Backyard Flagstone Renovation Project in Victoria, BC

Renovating Your Backyard Using Flagstone In Victoria, BC With Lennox Masonry

Flagstone has always been and likely will remain one of the best options for creating beautiful outdoor living spaces, walkways, and garden paths. Here at Lennox Masonry, we use flagstone dozens of times each year for outdoor hardscaping projects and the end-result is always spectacular. Luckily, here on Vancouver Island, we have access to several stone quarries which produce unique looking flagstones that fit right in with the natural occurring stone outcrop present throughout the island.

For this particular outdoor renovation project in Victoria, BC, we decided to use a San Juan Flagstone which is a mixture of grey and blue colours with a hint of quartz which is a signature of the stone here on Vancouver Island. This flagstone comes in varying thicknesses between 3/8ths of an inch to 3 inches. When it comes to handling these flagstones, given their large footprint, I recommend that when working with any thickness of 1.5” and beyond that a skid steer be utilized to transport them across the job site, or, at the very least, a stone dolly.  Unfortunately, due to the tight working space on this project, we had access to neither and some brute strength was all that would suffice. Needless to say, our backs needed a long break afterwards!

The ultimate vision for this masonry job was to extend the outdoor living space while maintaining a balance between function and aesthetics. After laying down string lines and mapping the backyard, we proceeded to pour a 6” concrete slab as a foundation for the flagstone. Once the concrete had fully cured, we then began laying down our 2-3” thick flagstones in such a way that the pieces aligned as best as possible. Once they were all in place, we then cut each one down to ensure that they would fit as tightly as possible while also maintaining enough space for mortar joints.

Once the edges had been completed, we decided to create a unique stone feature out of river rocks and emulate patterns found in nature, such as the flow of a river and tree’s roots. For this design, we utilized local river rocks of various sizes and stood them upright, ensuring that they wouldn’t stick up too far beyond the level of the flagstone. The end-result was a beautiful, unique patio rich with colours, depth, and character.

Lennox Masonry of Victoria, BC has been proudly serving both Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands for over a decade. We are small group of skilled masons with a great deal of passion towards our trade and for improving the communities we live and work in. We extend our gratitude to the lək̓ʷəŋən people for allowing us to share and work on this corner of the garden with them. We are thankful for the residents and businesses of Victoria, BC for supporting us in our endeavors!

If you’re in need of a professional and reliable masonry company for your next project, please contact us today! And check out our Project page for inspiration when it comes to your next masonry idea!