Long Awaited Day

One stone down, 10-12 more to go. 

We put the first stone down for the front porch. It took an entire cement mixer of mortar to fill under the one rock. It is a very large slab and we are having to build up the front to level the elevation from the door to the front of the porch. A slab is flagstone on steroids. They are bigger in area and usually thicker. We have split the rocks because we need them thin alongside the house. Thin; but as big as we can handle for the look we want. Once they are all put in you won't be able to tell they are thinner than normal. The front ones are nice and thick.

 Pouring more out so we (rather Bill can) push mortar under the stone. A chalk outline of the rock was made first so Bill would know where to pour the mortar..


You can see how thick the mortar is under the stone in this picture. Under the door the mortar is probably 1/3 inch thick and around 3 inches thick at the front.

Working the mortar to get it to stay under the rock.

 Used some small pieces to hold the mortar in place.

To begin with we need to do one stone at a time because they are so large. We can't step on this one until the mortar has cured. The mortar is so thick the curing will take several days. Then we can step on it to lay the rocks on either side. Once the ones against the house are laid the others can be done all at once.

 The black circle you see is the clean out for the septic. Doesn't everyone want that at their front door? We didn't put it there the previous owner did. It will be covered with rock that will be removable.