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There is a strip of ground behind my house that turned to mud with every rain, and every trip to the garden tracked it back across the kitchen floor. What that ground wanted was a proper stone path. And proper flagstone, if you go price it at the yard, is a great deal of money and a great deal of work.
So here is what we did instead, and I will tell you plainly, when I first heard of it I thought it was foolishness. You make a stone path out of freezer bags. You fill them with concrete, lay them on the ground, give them a shake, and in the morning you peel the plastic away and you have stones. Irregular, handsome, close-fitted stones that look like a mason set them a hundred years ago.
In this video:
✓ Why a bag of soft concrete finds its own natural stone shape when you shake it
✓ The rod trick that splits an 80-pound bag in half and saves your back
✓ Why you put the water in the tub before the powder
✓ The exact consistency you want, and how to test it on your tool
✓ Why you fill each bag no less than half and no more than three quarters
✓ Pressing the air out, folding the seal under,
https://eliasyoder.com
There is a strip of ground behind my house that turned to mud with every rain, and every trip to the garden tracked it back across the kitchen floor. What that ground wanted was a proper stone path. And proper flagstone, if you go price it at the yard, is a great deal of money and a great deal of work.
So here is what we did instead, and I will tell you plainly, when I first heard of it I thought it was foolishness. You make a stone path out of freezer bags. You fill them with concrete, lay them on the ground, give them a shake, and in the morning you peel the plastic away and you have stones. Irregular, handsome, close-fitted stones that look like a mason set them a hundred years ago.
In this video:
✓ Why a bag of soft concrete finds its own natural stone shape when you shake it
✓ The rod trick that splits an 80-pound bag in half and saves your back
✓ Why you put the water in the tub before the powder
✓ The exact consistency you want, and how to test it on your tool
✓ Why you fill each bag no less than half and no more than three quarters
✓ Pressing the air out, folding the seal under,
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00There is a strip of ground behind my house between the back door and the garden gate,
00:05and for years it was a misery. Every rain turned it to a slick of mud, and every trip out
00:12to the
00:12garden meant tracking that mud back across the kitchen floor, and my wife had a word or two to
00:18say about it. What that ground wanted was a proper stone path. And a proper stone path,
00:25if you go and price flagstone at the yard, is a great deal of money, and it is heavy,
00:30and it is a job. So I want to show you what we did instead. And I will tell you
00:36plainly,
00:36when I first heard of this, I thought it was foolishness. You are going to make a stone path
00:42out of sandwich bags. The plain freezer bags with the zipper across the top, the same ones my wife
00:50keeps in the drawer. You are going to fill them with concrete, and lay them on the ground,
00:55and when you peel the bags away in the morning, you will have stones. Real stones, irregular and
01:02handsome, that look like they were cut and set by a mason a hundred years ago. And the whole path
01:08will cost you a few dollars a stone, instead of a few dollars a pound.
01:14I am Elias Yoder. I have laid stone and mixed mortar, and worked with my hands my whole life,
01:21and I did not expect to learn a new trick this late. But this one is good, and it is
01:27honest,
01:28and I want to give it to you. Let me say one thing, and then I will not bring it
01:32up again.
01:33I have gathered these old ways into a book over at EliasYoder.com. If you want it, it is there.
01:41That is all. Now let us make some stones. First, before anything else, understand what we are doing
01:48and why it works, because once you see the sense of it, every step follows on its own.
01:54A stone is just a shape that has gone hard. That is all. A flagstone in a mason's yard was
02:01once soft
02:02rock that hardened in the ground. And concrete is nothing more than a powder that, when you add water,
02:09will go hard as rock over the course of a day. So the whole question is only this. What shape
02:15do
02:16you want it to harden in? A mason pours his concrete into a wooden form and gets a square. Pour
02:22it into
02:23a round mold, and you get a round. But we do not want a square, and we do not want
02:28a perfect round,
02:30because that would look like a factory made it. We want the irregular, uneven, natural look of real
02:36stone, the kind that has settled and spread a little. And here is the beautiful part. A bag of
02:43soft concrete, laid on the ground and given a shake, will settle and spread all by itself into
02:50exactly that shape. It will find its own edges. Every one will come out a little different, the way
02:56real stones are. The bag does the work. You are not carving anything. You are simply giving the concrete
03:04a soft skin to harden inside of, and the ground below to settle against, and the concrete finds
03:10its own natural shape without you telling it anything. So, let us begin with the ground, because
03:18a path is only as good as what is under it. Go out and look at the strip where you
03:22want your path.
03:24Take a spade and scrape off the sod and the grass. You do not need to dig a great trench.
