Hi All - new to the forum and would appreciate any advice! I recently bought a home that had a lot of large pieces of natural slate laying around in the yard. The pieces range in thickness from 3/4 inch thick to 2 inches thick.

I decided to use the slate to make a patio. I didn’t want to create a concrete base in my yard and have the slate pop up each winter (I live in Connecticut), so after consulting with a supply store I prepared the base in a more conventional way used for pavers and flagstone (5 inches compacted crushed stone/1 inch compacted stone dust). I intended to set the slate on the stone dust and fill the gaps with polymeric dust.

Now that I am setting the slate, I am concerned that the polymeric dust will not be substantial enough to keep the thinner pieces of slate locked in place, especially because the slate is set on the stone dust instead of glued onto a concrete slab.

Unless I am told that I am overthinking this, are there alternative methods I could use to keep everything in place? Thanks so much for any advice!