How to Build a Flagstone Sidewalk
Need a nice sidewalk to walk from the back door to your garden area? Building a flagstone walkway will add beauty and charm to your backyard summer landscape. Here is how to build a flagstone sidewalk. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- wood edgers
- flagstone
- string or yarn
- ground stakes
- measuring tape
- galvanized screws
- landscape tarp
- rubber mallet
- chisel
- stone cutter
- sand
- masonary blade
Instructions
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Decide where you would like to create your flagstone walkway. Measure the area for length of the sidewalk as well as width. The width should be wide enough for two people.
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Next, outline the area with string and ground stakes and begin digging out the sidewalk 6 inches deep.
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Now, install 2x6 wood edgers and place 12inch stakes on the outside of the wood edgers spacing about 12 inches a part. Attach the edgers to the stakes with galvanized screws.
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Next place landscape tarp over the sidewalk to prevent weeds and grass to grow through the flagstone sidewalk.
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Next, smooth sand over the landscape tarp.
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At one end of the sidewalk, begin placing the flagstones down to see where you want them to go according to color and size. Leave a 3/8 gap in between stones. Don't press them firmly in the sand just yet because you may not like how it looks or they do not fit. If some of the pieces do not fit well, then score them with a circular saw and masonary blade set to 1/8 inch depth. Use a masonary chisel and hammer to hit the stone along the scored line until it breaks. However, you can avoid cutting alot of stones by turning the stones around and playing with them to make them fit. Also purchase small, medium and large stones.
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Once you have cut the stones to size, begin laying them down and tapping them with a rubber mallet. You may have to level sand underneath by adding or deleting sand under the flagstones to make sure the flagstones are leveled.
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Finally, place sand in between the gaps of the flagstone. Then spray the sidewalk with water lightly to settle the sand. Don't walk on it for a few days. Now you have a beautiful flagstone sidewalk to your garden.
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Resources
- Photo Credit fotosearch.com
