How We Built a DIY Bluestone Patio and Saved Over $27K

Level of Difficulty: Expert

Time to Complete: 6 Weeks

OH boy! Where do I begin!

When we first moved into this home, the project list was never ending. We moved in in October though, so outdoor time was limited living in NE Ohio. Fast forward to the warmer months though and Joe and I were dying to have an outdoor living space that was beautiful and reminiscent of the gardens you find in Nantucket. But, what we were left staring at was anything but that. It was a 12′ x 12′ concrete pad, wedged between two massive oak trees that were planted too close and their root systems were now lifting the concrete pad and encroaching on the house. This picture needed to change, ASAP.

Now don’t get me wrong, it was VERY green with the blanket of english ivy that covered our entire yard, but it wasn’t for me. I love to host and bring people together and this space definitely didn’t scream “Hostess with the mostess”.

So, I quickly began calling companies to get an estimate for the job. Joe and I are very handy and up for almost any challenge, however this one seemed out of our scope of practice and we wanted a patio sooner rather than later.

While every inch of us didn’t want to install a bluestone patio, when we started getting the quotes, the thought of a DIY install was sounding better and better…to me. Joe on the other hand wasn’t convinced. Excavating and hauling massive stones in the July heat—and doing it correctly so our patio wouldn’t heave with Ohio winters? It was a hard no from him.

Me though, I feel as if we have no limits when it comes to renovation. Move a wall, sure. Vault a ceiling, sure. Lay a bluestone patio absolutely. The quotes we got were anywhere from $30k-$40k and that was only for the patio portion and not our fire pit or landscaping. I was baffled. While I wanted a patio really badly and quickly, I also wanted to be able to finish and furnish the inside of my house and that’s when I convinced him.

Insert Heavy Equipment

It was a scorcher, the perfect day to begin demo

So it was June 19th and it was 95 degrees out when we decided we would break ground. To start we had to remove the concrete pad that was there. What we thought would be a semi easy removal ended up being incredibly hard. The concrete was reinforced with rebar and incredibly hard. We started with a jack hammer and after 6 hours, barely got through 1/4 of the pad. In came the big guns which is when we discovered Handy Rents for all of our patio install needs. We ended up renting a concrete saw and cutting the pad into 2’x2′ chunks and carrying it out with a wheel barrel. PHEW! That was not a small task and tookus a couple days.

Next comes the first and MOST important part, grading the soil and making sure that all debris is removed. For us, little did we know, this was going to be the hardest part. As I mentioned earlier, we had two oak trees near the patio that got taken down. When these got removed, the company couldn’t chase the entire root system because they were under the patio. Once we removed the concrete though, we revealed roots the size of trees. They were wild! With all the projects that we’ve done, this was the first one where I had an “Oh Sh*t” moment and panicked. Calling every excavating company I could at 3:00pm on a saturday, I was begging for someone to come out and fix this “problem” we created. However, as you can imagine, there is no excavating company available at 3:00pm on a Saturday.

Now the question might be, “how did you get rid of all the excess soil and roots that you dug up?” The answer is actually pretty funny. At first I thought a Bagster dumpster would work. If you are not familiar with these, they are the portable bag dumpsters that many home improvement stores sell. You fill it up and their company will come and haul it away, that easy. Well turns out in our case, it wasn’t that easy. These bagsters also have debris height and weight limits. Since we were putting very heavy objects into it, we barely got to put anything in it, as it quickly got to the weight limit. Strike 1.

The next option I called around to different junk removal services. It’s funny though, not many will take or want to take soil or organic material. It’s heavy and weirdly enough, I was told there are limited places to dispose of it. Makes no sense to me. So after many calls I landed on 1-800-Got-Junk to remove the concrete. When they showed up, I didn’t have high hopes that they were going to get every piece of the concrete loaded, but after an hour they had it all in the truck. Considering you pay for the full truck, I also loaded up most of the roots and they hauled it away. Easy!

On to the next step, we needed to grade the ground. Fortunately, we did plan for an excavator to do this work and worked back with Handy Rents in Chagrin Falls who delivered the excavator that morning. Funny enough, they will deliver this heavy machinery to just about anyone, who knew! I had no idea what I was doing, but I am pretty sure Joe loved that I wanted to man the machine, so I got to straight to work.

For hours and days, we dug away (sorry neighbors!). When I say roots the size of trees, we pulled out roots that easily weighed over 100lbs, they were vast.

Finally, after days of digging and hacking away like it was an archeological dig, we cleared the space. Next we used the blade of the excavator to grade the spoil. Since all debris was removed, this part went very smoothly.

