Decks, Patios, Porches and Docks - Stone Dust estimation

I'm asking here because the people that frequent this board are in my opinion the best!

I need to estimate how much stonedust I need for a new patio area I'm putting in. Is there a calculation that guesstimates how much is needed for say a 10'x12'x4" deep area? I have approximately 120 square feet and can basically go as deep as I want.

The local supplier has a 5 ton minimum delivered for $125, which sounds like a bargain compared to buying bags at the big box store. Of course he'll bring less for the same price if I need less.

Thanks!

MeffaDawg,

Thanks for the compliments on using this forum! Hopefully this will help you...if not contact your local lawn and garden/patio store for assistance.

http://www.luckstone.com/arch/diy/pg_2.php3#Estimate

http://www.martinlimestone.com/mli/stone/estimate.htm

Hope this helps!

Awesome Doug, thanks. The first page didn't tell how deep they were taking about but the second one allowed me to play around with the numbers.

Thanks again.

MeffaDawg,

You're very welcome! Glad it helped.

i just put in stonedust for my flagstone patio. The place where I bought my stonedust charged me $20 per ton, with a minimum of 3 tons for delivery.. and a flat delivery charge of $65 upto 20 tons.

The place where I bought it said 1 ton will cover a 10' x 10' area 2 inches deep compressed.

I bought 4 tons and it seems that thats about right to cover about 350 sq feet, 2 inches deep, plus some extra for dry packing the flagstone.

Having just gone through this whole process... and since you said you can go as deep as you want, I'd recommend you first fill in with gravel, then smooth/level the gravel so that you can have about 2 inches of stonedust and enough clearance for whatever you are laying on top of it.

Make sure you put landscaping fabric between the gravel and stonedust. This will allow the water to drain into the gravel, without washing the gravel through.

-sleepy floyd

Thanks for the info.

I ended up having 4 tons delivered. I dug out the area roughly 8" and shoveled it all in. My man-made flagstone is about 1.5".

I went with a paver from PaveStone that has 5 different shaped that form a rough 3'x3' area. The thing is the space between each piece is rather large compared to typical pavers. I was thinking about mixing dry mortar with some stonedust and sweeping the mixture in dry and then sprinkling with water to let it setup in place. I'd rather deal with some cracking in the grout lines than have everything dragging around the yard and into the pool.

With all the work I did over the weekend I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up taking everything out next spring and doing something else. I've seen some great looking jobs that were done with stamped concrete, really nice looking stuff.

let me know how it turns out, take some pictures if you can.. I' d be interested, cause I considered using the prefab shapes... but my wife wanted to use natural flagstone.. irregular shaped, irregular thickness. Some of the pieces are 4 feet long and 3 inches thick.. so they're really heavy to work with...

Talk about your joint thicknesses not being uniform and large.. If you're interested, I'll post a picture or a link...

I'm not sure I'd go with the stamped concrete.. i guess it looks okay.. its just not my style..

-sleepy floyd

MeffaDawg,

You may want to check on prices for stamped concrete...it's not cheap but it does look sharp. Flagstone application is at least easy to repair/replace and stamped concrete is definitely not!

Good Luck!

Yeah, you are right with respect to repairing flags down the road.

Talk about all over the place. I live in the city and have limited space in my yard. Anyway, I just started to utilize this space and I'm already thinking about putting a hot tub in that area next year. It's pretty much a dream at this point but the wheels are already spinning and I'm not even done with finishing the patio.

I'm just about finished with my custom built in grill if anyone is interested in seeing? I don't have a site but can send pics via email.