How to Lay an Easy DIY Flagstone Patio

Sharing all our tips & tricks for how to lay a Fabulous & easy DIY Flagstone Patio yourself on a budget fast !

We are so close to being done with this patio project, I can hardly believe it!

Last week, I shared how we created our DIY brick patio & today I am sharing our DIY Flagstone patio. 

This Pennsylvania bluestone or DIY Flagstone patio was so much easier & quicker to install than our reclaimed brick patio was & if I had to pick favorites this patio would be it!

Easy DIY Flagstone Patio

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Stone Patio Walkway Before

Before we laid the Pennsylvania bluestone or flagstone this flagstone patio walkway was an uneven, weed covered, hot tub blocking mess. 

Once the hot tub was moved (you can read about that here) the walkway off our family room felt so much bigger! 

We knew we wanted to keep this walkway open to improve the traffic flow & keep this DIY flagstone patio area feeling open and airy.

Here’s a quick picture of what this patio looked like when we started…

Why we Chose to Lay a DIY Flagstone Patio

3 Reasons we decided to use the bluestone/ flagstone for three reasons. 

ONE – We were not sure we had enough brick to finish this walkway. 

TWO – Laying the brick was EXHAUSTING & took FOREVER.   

THREE – We liked the idea that the flagstone has less gaps for weeds to grow & is heavier so the stone hopefully create a stable walkway outside of our doors.

Supplies & Tools Needed to Lay a DIY Flagstone Patio

flagstone or Pennsylvania bluestone

wheel barrel

shovel

crushed stone or grit

sand

tamper

pea gravel

Instructions for How to Lay a DIY Flagstone Patio

Taking out the Brick from the Previous Patio

After pulling up the old brick we had to dig out a lot of the dirt in order for the patio to be the right level coming out of our family room doors. 

Digging & Leveling out the Dirt

Once the ground was leveled & at the right depth we added landscape fabric on top of the dirt.

Adding Crushed Stone & Grit

We wheel barreled in a lot of grit to level & stabilize the ground under where the patio was to go. 

Once there was a few inches of poured grit we tamped it down.

Lay the Flagstone

Then we started laying the flagstone. 

We are fortunate that the Bluestone was already here off of the patio by our kitchen.  (HERE)

Once the grit was tamped & level we could start laying the flagstone. 

How to Move the Heavy Flagstone

We used Jason car to drive the heavy stones from one side of our property to the other. 

Our kids & Moose thought it was so fun to be off-roading in our car & were always ready to hop in the back for each trip.

We washed the flagstone off with our power washer. 

The DIY flagstone patio was laid one row at a time in just a few hours (which is the best part)!

We were very lucky that we had enough bluestone to lay the patio without needing to cut any pieces of stone.

Adding Pea Gravel in Between the Flagstone

Once the stone was leveled we added pea gravel stone between the gaps.

I couldn’t be happier to how this DIY flagstone patio turned out.

I think it ties in nicely with our DIY brick patio.

We finished our backyard sunken patio…

Backyard Patio Reveal (HERE)

*to start from the beginning of our backyard patio plan check it out HERE*

For our backyard patio we moved our hot tub (HERE), Built a Wood Retaining Wall (HERE), Built a DIY Brick Patio (HERE), Landscaped around the Patio (HERE) & Built a Wooden Arbor (HERE).

I hope this inspires you & answers all your questions about how to lay a DIY Flagstone Patio!!!

by Tara Lehman

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