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Young House Love » Home Improvement » DIYing A Slate Path That Leads To Our Front Door

| By John Petersik | May 29, 2008 | 13 Comments

DIYing A Slate Path That Leads To Our Front Door

It’s been so long that I betcha forgot about our front walkway project, didn’t you? You can get a full refresher here, but the gist is that we ripped up our shoddy old path and used leftover slate to piece together a bigger and better walkway to our front door. It was a weekend full of work and we left off with the simple task of digging all the slate into the ground. Here’s a pic to jog your memory (before the big dig):

Smallwalkway5

That simple task of digging in 48 pieces of stone turned into a four-day back-breaking adventure, all in hopes of engineering a wobble-free perfectly-graded welcoming walkway to our house. Which is why my follow-up post is coming so late. But in the end, victory was ours.

Pathdugin

Why did it take so long? Let’s just say there was a lot of trial-and-error involved in digging perfectly shaped holes for each piece of slate. Some people use a bed of sand to make this process easier, but we feared that it might jeopardize our chances of getting grass to sprout in between the slabs of slate, so we did it the hard way. No guts no glory, right? Making sure the stones didn’t rock when we walked across them ended up being more art than science, and it typically took 4 or 5 tries to get it just right. Not to mention keeping all the pieces level with the slope of the yard.

But it’s done and you can now walk to our front door without twisting an ankle. And as of last night we laid grass seed along the seams and are now just waiting for some green to show. So there’s one more “after” photo still to come… just don’t hold your breath.

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Comments

  1. Avatar for MaryB in RichmondMaryB in Richmond says

    May 29, 2008 at 10:30 am

    Firstly: OUCH.

    Secondly: It looks LOVELY! I love the graceful curve it makes; fabulous.

    Thirdly, a question: What made you decide you wanted grass to grow up around the slates? I’ve always thought the goal was to prevent any vegetation growing up around, so what am I missing? I feel quite clueless! *grin*

    Thanks for all the great inspiration, as well as the “you can do it” mentality I could use more of…

    Reply
  2. Avatar for Ethan@OneProjectCloser[email protected] says

    May 29, 2008 at 11:04 am

    It looks amazing! Very nice job. I have a typical poured walkway (a bit more difficult to remove) but would love something like this. I’d probably keep it grass free. The grass could be another tripping hazard.

    Reply
  3. Avatar for SherrySherry says

    May 29, 2008 at 11:19 am

    Hey guys,

    Sorry not to be fully explanatory about the grass. See we wanted something organic and less harsh than a very hard, straight concrete seamed path and were inspired by images like this:

    http://hammondfarms.com/flagpath.jpg

    We think it’ll be low maintenance because we’ll be able to mow right over the stones (as opposed to weeding between them to keep them clear of vegetation) and we’ll keep the grass nice and low like in the above photo (so it hopefully poses less of a tripping hazard).

    In about two weeks we’ll see how it turns out. And if we hate the grass I guess we’ll just have to dig it up and brainstorm some new ideas.

    Thanks so much for reading!

    xo,
    Sherry

    Reply
  4. Avatar for LisaLisa says

    May 29, 2008 at 1:41 pm

    The path looks really great, and it’ll probably look freaking adorable once it’s got some grass growing between those stones.

    I don’t think it’ll make a tripping hazard, especially if the grass is kept short. I mean, I don’t trip while walking in my grass covered yard unless there’s a rake or something I failed to notice.

    Reply
  5. Avatar for KelliKelli says

    May 29, 2008 at 1:52 pm

    Oooh, that will look so good once the grass grows in! It’ll be a quaint little entrance to your lovely home. I’ve also loved the idea of lining them with thyme so it smells good when people walk on it.

    Reply
  6. Avatar for LivLiv says

    May 29, 2008 at 2:42 pm

    Beautiful!!

    Very inspiring. I try to use your house as motivation for my own. Anyone can tackle home repair… right?

    Ha, some days it doesn’t feel like I’m cut out for it, even though I love to see progress. I can thank my husband for that!!

    Reply
  7. Avatar for BethBeth says

    May 29, 2008 at 2:51 pm

    Adorable. Sorry I stalk your blog… I just can’t help myself. ;) You guys really did a fantastic job on the walkway!

    Reply
  8. Avatar for JohnJohn says

    May 29, 2008 at 4:10 pm

    Thank you all for appreciating the fruits of our labor. We plan to keep the grass short (and rake free, Lisa) to minimize any potential tripping hazard. But once it’s all grown in you guys are welcome to come over and test it out.

    Kelli, I like your thyme idea. There’s something in our backyard that always smells good when I mow. Maybe that’s what it is… you may have solved my mystery.

    And Beth, we love stalkers. Wait, revise that, we love blog-stalkers. The kind that peep in windows not so much.

    -John

    Reply
  9. Avatar for MaryB in RichmondMaryB in Richmond says

    May 29, 2008 at 4:24 pm

    Oh, I totally get it. Wow — what an amazing difference it makes!

    Reply
  10. Avatar for EastEndEastEnd says

    May 29, 2008 at 5:32 pm

    It looks great! Love the idea of thyme between the slate. Though it might make for a problem shoveling snow in the winter. Assuming of course that we will eventually get a decent snowfall here in Richmond!

    Reply
  11. Avatar for snailsnail says

    May 29, 2008 at 5:40 pm

    looks good, Moss would look good too. We have something similar at our house but it was done all wrong. It dosnen’t help that my mother-in-law drove her gigantic truck over it either.
    I hope ours looks like that one day. Maybe we can redux it with your helpful tips.

    Reply
  12. Avatar for GràciaGràcia says

    May 30, 2008 at 5:25 am

    Wouldn’t moss be too slippery? I love the idea of grass, in a few months that walkway will look like it’s always been there.
    You did a wonderful job!

    Reply
  13. Avatar for TommyTommy says

    February 18, 2010 at 5:20 pm

    My mom has the same type of path at her house and she planted Thyme in the cracks. Its AMAZING and it smells lovely too. Thyme is very hardy (much more so than grass, really) and can take being walked on and getting heated and cooled by the proximity of the non-heat-conductive stone. It takes a while to get established but after a while (about a summer and a half in our case) it fills in the cracks much better than grass ever did.

    Reply

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John and Sherry smiling against pink backgroundHey, we’re John & Sherry. We’ve fixed up 7 homes, written books, designed products, started a podcast, and then downsized & moved to the beach! Here you’ll find over 3,000 DIY projects & home updates. More about us…
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