Bluestone walkway: How to Build a Stone Walkway (DIY Project Summary)

How to Build a Stone Walkway (DIY Project Summary)

Photo: sansoucystone.com

There’s a lot to recommend a bluestone walkway. The natural colors and textures look great in almost any setting. Maintenance is low. And unlike concrete pavers or brick, bluestone pavers do not require edge constraints.

Another pro: Shifting is rarely a problem. If root growth or a frost heave does shift a bluestone paver, repositioning it is relatively easy. Need to fix a broken water main or run an electric line? No problem. Just pry and temporarily lift the pavers out of the way.

Yet another benefit is that, in contrast to concrete, a bluestone walkway will not prevent water from reaching the roots of prized trees or shrubs.

Perhaps best of all is the fact that installing the stones is not difficult. You do need a strong back and a helper, but otherwise it’s a project in which you can expect professional results even if you’ve never before done masonry.

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+ Tools & Materials

• Protective eyewear
• Earplugs
• Dust mask
• Work gloves
• Knee pads
• Wheelbarrow
• See full list «
• Level
• Tape measure
• Spade
• Shovel
• Steel garden rake
• Rubber mallet
• Masonry wet saw
• Tamper

Step 1: Mark the area

Stake twine along the edges of your planned walkway. Adjust the twine height along one edge, so it’s at grade level. Then excavate the walkway area to a depth of six inches (always check for location of electric lines and irrigation pipes before proceeding). Run a plate compacter over the excavated path if the soil structure is loose.

Step 2: Create a foundation

Fill the path area with stone dust and level with a garden rake. (There’s no need to worry about pitching the walk for drainage, as this will happen at the joints). Next, compact the crushed stone to a height about two inches below grade.

Compaction is important to ensure that your stones do not shift. A vibrating plate tamp compactor will speed the job. Because this tool is quite heavy, you’ll need a hand truck or a helper to move it to and from the site.

Make at least three passes over the entire base of stone dust or if you prefer, use a manual tamper. Choosing the latter adds hours to most jobs, but you’ll save the hefty tool-rental fee.

Note: Plate compactors often come with a reservoir for water that allows the tool operator to release a fine stream during operation. If the unit you rent does not have this feature, soak the stone dust thoroughly after compacting it. This will help remove any remaining air pockets. Allow the bed to drain thoroughly before compacting it once again.

Step 3: Laying the stone

Lay the first stone so that its edge aligns with the twine guideline. The first stone is critical; all other stones will be placed in reference to it. If laying stones in a pattern, begin with a full stone. And if you want a full stone at the beginning and end of your walkway, measure to ensure that your plan will allow them to be of equal size. If not, make the necessary cuts in the stones or adjust the spacing in your pattern. Don’t want to bother with the math? Temporarily lay the stones in place to determine if you’ll need to resize the full stones planned for both ends of the path.

Step 4: Cutting stones

Making straight cuts is not difficult. Rent a gasoline-powered masonry saw for this purpose. Don’t forget to hook up the saw to a hose; otherwise, you will raise clouds of stone dust and burn up your diamond-grit blade.

When all stones are laid, sweep stone dust, sand, or small pebbles into the joints. Keep some of the same material on hand to refilling the joints after a week or two, once they have settled.

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Make Your Own Bluestone Walkway

Nearly 400 million years ago, during the Devonian geologic period, there was a mountain range scientists call the Acadians. It was thrust up where New York City now stands and then slowly washed away by ancient, nameless rivers. The eroded material settled in a vast area called the Catskill Delta, and as the eons passed, the deposits were compressed and formed bluestone, a prized material quarried in New York and Pennsylvania. The stone is split into gigantic sheets in thicknesses that vary roughly from 1 to 6 in., and is cut to sizes that range from 1 sq. ft. to the dimensions of a door 4 ft. wide x 6 ft. long. At a cost of $4 to $7 per square foot, bluestone is not cheap, but it’s as close to being maintenance-free and permanent as a product can be. Many bluestone-paved sidewalks installed more than a century ago are still in service, and you’ve probably walked over them if you’ve ever visited Northeastern cities such as Philadelphia, New York and Boston. It’s an ideal material to build a walk like the one we show here.

But there’s more to recommend this material than just longevity. If a root or frost heave shifts a bluestone paver, repositioning it is relatively easy. Need to fix a broken water main or run an electric line? No problem. Pry up the pieces and put them back when you’re finished. Building with bluestone is not difficult either. You can expect professional results even if you’ve never done masonry before. All this accounts for the surge in interest about the material.

“It’s popular stuff, no doubt about it,” says Matt McClain, a bluestone builder and the owner of Endless Mountain Fieldstone Supply in tiny Tunkhannock, Pa., in the heart of the state’s bluestone belt. “I’ve had people e-mail me from Holland asking about it.”

Designing Your Walkway

To build a typical walkway, begin by drawing a 4-ft.-wide path on graph paper, making each grid square equal 6 in. Include the edge of the house near the walk and any other immovable objects, such as driveways, lamp posts and trees. Then make copies and try sketching various path layouts and patterns.

“Try to accommodate the natural footpath, which is usually the shortest distance,” advises Wendy Lindquist, a landscape designer in Bridgeport, Conn. “Don’t fight kids or dogs.” However, she adds, if the shortest distance isn’t attractive, use dense landscaping elements, such as a boxwood hedge, that will make taking shortcuts difficult.

