1.  Mark out the area for your path.  You may use a garden hose, string or the most preferred is to use marking paint.  After marking one side of the path, use a tape measure to establish the other side.  Determine your width and mark every several feet and connect the lines when finished.  A standard walkway is 3 feet.  After you have determined your length and width use this gravel calculator  to estimate how much gravel you’ll need.

2.  Excavate area.  You can hand dig the area or rent a sod cutter.   Sod cutter rentals will vary depending on time but will average $35 for 2 hours up to $120 for 24 hours.  The sod cutter is a fast and easy way to remove the ground especially if you have a lengthy walkway or hard ground.

3.  Install edging after cutting out the area.  You can use steel or aluminum edging, wood, concrete or natural stone.  This will help keep the gravel from spilling out into other areas.  Keep a minimum of 1/2 inch, preferably 1 inch above the gravel. 

4.  Spread gravel over entire area and rake smooth.  Compact the gravel a plate compactor or by hand with a hand tamp.  A plate compactor rental will range from $40 for 4 hours to $60 for 24 hours.

2.  Once you have given your patio an outline, now comes the excavation.  Depending on the type of flagstone you’ve chosen, the depth of your excavation may change slightly.  Flagstone generally ranges from 1 inch to 4 inches thick.    Excavate 1 inch deeper than the thickness of your stone, this will allow for plenty of base or  ”bedding material”  under the stones to help support your flagstone and prevent cracking.

3.  Preparing your base.   After you have your area excavated, it’s prefered to use stone dust as your bedding material or base material (you may also use crusher run).  Stay away from using sand as it has a tendency to migrate and your stone will begin to settle, teeter or crack.  Install about 1/2 inch of stone dust over the entire area and rake smooth. 

4.  Laying and Leveling your stones.  As you set each stone use additional stone dust to level.  Make sure that you are slightly above the old grade.  Occasionally it is helpful to use a rubber mallet and lightly tap the stones to help set them.  Do not space stones more than 4 inches apart. 

5.  Install your edging.  After you have laid your patio, you will want to keep the stones “locked in” so they move around over time.  A great product that most of your landscape professionals use is called Snap Edge.  Inexpensive, easy to use and you don’t see it when your done.  Each 8 foot strip is firmly placed along the outer edges of the stones and spiked into place.  Afterwards all the edging can be easy covered with dirt, grass, sod, stone, mulch, etc.

5.  Fill around stones.  They’re several different materials that are commonly used.  Most landscape contractors and a growing number of do-it-yourselfer’s are using Polymeric Stone Dust.  It comes in a 60 lbs bag in either tan or gray.  Fill the joints in between the stones, sweep the stones off and wet the joints down with your hose.   After a day it cures, no weeds, no insects and no wash outs!  It will flex with minor settling and will heal itself it cracks.  You may also use the loose stone or dirt to fill the joints.  Dirt is good if you are going to grow grass or some other type of bedding plant.  Loose stone is somewhat cheaper than Polymeric Stone Dust, but has a tendency to migrate to other areas, rolling around on top of the flagstone or find it’s way into the house.

2.   Once you have chosen the type of wallstone needed for the project, set aside the larger flat pieces first.  These stones will be used for the base and the cap stones.  Make different piles according size and thickness.  Use the largest stones -known as bond stones at the ends of the wall.  It is a good idea to have a small amount of stone dust to help your first course of stones. 

3.  As you lay the stones make sure that they are firm and do rock front to back or side to side.  If they do, use a little of the stone dust to stop the rocking. 

4.  Lay the front and back of the wall together as you work along the length of the wall.  Place bond stones every 5′ or so to help with strength and stability of the wall.  Keep the flat side of the stones facing outward.  Any voids in the wall can be filled with smaller stones.  You can measure down from your stringline to keep you wall level.

5.  Once you have finished your initial course, repeat step 4, but make sure to stagger the joints.  In places where there is 1 stone below, you might want to use 2 or 3 stones on top.  Where there are 2 or 3 stones below, it would be good to use 1 large stone on top.   Every 5′ use a stone that spans the width of the wall to ensure stability.  Try to use stones with square edges on the ends on the wall.  Continue to check for level.

6.  If you encounter a stone that does not stack firmly or has excessive jagged edges you can you a mason hammer and/or chisel to remove the unwanted parts of the stone.

7.  As you continue to build your wall, use smaller stones to help prop the inside stones and fill in the gaps.  Continue to check for level and make sure that the wall slopes inward slightly as you continue upward.  

8.  Once you reached the desired height, you can either mortar or dry lay your cap stones.  If you have a high traffic area it might be best to mortar the cap stones.  Spread approximately 1.5-2″ of mortar over the top of the wall and firmly press the cap into place.  Remove any excess mortar and enjoy your new wall!

2.  Compact the soil in the bottom of the trench, preferably with a motorized compactor.  Use 6″ of crusher run and compact throughly. 

