of the 4 inches of packed gravel.
• Put down 6 inches of packed gravel inside the “soldier course”.
• Put down 2 inches of limestone “fines”.
• Put down the “Blue Stone” with the edges cut to fit for the “Cracked Ice” effect.

I am thinking about doing the “soldier course” in order to avoid the packed gravel from “drifting” outward and having the “Blue Stone” become unstable.

The sitting area will be built the same way except for the “soldier course”.

I guess my question is: Am I over engineering the walking path with the “soldier course”?


Thanks for any comments.

[Natural]

yes, no need for the soldier

Shoot for your compacted gravel base and approx 1"+/- of stonedust. The edges you can just pack in with a little extra gravel tapering down and then finish with loam if that is what's bordering the walk

[TrickyDick]

and six inches of gravel is plenty. some people would do four.

[TerraSerenity]

I agree on the base 4-6 compacted. I like to us Geotextile between sub base and base, I also like to us the 2 inch stone dust (or Blue stone dust - not all areas have this) at least when your working with irregular blue stone ranging from 2 inch to 3 inch thick. This makes it easier to ads or removal of the stone dust to get each stone level- I also prefer to us flexible or straight paver edges. The crazy think is I have ask this same question to two well known Master Craftsman here in the USA. I got two different answers. So I have concluded after see walks set in earth which still look like the day they had been put in 20 some years ago.

That if I'm building it, I don't want to come back. I want it to standing the test of time. Therefor adding a bit of my ICPI.org mixed in to all my dry stack. So sounds like you have it pretty much down. Great luck. Hey where is this (“Cracked Ice” effect.) I have not seen that - sounds wild!

[ArtZander]

I saw the term on a different post; it is where the edges are cut straight with each piece having over 4 sides, each a different length. The number of sides follows the shape of the stone. Each piece is fitted tight with minimal gap between each piece. The finished effect looks like "Cracked Ice". I'll look for the thread and post another reply.