How to Lay a Stone Patio

By: Charles Wardell, This Old House magazine

Shopping List

Supplies You Will Need

1. LEATHER GLOVES

2. MASON'S TWINE
for establishing reference points between stakes

3. GOGGLES

4. DUST MASK

5. CARBIDE-TIPPED AWL
for marking stone

6. EAR PROTECTION

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Tools List
Tools You Will Need
- Steel rake,
  for spreading stone dust
- Push broom,
  for sweeping stone dust
- Spade shovel,
  for digging and spreading
- Square shovel,
  for measuring and mixing
- Wheelbarrow,
  for mixing wet material
- Builder's level,
  for determining pitch
- Leveling rod,
  for measuring pitch with builder's level
- Angle grinder,
  for cutting curves in stone
- Tape measure
- Circle cutter,
  for scribing stone
- 2- and 4-foot levels,
  for leveling stones
- Pointing trowel,
  for adding cement mix and packing in joints
- Hand rake,
  for leveling wet material
- Hand tamper,
  for tamping base along walls and siding
- Plate compactor,
  rent, if needed, to compact base
- Circular saw with diamond blade,
  for cutting stone
- Rubber mallet,
  for tapping stone into cement mix
- Hand sledge,
  for driving stakes and snapping stone
- Skid-steer loader,
  rent, if needed, to clear and dig base
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Product Gallery
Product selections for this project
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Introduction
Overview
Steps:
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9

3 to 4 days to set a 12x16-foot patio
$4 to $8 per square foot

Difficulty: Hard What do you expect from a job that requires you to mix cement, lug heavy stones and crawl around on your knees all day?

With all the beauty of a well-manicured lawn but without the maintenance, a stone patio makes an elegant addition to any home. A variety of flat stones will do—smooth squares of slate or rough flags of limestone—as long as they can withstand foot traffic and the local climate. For most of his patios, This Old House landscaping contractor Roger Cook favors 1 ½- to 2-inch-thick bluestone, a tough sandstone quarried in New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont.

"Setting stone is similar to laying bathroom tile," Roger says. You prepare a base, level each piece, and fill in the joints. But while tile can be set with one hand, laying a 100-pound stone slab takes brawn and is best handled by two people. "You only want to move them once," Roger says, "so take your time to set each stone straight with uniform 3/8-inch gaps between them."
—Shannon Brady Marin