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Repairing Your Flagstone Patio, Flagstone Walkway or Steps

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  • Post category:Repair
Your flagstone patio or walkway can get damaged and may need repair due to several reasons. Most often in our line of work we see many incorrectly done flagstones work. Sometimes even if a flagstones work was done properly it may need repair due to age or exposure to weather elements.
Flagstone walkway with poor workmanship
Before Repair: Flagstone patio with poor workmanship which has to be repaired. Note the improper grout joints bleeding into the stones
Flagstone patio after repair is completed
After Repair: Note the clean grout lines and better stone layout

Reasons by which you may need to repair your flagstone patio or walkway

Often flagstones can come loose because when it was initially laid too deep of a mortar bed is used. Sometimes a contractor may try to cut corners and use scrap stones which are cheaper. This is often the case when irregular shaped stones are used. The scrap stones may not be of uniform thickness. In those cases the Mason may use a thicker mortar bed to accommodate for the difference in thickness of stones.

Flagstone Patio - stones getting loose
Before Repair: Flagstone steps- see how the stones are getting loose and coming off from the mortar
Flagstone patio after repair
After Repair: See the difference after the repair was completed on the flagstone steps. The steps are made less steep by adding a third level of steps
Using very thin flagstones can result in cracked stonework. Irregular shaped flagstones are sold by their weight. So some contractors may be more eager to buy thinner pieces which are cheaper. Since they are light in weight it is less backbreaking to carry and is faster to install.

Weather elements can also cause damages to your Flagstone work. Flagstones that are set in mortar can get dislodged by heaving caused by the freeze thaw cycle during winter.

Bad workmanship in laying the flagstone, see how the edge (corner was done)
Before Repair: Bad workmanship in laying the flagstones, see how the grout was exposed on the edge (corner)
After Repair - Pay special attention to how the edge (corner) is finished by overlapping the horizontal stone over the side (vertical) stone
After Repair: Pay special attention to how the edge (corner) is finished by overlapping the horizontal stone over the vertical stone

How do we inspect and plan your flagstone repair work?

If the stones are loose and getting dislodged, we may pull up a couple of stones to assess the condition. We may also ask you questions such as the age of the work as well as how long ago was the damages started appearing.

How do we repair your flagstone patio or walkway?

If we see loose flagstones and observe that the workmanship on the remaining flagstones are also bad then we may recommend removing most or all of the stones and the stones are re-laid. In many cases we may be able to salvage the existing stones. But in certain cases we may recommend using brand-new stones for getting the best results.

If only a few stones are affected and the quality of the remaining work is good we may be able to replace the damaged or cracked stones so as to save you time and money.

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