FLAGSTONE WALKWAYS

Michael Holigan: A great way to enhance the value of your home and make the backyard look terrific is with flagstone. Today we're going to show you a project that you can do yourself where you can build sidewalks, patios and decks. The color and density of flagstone vary from region to region. Light tan colors are found in sandstone, darker bluer shades in limestone. Prices vary too. From $130 to $200 a ton. Gene Freeman (214-358-5296) is joining us today and Gene is a landscape contractor and has done hundreds of these projects, and Gene, can we do this ourselves?

Gene Freeman: You sure can Michael. The process is basically a very simple process. The actual labor will be excavating the area, determining the size of the patio, coming back in, getting your materials delivered to site, excavating the area in the shape and design you want to use the patio. We put down at least a four inch thick concrete sub-base for stability and then on top of that we come back in with a quick mortar set that we can work with on top of that and float set out the flagstones to give it a nice even finish. The stones are different thickness'. They're not a continual product, like a brick or a paver might be, but that's part of the beauty of the flagstone, and also the craftsmanship that goes in to it, using a leveling, pitching it to the correct grade. As big of a jigsaw puzzle as it looks, Michael, it doesn't come piece by piece, kind of fit together from the quarry. We have to do a lot of work to get it this way. The craftsmanship is what really makes, ultimately, how nice the patio or walkway will look. Takes about three hundred feet per day, is what our application rate is. Generally we have three man crews working.

M.H.: Gene, how long do you normally wait before you put in the mortar?

G.F.: Generally we let it set for 24 hours to get good and hard, then we come back in, and we'll come back in and grout the joints, if you will. Just pack those in there. It's a pretty easy process.

M.H.: Once you rake back the final part of it with your sponge and everything, how do you get rid of the last of the mortar that's still on the stone?

G.F.: We'll come back and do a process called acid washing and that really gets all the milky, cloudy mortar or the concrete substance off of the stone and brings out the richness of the stone itself.

M.H.: Makes the color really pop.

G.F.: It really does.

M.H.: Is this something that most homeowners can actually do?

G.F.: It is. Just at different levels of quality of the craftsmanship and experience. For instance, someone that has a little bit more time and is more meticulous, will get a nicer effect, but it's a process that's pretty simple and can be done by anybody.

Episode 29 1996 - 97 Season

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