Building With Stone

Stake twine along the edges of your planned walk, pull it tight and adjust the twine height to grade level. Excavate the walk to a depth of 6 in. [1]. Check the depth periodically to be sure you are not digging too deep [2]. Next, make several passes over the soil using a rental vibrating plate compactor ($60 to $80 per day).

Four inches of stone dust, which you can find at your bluestone supplier, will underlay the stones to provide a secure, durable foundation. Fill the path area with about a third of the dust, dumped in small piles at regularly spaced intervals [3].

Rake the material into an even layer that’s just over 1 in. thick [4]. You can use a garden rake to spread the dust, but the wider head of a landscaping rake produces a smoother surface.

Now compact the material using the vibrating plate compactor. With our compactor’s water tank full, the machine weighed about 250 pounds. Check the water tank regularly and fill it as needed [5]. This type of compactor sprinkles water as it works, lubricating the dust particles to ensure a tightly compacted and stable base that is unlikely to settle. If your machine doesn’t have a water tank, have a helper sprinkle water ahead of the compactor using a garden hose with a spray nozzle.

Spread the next layer of stone dust, compact it and repeat the process with a third layer of stone dust. To ensure maximum compaction, let the water drain from each layer before making the next pass of the machine. Note that the stone dust may compact so readily that you are able to build the substrate in two layers instead of three. It depends on the specifics of the stone dust and the size and weight of the compactor. It may pay to spread and compact a test layer.

With the substrate complete, lay the first stone at one end of the walk. Align its edge with the twine guideline. The position of this first piece is critical as all others will be placed in relation to it. In most cases, you will be laying a pattern, so begin with a full stone. Adjust its position by tipping it up on one edge and spreading a little stone dust under it. Smooth the dust with a brick trowel [6].

Check the position of each piece with a level [7].

If the paver is a bit high, bump it down with a few blows of a rubber mallet [8]. Lay the next piece so there is about a 3/4-in. gap between it and the previous piece.

You’ll have to cut stones as you work to maintain an attractive pattern. Mark the cutline on each stone using a steel rafter square and a white grease pencil or a crayon [9].

You can cut bluestone with a circular saw and a masonry blade, but this raises clouds of dust. It’s better to rent a power cutter and a diamond-grit blade ($100 to $150 per day, including the fee for the blade). Our machine was equipped with a garden hose fitting and a water tank. Keeping the blade wet eliminates airborne dust. Lay each stone on some scrap lumber and make several passes along the cutline [10]. When all the stones are laid, sweep stone dust into the openings between them. Keep some material on hand for refilling the openings once they have settled.

Bluestone’s dense, textured surface is durable and slip-resistant. It’s an ideal paving material.

Natural stone walkways, DIY garden walkways

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PAVING STONE
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NATURAL STONE PATHWAYS

If flat stone slabs do not lie close to each other, they form continuous paving , and at a distance of ten to twenty centimeters from each other, such natural stone paths can be called step-by-step. The distance between the stones in the step path is sown with grass, creeping ground cover plants or larger flowers, since the base under the path will be made directly under the stone slab, and the earthen space between them will remain untouched. These tracks are usually secondary. You often move along the main paths (entrance and driveway areas, patio areas, barbecue areas) and, of course, they must have a continuous surface and base is good, as they are under heavy load. Step-by-step stone paths will be a great solution for getting to remote flower beds, to a vegetable garden, a greenhouse, or just to go through a wide lawn, everyone will have their own options. A step-by-step path fits optimally into the landscape design of the site, does not require large physical and material costs, is easy to make, and, if desired, is transferred to another place. It can be either part of a thoughtful design or an independent design unit. In rainy weather or when snow melts in spring, water will not accumulate on the step-by-step path from natural slabs. The material for such a track can serve as stones remaining from the paving of main paths or retaining walls . It should be understood that the size of the stone for the step-by-step path should be no less, but preferably larger than your foot. The larger the stone, the more comfortable it is to walk. The thickness of the plate must be at least 3 centimeters. The distance between the slabs depends on the format (size) of the flagstone and should be comparable to the step size (the step length of an adult is about 60-65 centimeters), that is, the distance between the centers of natural slabs will be about 60 centimeters. There is a convenient and, it seems to us, the most successful way to mark a step-by-step path. Determine the path, the direction of the track. If the path is supposed to be straight, just pull the rope between two pegs. Then walk along the stretched rope, marking each of your steps, put a mark (peg, stick) approximately in the middle of the track. Arrange in the marked places cooked flat natural slabs , walk over them again, if it is inconvenient to walk somewhere, move the stones. Stones are picked up and laid out. Outline (cut through) a contour around each stone with a sharp shovel, remove the stone to the side, carefully remove the soil to a depth of 15-20 centimeters, trying not to damage the already made lawn (if any), we fill the dug trough with crushed stone, gravel, sand in turn, tamping down the layers. We lay our natural stone on the last compacted layer of sand. Keep the top of the stone below the lawn sod to prevent problems with the mower. Fill the gaps between the stone and the lawn with excavated sod or earth, sowing it with grass. You also make the rest of the stones, making sure that they are in the same plane. With a winding step-by-step path, you pave the way with a thick rope or an ordinary hose. Everything else is done the same way. As can be seen from the above, a path in the country house (garden plot) of stone can be made with your own hands. Natural stone flat slabs choose and buy in our offices. See Contacts Natural stones are suitable for paving their stone walkway: sandstone (gray-green, red, tan), quartzite , some slates. There is a choice, limited only by your imagination.

All information posted on the site is not a public offer and is for reference only.

Stone paths at the dacha in Bratsk: 524-products: free shipping, discount-68% [link]

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