I put the outside edges together first and then filled in the middle. It might seem backward but I wanted the outside edges fairly smooth. I also tried to fit the concrete pieces together as close as possible. The link shows part of it at the base of the front steps. I used the largest pieces I could move with a bar to begin with, and then gradually used up the smaller pieces. Yeah, it's work! I'm 62 and in reasonable shape.

Here is a link that might be useful: Patio walkway

I'm not a stone expert. Given that you live in CT, you will experience a lot of frost heave. So do NOT try to fill in the cracks with a wet cement mix. The frost heave will heave and crack it all and you will have a mess. Better to go with dry stone with good drainage. Then after the winter heave is over, it will settle back in place. If you go to a stoneyard, they should be able to recommend which size stone fill.

Thanks for the replies. Yep, I'm thinking the same thing...frost heave...that's why I've stopped dead in my tracks before I make another move filling in the spaces.

I was also thinking, along those lines...what if I were to use a mix of the small (native) pebbles (to describe them they remind me of just a bit bigger than large brown rice) and blended that with some stone dust and THEN went ahead and filled in the cracks? Would that work?

The reason I keep harping on this is because I really would like to have a somewhat firm, stable fill between the slabs. I went to CT Stone here and looked at the variety and purchased a few samples to give it a shot with just the stone/pebble by themselves and the medium size pebbles seem to move around too much for my liking, even if I pack and tamp them in. Soooo, would adding some stone dust to a mix of the tiny, rice size pebbles work? M

The most effective solution I have actually seen (have done none of this sort of thing) in public gardens here is soil filled and planted. You'd need to consult a garden center or some such to find what (if anything) would work in your climate. Here in the coastal South we seem to have a problem of keeping things from growing more than getting them to grow. But these little itty-bitty plants and soil do seem to hold the concrete "stones" very well. From memory it does seem like these areas I've seen are shaded most of the day.

David

Hi,
I did the same thing with recycled sidewalk slabs. It turned out great. I used crusher dust in the cracks. At the time I lived in Saskatchewan, so I also had the frost heave concern. I don't know if there's another name for crusher dust, but it is more coarse than sand and you spread it then water it and over time it becomes packed down. I found this worked very well and it looked nice, too.
Cheers!