Just use plain mortar, it will darken over time anyway.

I agree with using the standard mortar. Colored mortar can significantly change the overall look of natural stone. If you do opt for a color mortar, it is worth doing a sample before trying on your project. Good Luck!

Thank you both for your feedback. It helps to bounce ideas off others!! All the best.

plain mortar

Another idea is paver sand for your walkway.

Thank you for your comments. Plain mortar it is :-)

Question for you, waterchick...did you lay the bluestone over poured concrete on your porch? We are adding a front porch and want bluestone but trying to determine if we lay it over concrete or some other structure.

What a great choice for your porch and walkway. I LOVE bluestone and wish more people would consider using it. Natural mortar color should be fine, especially since your house is a light taupe color.

@kJ I would say you want a concrete base, and mortar joints since it is against the house.

KJ--You should pour concrete first. Our home had an original concrete porch but we added the walkway ourselves. So we excavated that, boxed it, then had cement delivered (way easier and cheaper than mixing your own).

Depending on who you talk to, you might get different answers to this. But here in CA, some people said just to lay it straight into mortar. Others recommended using thinset (which is what we went for). And then a 3rd guy said, we should have laid down mortar, but butter backed each tile with a small amount of thinset. It helps with adhesion and a lot of professional installers do that here.

I would recommend talking to a few local stone yards yourself. See what they say for your area/conditions etc. But for sure, lay the concrete first.

If you're in the LA area, I have a few recommendations for bluestone suppliers if you need one. Good luck! And whatever you do, lay out your tiles and get your random pattern dialed in first. Less cuts you make the better. And account for color variations and mix them accordingly throughout your pattern.

Oh and this may be overkill, but clean your tiles before installing them. They are usually extremely dirty and colors (especially iron spots) can be mostly scrubbed off, changing the tiles appearance considerably.

looks beautiful!

Beautiful!!

gorgeous. so envious! :)

Thank you everyone! We put a lot of work into the front. It looks so different from when we bought the house, so lots of curb appeal now!

I must say, since the tiles are large, once you get into a rhythm it goes pretty fast. We planned the width of our walkway so that we wouldn't have to make any cuts. It was really only the tiles at the rear of the porch that needed cutting and the steps too. So planning ahead can really save you considerable installation time.

We are extremely happy with the outcome. I'm a big fan of Pennsylvania Bluestone and will for sure use it on future projects.

Great looking job! Well done.

You two did an awesome job! Looks great.

I'm inspired! Hoping to have a front porch by the end of the summer that looks quite similar!

One more question for you! We are installing the bluestone at the end of the month and are wondering about sealing it. So many different opinions out there! It will be on a covered front porch, FYI.

We debated sealing it, but I think most of the articles I found advised against it. So at this point in time, we haven't done so.

I will share this: whatever you do, be aware of flowers and leaves. I planted a bunch of red petunias that took off and looked lovely. I spent many hours pruning them and always removed any dead flowers every day. Then we went on vacation.

Came back.....to tons of red stains embedded in the bluestone and along our driveway. Had we sealed, perhaps that wouldn't have happened?

In any case, I carefully worked on the stains using various techniques to no avail. I then borrowed a neighbors pressure washer. It worked, but left some swirling lines on the stone.

So....I had to very carefully apply the water pressure washer again, making sure I followed a straight pattern back and forth. Presto--that solved the problem.

Moral of my story: don't plant flowers next to your bluestone or put pots (they will stain a ring eventually). Sweep up leaves and especially if leaves or flowers get wet, clean it up immediately if you chose not to seal.

Not sure what area of the country you are in, but check with your local bluestone yard and see what they advise for your area.

Hope this helps!

Thank you so much for your advice!

Quick question for you on this year old thread....what is the width of this patio? We are getting ready to lay one with random sizes such as this and it looks beautiful, trying to NOT recreate the wheel on a great pattern since you already have one! Thanks!

It's 48" wide. Hope that helps.

wow I'm so impressed that you did this yourself!! it looks great!!!

We are in LA doing same project....would you mind giving me your Bluestone suppliers? Yours is exact look we want....is it a specific style and cut we ask for? It came out fabulous! Thanks!

You worked a miracle on that fireplace! Fabulous!

can i ask - how big are your grout spaces? we are about to put in a french pattern and they are saying it will be half inch. seems huge to me.

That sounds about right. I just measured ours and mostly they were 1/2” to 5/8”. The thing to consider is that the stone tiles aren’t truly square. So this gives you wiggle room to achieve a square look (if that makes sense). Hope this helps!

How is the pain mortar holding up? Any cracks? We are debating whether to go for regular mortar or polymeric sand but polymeric sand color options are very limited.

Wow! You guys did a great job! That walkway looks great.

@design lovers. One thing I have noticed about polymeric sand is that it does seem to encourage the growth of moss in the joints. I have come to like the look but it may not suit everyone.

Hi Kivi - my pavers have been laid on concrete so I don’t think we will get any weeds.

Looks amazing! Do you any recollection of the square foot price of Pennsylvania bluestone

The plain mortar is holding up perfectly. I nicked the corner edge where the path meets the sidewalk with our weed wacker. So a chunk (2” long) popped out. That was my fault though. In terms of wear and tear, we have no cracks or chunks coming out. Still holding up well here!

No idea but thanks for sharing-it looks beautiful

You may not monitor this anymore, but if so, wondering if this is ”Blue” or ”Full Range” color? It‘s beautiful! Thank you!

If memory serves me correctly, it was blue. Even with blue you get some variation. And the full color had way more color differences.

Thank you!

What color is your house, stucco. It looks great with bluestone.