Heres a shot of a patio and hut tub we installed this spring. I just installed the lighting the other day and decided to wet done the patio and snap a few quick shots.
I also just figured out how to resize my pictures so I can post them here.
We simply use a jumping jack to compact along the perimeter, a little base of pea gravel, then drystack the flagstone. I always try to use wider stone along the perimeter for stability, although most guys just use 4" strip.
The patio stone is also drystacked on a layer of roadbase and pea gravel.
This particular patio has seen snow, frost, torrential rain, and intense heat and is still standing strong.
Like I said though stone, I've been building these since I arrived in CO four years ago and have gone back to look at some of our work; still in good shape. The guy I worked four for about the past three years has been building them like this for a good 10-15 years +.
It just seems like there's a slip plane there between the top stone of the wall and the flagstone on top of it. I'm wondering if I were standing on the patio and were to boot an edge piece to try to push it off the patio, would I succeed?
Maybe a better question is - how heavy are those flagstone pieces?
Dry stack is gonna shift, no matter how heavy the edge stone or complete the compaction, until aggregate, dirt, roots, or plants fill the voids...or the clients launch themselves into the yard.
Can go out on my own three year old fon du lac patio right now, and rock the 300#/8" thick croppers to the beat of Robert Randolph and the Family Band to prove it.
Anyway, it's an absolutely beautiful patio tfld ...
...and I'm sure somebody here at GTX can explain to us how to keep those edges rock solid for near eternity
Sure, after a couple years there is some minor settling to be expected, but like I said, minor.
Sure, drystack WILL always shift, but thats the beauty of this style patio. Even after years of harsh weather, freezing and thawing, the patio still looks good.
The stones are very heavy. Eache of those pieces on top are aprox. 2" thick by around 3-4' around. You would definitely have a hard time kicking one of those edge stones loose, especially after a season or two of settling. The way the flagstone is cut also helps interlock it like pavers. To make a long story short you couldn't kick a stone off the edge.
VC, occasionally we've ghost mortared the outer edges, but mainly for stability. We're definitely not the only ones building this style patio in the area. I think we're pretty good, but some guys have this down to a complete science!
This was actually my first patio on my own. It was all chisel cut, no saws.
This one took us about one week, from the start of excavation to clean up. Its close to 300 square feet.
The previou red patio took us, about 3 guys, 4-5days start to finish and is about 275 square feet.
I have completed red flag patios with two demo saws, and two men with no riser stone in about 20 hours. That was really fast!
That happened last year when I was actually doing side work on the weekends while working for another guy. We had to queeze it in. It came out really nice too, but it was pretty level grade, and there was no need for riser or much excavation.
tfld,
I don't cut the stone I use in my patios, which of course makes for larger joints, but can create some neat effects using the natural curves of the stone.
Anyway, can you describe the tools you use to chisel cut the stone, and what the procedure involves?
And hey, all the pix/work looks great. Is everyone in Boulder as good as you? If they're not, I predict great success soon!
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Nice work!
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