Decks, Patios, Porches and Docks - flagstone floor

we have just had installed a flagstone floor on our front porch and the areas between each of the stones is filled with cement.

since then, we have seen a lot of flagstone floors in mont tremblant, quebec (very cold in winter) and in utah. and all of them show that the cement between stones has cracked.

we live in the toronto ontario canada area and certainly get snow and cold in winter although certainly not as severe as tremblant's.

is cement the only filler that can be used? is there anything that would be a rubberized filler which might stretch in contract in heat or cold, but wouldnt crack?

i would very much appreciate any advice, guidance, information anyone might have.

thanks

joan

If flagstone was installed on concrete or mortar bed, it grout tends not to crack if properly mixed and installed. If installed over wood or sand bed, then there will be movement that will cause grout to crack. A grout rated for exterior use should be used.

I would like to add a question on this if I may.

I would like to use flagstone on my front-door entry way. (Over concrete)

Can I use a standard ceramic tile mortar or do I need to use a different type of adhesive like cement?

Also when it comes to grouting. If I place the flagstone relatively close together, can I grout them as I would ceramic tile or would I need to "keep it in the lines" and not get grout on the flagstone.

Thanks in advance for your replies.

we just had a flagstone porch put in recently. the old one was cement and raised about 8 inches from the ground. the flagstones were laid over new cement and grouted with special cement for that purpose. our guys purchased from home depot.

we live in southwest ontario (about zone 6) so we experience frost and thaw. this porch has not been through the winter yet.

we have seen a lot of flagstone porches in mt tremblant quebec canada (really cold inthe winter) and lots more in utah, where we just vacationed. they are all beautiful but we noticed that the cement between the flagstones, in all cases, cracked. (had i known then what i know now, would i have persisted with flagstones? As i say we havent been through winter yet.)

we noticed another details - our guys put the stones very close together with small strips of cement between. the other porches had quite a lot more cement between.

also we realize that shoveling snow is going to be more difficult because the surface is uneven (hadnt thought of that either!). also we are hoping that no one trips on the unevenness. (hadnt thought of that either!).

we noticed in other porches that more cement was used to attempt to minimize the unevenness - to smooth out the protrusions.

i was actually wondering if there is a rubberized caulking compound which might eliminate the damage of the thaw and freeze syndrome.

i've told you all the negatives. now i should say that we absolutely love the porch - it is so attractive and interesting. and our guys had the imagaination not to cut off the edge of the porch on a straight line - they just left the stones untrimmed. took me about 1 second to realize that was a great idea. it just defines the porch in such an unusual way and makes sense - not of the flagstones are square but are random, why not the edge of the porch?

hope all this helps..

joan