Larsen Landscape | Blog

We use various types of stone for patio paving, garden walls, waterfalls, stepping stones and sometimes just as a garden ornament.  One particular variety of stone is called flagstone and since a large number of people, from my experience, aren’t sure what the word means, I thought I would clear it up.

Custom Flagstone Patio

The word flagstone comes from an old Icelandic word which means “spot from which sod has been cut” and an old Norse word meaning “slab of stone” – go figure.  In current usage, at least the way landscape people in Southern California use it, the word refers to flat cut pieces of stone used mostly for paving.  It can be cut uniformly, but we normally use random pieces and cut them to fit in a natural pattern rather than squares or rectangles.  In most cases, the stone isn’t really either, but rather split, giving it a natural slightly uneven look.  Hydraulic wedges can do this job fairly quickly.  I suppose those guys working for the Egyptian Pharaohs a few thousand years ago sweated over a piece of stone for days with hand tools – but then, they probably didn’t have much choice.

There are quite a few types of stone that are used for flat paving.  Flagstone is the word that covers all these types of stone – the key is that they are relatively flat and can be made into a patio or walkway without making a major tripping hazard – and some stones are definitely much smoother than other when they are split.

There is a wide range in the cost of flagstone of different types and this has largely to do with how far the pallets of stone have to travel on a truck – or even a ship.  If you like a particular stone that is mined a few miles away, chances are that it will cost less than a type of stone that is moved across most of the country.  Sometimes factors such as snowstorms affect the price if they are coming from somewhere that has huge delays due to the inability to quarry the rock fast enough.