Now the next obstacle was harder, getting someone to remove soil and roots that we just removed. No one wants to take this material. After many calls, I finally landed a dumpster for 24 hours and quickly went to town filling it up. Because these materials are so heavy, there was a fill and weight capacity on this dumpster too. Filling it up went smoothly as I used the excavator to shovel the soil and debris by the bucket full. The dumpster was pretty full, but I thought if they just shook it a bit, all the material would level out and I would be well within the parameters of weight and height. Joke was on me.

Joe was out of town and I was on a run when I got the call from the dumpster company saying they couldn’t take the dumpster and that I would need to empty some of it. Now that really wasn’t an option. Joe was on a golfing trip and I was not about to climb into a dumpster and start shoveling dirt for the next 12 hours, so I had to get crafty. In a tone of desperation, I asked the driver if he had venmo. In a confused tone he responded “yes?”. My next question was, how much to make this disappear? There wasn’t a second of hesitation, after a few clicks and a pay now on venmo, that driver had that dumpster gone in no time. For that I am incredibly thankful.

We worked with a local stone company, Van Ness, in Chesterland. They were lovely! They had every option of bluestone, but we ultimately landed on the most traditional style, Blue Ice Natural Cleft Bluestone.

While we waited for the stone to get delivered, we focused on laying the foundation for a patio that wasn’t going to budge even in the toughest of winters. This meant that we needed to have a foundation of 10″ of a combo of crushed gravel and sand. Using the excavator, I brought buckets full of gravel around back and then we topped with the sand. Using the tamper that we rented from handy rents, we made sure the base was compacted and perfectly smooth.

Next came the stone. To start, we needed to lay our sandstone stairs first. These were easily over 500lbs and required heavy machinery to move. Because of this, we had to install the stairs first because the heavy machinery couldn’t be driven on the blue stone. So using the excavator, we used the fork to carry and place our stone stairs. We made sure that we had the foundation and bluestone down where we were placing the stairs, then one by one we shimmied the stairs into place.

Now for the fun part, laying the bluestone. While we hoped this would be as easy as drop and lay, it turned out to be a lot more challenging. The stones were all different shapes and we needed to make sure we had minimal cuts and waste. Each stone weighing 50+ lbs, we also did not want to continuously pick up and move stones which is when I had the smart idea of creating cardboard templates. Using cardboard that we had laying around the house, we cut three of each sized stone that we had. Using these templates, we would lay out our pattern. This made it a lot more manageable and easier to work and prevented extra cuts.

Once we got our pattern figured out, we then carried the stones over and put them in place, which this is NOT an easy task. Because we are working with natural materials and not fabricated, every stone is cut slightly different and out of level, which meant each stone we laid, needed to be leveled. Using sand and digging and lifting, each stone took at least 5-10 minutes to lay. Not one time were we able to place a stone down and it be a perfect fit. Meanwhile, it was still in the 90’s the entire time we were working on this patio. Sweaty, covered in sunscreen and sand, we worked tirelessly working section by section for two weeks. (remember, we both have full time jobs, so we mostly worked on evenings and weekends.)

Stone by stone we laid the patio until the very last stone was in place. I almost couldn’t believe it when we got to it. It was the final stone and would you believe it! When we went to place it, we had another root give us issues. At this point in this process, I couldn’t’ handle one more stinking root. Using the ax, we hacked away at it to make the space we needed, placing the last and final stone in it’s final resting spot.

Now listen, that’s a pretty quick version about our DIY bluestone patio. To date, this is the hardest thing Joe and I have done. Between the manual labor required, the preparation to make sure that the patio lasted and the extreme temperatures we had, also never having done this, this was an incredibly hard project. Am I thankful we did it, 100%! We saved over $30k on this project. In total this project cost about $10k, 1/3 of what we were quoted to do this project. After landscaping, we are at about $13k all in.

Honestly, maybe I am a glutton for pain, but I told Joe I was bummed we didn’t have as big and strenuous of a project to work on this summer. So stay tuned, I’m going to find something else that Joe will look at me and say “Are you crazy!?”. Until then, this patio was the hardest, but best addition to house.

Final Cost Breakdown:

• Concrete Saw Rental: $165
• 1-800- Got-Junk Rental: $813
• Crushed Limestone Gravel: $809
• Mini Excavator Rental (Handy Rents): $1263
• Skid Steer Rental: $604
• Plate Tamper Rental (Handy Rents): $69
• Masonry Sand: $202
• Bluestone Natural Cleft and Sandstone Steps: $6358
• Grout: $125
• Landscaping: $2,100
• Fire Pit: $300
• Metal Landscape Edging: $172
• Total: $13,142

Looking for our quick How-To Patio Installation Guide, head over to this our DIY Bluestone Patio Installation Blog Post!