Square stones, curved path?

September 1, 2007 2:29 PM

How best to layout a curved sandstone path using square and rectangular stones?

Hello -

I'm trying to layout a curved front path -- aproximately 3.5 feet wide and 30 feet long that curves like a J to the front door, over our existing lawn.

We have plenty of sandstone from a side patio. The sandstone is square and rectangular -- averaging about 2-3 square foot each.

My question is how best to use this existing sandstone to achieve an attractive curved dry set path. I have seen some paths in our neighborhood that use square stone but they seem to curve over a longer distance than hours -- and I assume the gaps between stones over a longer distance can allow for a sweeping bend w/out being too large. I'm not sure I can achieve this on a shorter path.

Are there any Web references, photos, guides you can suggest? Rules of thumb for laying out an attractive flagstone path? Should I consider breaking up the stones into irregular shapes to better accomodate a curved path? Can I combine the square stones and some broken stones and still achieve a polished/professional look? Can I have larger and irregular gaps in a dry set path, using square stones, so I can achieve the bend in a shorter distance -- and just fill those gaps with sand/crushed-stone? Will it look okay?

Thank you for any suggestions.

posted by pallen123 to home & garden (5 comments total)

This guy has some ideas. "How do you get accurate spacing for a stepping stone pathway? It's easy! You just need to get your bare feet wet and then walk across a dry piece of concrete or blacktop."
posted by hortense at 2:57 PM on September 1, 2007

Keep the slabs closer together than you think you need to. It's easy to overestimate your stride.

Grab 2 pieces of hosepipe, and lay them out in the rough shape you want. Then look at the layout from an upstairs window, and rearrange to suit. This is much easier with a helper and a laser pointer. ;D
posted by Solomon at 3:43 PM on September 1, 2007

Are you laying stepping stones or a solid(ish) path?

If you're making a (not stepping stones) path, then I think your idea of breaking them up into irregular shapes is a good one. Or at the very least, break them into pieces to fill the triangular spaces between the larger square stones. That might look pretty neat, actually.
posted by Shohn at 5:08 PM on September 1, 2007

I think the first two answerers have slightly misunderstood your intent.

You are wanting to have a path of stones that is more or less a solid surface (like this, or this), as opposed to stones that are spaced further apart so that each footstep lands on a stone (like this), correct?

If that is the case, I think that you should lay out as many full stones as you can fit into the path base, and cut just enough stones to fill in the curved areas, keeping the cut pieces as large as possible.

I have drawn a diagram of this installation type which you can see by clicking here.

Given the size of your slabs, I don't think that you will be able to achieve a very pleasing look by trying to make up the curve by leaving gaps and then filling them in. You will have some very large gaps on the outer edge of the curve.

The slabs shouldn't be that hard to cut, get a heavy chisel, hammer and some safety goggles and give it a try (just keep scoring all the sides/edges where you want to make you cut, and eventually given some tapping the piece should pop off.)

Good luck.
posted by davey_darling at 5:24 PM on September 1, 2007

Here is another way that is very similiar to davey_darling's solution, but you could use only straight cuts if you wanted.
posted by Monday at 1:52 PM on September 2, 2007