3.  Begin placing your initial course on the compacted base.  Some wall system will require you to “knock off” a lip from the backside of the block so that it will lay flush on the base.  It is handy to have a small amount of stone dust for minor leveling and level in both directions using a carpenter’s level.  Make sure your blocks are touching each other and backfill with #57 stone along the way, this will allow for proper drainage.

4.  After the initial course has been layed, stagger the next course so that the joints are not the same as the course below.  Make sure that each block is pulled forward completely so that it does not move.  Remember to backfill as you install each course.

5.  Install a drain tile behind the wall as close to the grade level to allow for drainage.  Daylight (opening) the drain through the wall in low areas or every 40-50′ and at the ends of the wall.  Continue to backfill with #57 stone and try to maintain 12″ of stone directly behind the wall all the way to the second to the last course.  It is not recommended to use topsoil or clay soils as backfill against the wall.

6.  Repeat steps 4,5,6 until you reach the desired height of your wall.  Compact the backfill every 6-8″.  Use topsoil for the last 4-8″ and compact.  No not compact any of the wall units.

7.  You may partial blocks throughout the project.  You can rent a block splitter or use a hammer and chisel or use a circular cut off saw.

2.  Make sure to have your utilities marked.  Call Miss Utility of whatever service you have.  It’s  a free service and it can save you alot of money, time and possibly your life.  Next you’ll want to start excavating the marked area.  The heavier the surface load, the deeper the base excavation.  You’re average homeowner walkway or patio should have a minimum of 4 inches of base material (crusher run), driveway should have 8-10″.  When excavating account for the following:  4 inches or more for your crusher run base, 1 inch for your bedding sand and 2 3/8 inches for the paver.  So at a minimum you will excavate 7 3/8″ down from your existing grade.  Make sure you have somewhere to relocate the soil you excavate. Once you’ve dug everything, compact the exposed base area.

3.  Now you’re going to use what is called geotextile.  It’s a fancy name for landscape fabric.  You’ll want to place this over your excavated area and then cover with your base aggregates.  Make sure to turn the cloth up the sides of the excavated area.  To determine how much base material (crusher run) and bedding sand (conrete sand), you’ll want to use this material calculator.  Cover the geotextile with the crusher run to the required depth and compact throughly.  It is best to use a motorized compactor or you can manually compact with a hand held tamper.  Set stakes at the corners and stringlines for final base grades and finished paver elevations.

4.  Make sure that your base is consistently level.  If not, it will reflect in your finished patio.  It needs to be close to perfect and any small inconsistencies will be accounted for once you install the bedding sand.  Next you’ll want to lay your screed rail on top of your compacted base.  Set them approximately 4′ apart.  Next dump a wheelbarrow of bedding sand over the rails.  Take your screed board and screed smooth for setting pavers to finished elevation. If you’re pavers will be touching another hard surface like a driveway or sidewalk, make it so that the paver height is 1/4″ higher than the existing surface.  This difference will equal out once the pavers have been tamped. 

5.  Slide your screed rails up or down the base and use a trowel to fill in the channels where the rails were.  Place pavers on the newly screeded sand bed.  If needed, use stringlines to keep pattern straight.  Set hand-tight joints, you will use what we call the ‘click and drop’ method.  Bring the paver firmly against the other so that it makes a clicking sound when they strike and then drop into place.  Do not hit the pavers into place.  Cut pavers in areas as needed to complete pattern.  I will explain different methods of cutting later.

6.  Set your plastic edging tight against all exposed paver edges and spike firmly every 12-16″ for walkways and 8-12″ for driveways.  Snap Edge is a great product to use, it’ not only affordable, but very easy to work with.  If your patio has curves in it, just cut some of the bands of the edging to create flexibility.  Edging works best if set on  the aggregate base and not the bedding sand.  Trim away the sand at the edge of the pavers and place the edging firmly against the pavers and drive your spikes in.

7.  Once you have all your pavers cut and locked in place with your edging, you’ll want to tamp your pavers to continue the interlocking process.  The best method is to use a motorized tamper.  You’ll want to make 3 to 4 passes over the pavers, starting from the outside, working the edges toward the inside.  Using a screwdriver you can replace any pavers that chip or crack in the process. 

8.  Now you’ll want to spread dry joint sand over the pavers and begin sweeping into the joints.  You can use standard concrete sand, but the growing trend is to use what is called polymeric sand.  It is a great product, and you dont have to worry about the sand washing away or ants tunnelling through it or weeds growing all over the place.  I would recommend Techni-Seal Polymeric Sand and you can get it in beige or granite colors.  After throughly sweeping the sand, use the motorized tamper one more time to get the joint sand to work it’s way down into the joints.  After you have finshed tamping, finish sweeping the remaining sand into the joints and sweep off the left over sand.  Learn more about the Techni Seal process, watch this 3 minute video to learn more about how to install polymeric joint sand:  http://www.techniseal.com/video/RGplus.wmv.  

9.  If you love how your pavers looked when they were wet or if you want to make them easier to clean, you diffently want to seal your pavers.  To preserve the original appearance, it is important to protect them.  After 60 days you may seal your pavers with several different products.  You can learn more about the different types of sealers at Techni-Seal.