03:29You are just
03:30taking off the living green layer and getting down to firm dirt. Then take a rake, or the back of
03:36the
03:37spade, and level it out as best you can. If there is a low spot where water will stand, fill
03:43it and tamp
03:44it firm, because water standing under a stone will heave it up come the frost. Get it reasonably flat and
03:51reasonably firm. That is all the ground preparation you need. This is a garden path we are making,
03:58not a road. Now the concrete. You go to the store and buy a bag of the ordinary concrete mix,
04:04the kind that has the sand and stone already in it and just wants water. And here is the first
04:10good
04:11trick, and it is one I wish I had known thirty years ago, because my back would thank me. Those
04:17bags
04:17run 80 pounds. 80 pounds is a real weight, and hauling it around and wrestling it up over the
04:24edge of a wheelbarrow is how a man hurts himself. So do not carry the whole 80 pounds. Instead, lay
04:31the
04:31bag flat on the ground and slide a rod under it, a broom handle, a length of pipe, a stout
04:37stick,
04:38anything straight and strong. Slide it under the middle of the bag. Now cut the top of the bag open.
04:45Then take hold of both ends of that rod and pull straight up. The bag will split itself neatly in
04:53half over the rod, and now you have two 40-pound halves instead of one 80-pound monster, and you
05:01can
05:01lift each one easy. That is a small thing, but it will save your back on every bag you ever
05:08buy.
05:08My grandfather used to say,
05:10a wise man moves the weight twice rather than move himself once to the doctor, and he was right about
05:17it. Now mix it. You want a wheelbarrow or a tub. Put a little water in the bottom first before
05:25the
05:25powder. This is another small thing worth knowing. If you dump the dry powder in first and then add
05:33water, the powder cakes hard onto the bottom of the tub, and you will fight it the whole time and
05:39never
05:40get it mixed proper. Water first, then the powder in on top of it, then more water as you need
05:47it while
05:48you work the hoe through it. And here is where this method wants something a bit different than usual.
05:55You want this mix a touch soupier than you would for a post or a footing. Not soup exactly, but
06:02wetter and
06:03looser than a mason would normally have it. The reason is that it has to flow and settle inside
06:09that bag and find its own shape, and a stiff mix will not do that. It will sit there in
06:16a lump.
06:17You want it loose enough that it slides right off the tool when you tip it. That is the test.
06:24Tip your
06:24hoe or your trowel and watch it. If it slides off clean and slow, that is your consistency. If it
06:32clings and sits there, add a bit more water. If it runs off like water, you have gone too far
06:39and want
06:40more powder. It takes one batch to get the feel of it, and then you will know. Now for the
06:47bags
06:48themselves. Use the freezer bags, the heavier ones, the sort with the zipper seal. The thin sandwich bags
06:56will split on you. And the size is up to you and what sort of stone you want, but a
07:02gallon bag makes
07:04a good, handsome stone about the size of a dinner plate. Fill each bag no less than half full, and
07:11no
07:11more than three quarters. That is the rule, and it matters. Less than half, and the stone comes out too
07:19thin and will crack under a foot. More than three quarters, and the bag cannot settle and spread,
07:26and you get a fat lump instead of a flagstone, and you may burst the bag besides. Half to three
07:33quarters.
07:34That is your window. Once the bag is filled, before you seal it, you must get the air out. Press
07:43it flat
07:43and squeeze the air up and out of the top, and then seal that zipper closed. If you leave air
07:51trapped
07:51in there, you will get a hollow void inside your stone, a weak spot, and it will crack there one
07:58day under a heel. So press the air out and seal it. Now fill up quite a few of them
08:05before you go laying
08:06any. Do not fill one and lay it, and fill the next. Make your whole batch at once, because once
08:14you have mixed the concrete, the clock is running on you, and it is a poor thing to be racing
08:20it.
08:21Concrete does not set so fast that you need to panic, but it will not wait forever either. Fill them
08:28all, set them aside, and then go lay them. Here is the laying, and it is the part that is
08:35nearly a
08:36pleasure. Take a bag over to your prepared ground. Now the zipper seal is a lump, and you do not
08:43want
08:43that lump showing on the top of your finished stone. So fold that sealed edge underneath the bag, tuck it
08:51under, so the smooth, full belly of the bag is what faces up. Set it down where you want your
08:58stone.
08:59Then shake it. That is the whole trick, and it is the part I want you to hear plain,
09:05because it is the difference between this working and not working. You take hold of the bag, and you
09:12give it a good shake, a jiggle, side to side and up and down a bit. And you will watch
09:19that concrete
09:19come alive inside the bag. It will settle. It will spread. It will flow out to the edges of the
09:27bag and
09:28find its level. The lump becomes a slab, and the edges will go irregular and natural where the bag
09:36gathers and folds. Shake it until it looks right to your eye and lies flat, and then leave it be.
09:44Then take your next bag, fold it under the same way, and lay it right up against the first. And
09:52here is
09:52another good thing about this method. Because the concrete is soft and settling, the new stone will
09:59push and spread against the one beside it and find its own fit, the way stones fit together in a
10:06real
10:07stone wall. You are not measuring anything. You are not cutting anything. You are laying them side by
10:15side and letting them spread against each other, and they mate up naturally with those close irregular
10:22joints that make it look like proper old cobbles. Work your way right down the path that way. Bag by
10:30bag,
10:31fold, place, shake, and go on to the next. And I will tell you, laying these put me in mind
10:39of my
10:40grandfather and the stone wall along the north field, which he built by hand and which is standing yet.
10:47I helped him on it as a boy, and I was forever trying to find two stones that matched, hunting
10:54through the pile for a pair that fit together neat and square. And he watched me do that for the
11:01better
11:01part of a morning, and finally he said, You are working too hard, boy. You are trying to make the
11:08stones obey you. Let them find each other. And what he meant was this. In a proper dry stone wall,
11:17you do not force the stones. You set one down, and then you look at the shape of the gap
11:24it left,
11:25and you go find a stone that wants to sit in that gap. You let the shape of the thing
11:31tell you what comes
11:32next. And a wall built that way stands two hundred years, because every stone is sitting where it
11:41wanted to sit. That is exactly what these bags do for you, and it is why I took to this
11:47method so quick.
11:49You are not forcing anything. You lay the bag down soft, and you shake it, and the concrete finds its
11:57own edges, and settles against the stone beside it, and fits itself into the gap that was there.
12:04The stones find each other, the way my grandfather said. You are not the mason here. You are only the
12:13man who sets them down, and lets them do what they want to do. And that is a good way
12:19to work,
12:20and honestly it is a good way to live, though I did not come here to preach at you.
12:26Now, when you have laid them all out, walk away. That is the whole of the next step.
12:33Leave them alone, and let them cure overnight. Concrete does not dry so much as it hardens,
12:41and it wants time, and it wants to be left alone. Overnight is the least of it,
12:47and a full day is better if you can spare it. Do not go poking at them.
12:54I want to stop here and give you a word of care, because this is the one part of this
13:00whole business
13:00that can actually hurt you, and the video that showed me this never mentioned it.
13:06Wet concrete is caustic. That means it burns. It does not feel like it at first, which is the trap
13:15of it.
13:15It does not sting like a hot stove. But if wet concrete sits against your skin for a long while,
13:23and especially if it works down into your boot or into your glove where it stays pressed against you,
13:30it will burn you badly, and folks have taken serious burns from mealing in it all afternoon,
13:37and not thinking a thing of it until that night. So wear gloves. Wear them the whole time. And if
13:46you get
13:46the wet mix on your skin, do not just wipe it. Rinse it off with water and keep it off
13:53you. Keep it out of
13:55your eyes all together. This is not me being fussy. This is the one real hazard in the job, and
14:03it costs you
14:04nothing to respect it. Now, morning. The stones are hard. Time to peel. Take a knife or your fingers and
14:14cut the
14:15plastic bag and start peeling it away from the stone. Most of it will come away easy. If a bit
14:22of plastic stays
14:23stuck underneath, on the bottom face against the dirt, do not fret over it. It hurts nothing down
14:31there, and if anything, it works like a barrier against the weeds coming up through. I like to pull
14:37mine all the way off, I confess, because I do not care to leave plastic in the ground. But it
14:43will not
14:44ruin your path either way. The stone will look dark and wet when you first peel it. That is only
14:50the
14:50moisture still in it. Give it a day or two of air and it will lighten to a good gray
14:55stone color. Now peel
14:57every one of them and stand back and look at your path. And here is the moment where most folks
15:04get
15:04worried, so let me get ahead of you. You will be looking at those stones and you will see gaps
15:10and
15:10cracks between them, uneven joints, spaces. And you will think you have made a mess of it. You have not.
15:18Those joints are exactly right, and they are the making of the whole thing, because now we fill them,
15:25and the filling is what turns a row of concrete blobs into a proper old cobblestone path. You take sand,
15:33plain sand, a bag of it from the same store, and you pour it out over the whole path, right
15:40over the
15:40top of the stones, and you spread it around. Do not be shy with it. Then take a stiff broom
15:47and start
15:48sweeping. And what happens is this. The broom carries the sand across the surface, and it falls down into
15:55every crack and joint and gap between your stones, and fills them, packing them tight, and at the same
16:02time, the broom sweeps the loose sand off the tops of the stones and leaves them clean. So in one
16:09motion,
16:10you fill the joints and clean the faces. Sweep it back and forth and keep at it until every joint
16:17is
16:17packed full and the stone tops are clear. Then wet it down gently with a hose or a watering can,
16:24which
16:25settles the sand down tight, and top up any joint that sinks. And do not think the sand is only
16:31a cheap
16:32substitute for proper mortar, because it is not. It is better here, and I want you to know why, so
16:39you
16:39do not go and ruin a good path trying to improve on it. A mortared joint is rigid, it cannot
16:46move, and the
16:47ground under your path is not rigid at all. It swells with the wet, it shrinks with the dry, and
16:54come a hard winter, it heaves up with the frost and settles back down in the spring. A rigid mortar
17:01joint, set against ground that moves, will crack, and once it cracks, it lets the water in, and the
17:08water freezes and pries it wider, and in a few years, your handsome path is a ruin of broken seams.
17:16Sand does
17:16not crack, because sand was never joined in the first place. It shifts. When the ground heaves,
17:23the sand shifts with it, and the stones settle back down. It gives a little, and then it comes back.
17:30And if a joint ever does get low or wash thin over the years, you do not repair anything. You
17:37throw a
17:37bit more sand on it, and sweep it in, and you are done, and it costs you nothing, and takes
17:44five minutes.
17:45The old road builders knew this, and it is why so many old cobbled streets and courtyards were set in
17:52sand rather than mortared solid. A thing that can move a little will outlast a thing that cannot move
17:59at all. That is true of a path, and it is true of a good many things besides. And there
18:05it is. Stand back
18:07now and look. Irregular gray stones, close fitted, sand packed joints, the whole thing looking for
18:15all the world like a cobblestone path that has been there since your grandfather's day. And you made it
18:22out of sandwich bags in an afternoon. Now let me be plain about what this is and what it is
18:28not, because I
18:29will not sell you something and let you find out the hard way. This is a garden path. This is
18:36a walkway
18:37to the shed, a little patio by the back door, a set of stepping stones through the yard, an approach
18:43to
18:44the porch. For all of that it is grand, and it will serve you for years. This is not a
18:51driveway. Do not
18:52park a truck on it. It is not a foundation, and it is not a load-bearing slab, and it
18:59is
18:59not a proper footing for a building. Those want real depth, real gravel base, real reinforcement,
19:07and a man who knows what he is doing. Know the difference, and you will be happy with this.
19:13Ignore the difference, and you will be disappointed, and it will not be the method's fault. Now, who
19:19profits from you not knowing this? And I will say it careful, because I am not telling you there is
19:26a
19:26scheme, some room full of men keeping this from you. It is quieter than that, and it needs no plotting
19:33at all. A pallet of cut flagstone is a great deal of money, and a load of pavers is a
19:40great deal of
19:41money, and a contractor to lay them is more money still. And nobody makes a dollar telling you that a
19:48bag of concrete mix and a box of freezer bags will get you most of the way there. There is
19:55no profit in
19:56the cheap way, so nobody carries the cheap way forward, and the knowing of it just quietly grows
20:02over like a path nobody walks. Well, let us walk this one. Here is what I would ask of you.
20:11If you have a
20:12muddy strip in your yard, or a place where you have always meant to put a walk and never did
20:18because
20:18of the cost, try this. One bag of concrete, a box of freezer bags, a bag of sand. Do a
20:27short stretch
20:27of it first, six or eight stones, and see how you like it before you commit to the whole thing.
20:34And
20:34then come down to the comments and tell me. Tell me how it came out, and how many stones you
20:40laid,
20:41and whether the shake worked the way I said it would. I read them, and other folks read them too,
20:47and every one of you that reports back gives heart to the next one standing there looking at a muddy
20:54yard. And the next time we sit down together, I am going to show you something I have been promising.
21:01Because a path keeps your feet dry, but a house has to keep you warm, and there is a reason
21:08an old
21:08farmhouse holds its heat through a hard winter while the new house next door goes cold in a single night.
21:16It is not luck, and it is not magic. It is built right into the walls, and it has been
21:23sitting there
21:24in plain sight the whole time. So scrape your ground level, split your bag over a rod and save your
21:33back,
21:33mix it loose enough to slide off the tool, fill your bags half to three quarters, press the air out,
21:41fold the seal under, lay them and shake them, let them sleep overnight, peel them in the morning, and sweep
21:50the
21:50sand into the joints. And you will walk out your back door on stone, and you will have laid every
21:58one of
21:58them with your own two hands. The people who built this country with their hands knew that, and we are
22:06only just starting to remember it.
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