What type of rocks for a patio?

[jacksonvasey]

My back yard is on the small side, and is in the shade for all but maybe two hours a day.  Until today, it had about 4" of heavy clay soil as the top layer of the soil, with mostly sand underneath, and little to no topsoil.

So, for the last nine years, we've struggled to either maintain a lawn back there, or in the last few years we gave up and covered most everything in wood chips.  Even with the wood chips, the drainage was really poor thanks to the clay.  SO, I just had a large part of the yard regraded, and they removed the clay layer, leaving just the sand.  The rest of the yard has decent-enough soil, and is still covered with 4-6" of wood chips.

Now, I want to cover the newly exposed sandy area with some kind of crushed stone, while making a seating area around a fire pit, too.  Ideally, I'd use the same crushed stone everywhere, but want to make sure it works for the seating area (i.e. chairs not sinking into the stone, or being hard to walk on).

Does anyone have any suggestions on what kind of stone I should get?  I'm assuming it should be something that's been crushed, so that it can pack down, but I'm not sure if that's all I need to worry about.

I've got lumber for building the righteous couches on this thread:
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/do-it-yourself-forum!/new-project-backyard!!-fence/

so before I do much more, I really want to get the stone squared away.  I got a bunch of 12' brand-new pressure treated 4x4's last year on Freecycle, so I think those will work well to separate the stone from the mulch.

[acroy]

I think decomposed granite will fit the bill. It can be compacted very nicely. It will need maintenance to repack, keep the weeds down, etc.
You should be able to have the stuff delivered by the dumptruck load fairly cheaply. Have fun!

[letired]

Note: if the decomposed granite gets tracked inside, it stands a very good chance of scratching the crap out of your floors, depending on what they are made of. #askmehowiknow

[Fishindude]

Any crushed stone will move around some, track into house, chair legs will sink in, etc.
Have you considered going with flat "flagstone" or concrete pavers to create a hard surface.

[pmk]

Be aware that the stone will migrate into the sandy layer. It may work if you use heavy landscape fabric in between.

[Christiana]

Our landscaping has a lot of areas with larger roundish gravel, that have been there a long time.  They need at least two good hand weedings every spring, plus occasional maintenance weeding, even in full shade, because over time bits of twigs and leaves have turned into soil between the rocks.  In one place, I dug down, just to see how hard it would be to get all the rocks back up to the top, and it was an even mix of stone and dirt for more than six inches down.  So I would choose pavers over rocks.  Your sand would make a good bed for pavers, if it's level enough. They're a lot easier to change out for something else later on, too.

[andy85]

I just used pea rock. It doesn't feel great on bare feet, but not awful either. smooth, small, and round. But it's cheap and easy to work with.

[jacksonvasey]

Thanks for the replies, everyone.  I did consider pavers, but I'm ultimately looking for cheap and easy, and I am planning on just putting down some native CT crushed stone which is mostly angular rather than rounded, and I expect it'll be good enough.

I've purchased some decent-looking landscape fabric to keep weeds from growing up through the rocks, at least for a while:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004SI9O9S

I am thinking about having some flagstone set down to make a more solid walkway, and even possibly where the furniture legs will go, but haven't decided.  I'm on vacation next week so I hope to get it done, and I'll post some pictures when it's done.

[Frugal Lizard]

Limestone fines will set up like concrete over time and can be stabilized with an additive to hasten that process.  To stop them from ending up inside a small deck that would act like a door mat might help - or some pavers.

[Glenstache]

Concrete paver forms will be a bit more effort than just putting down crushed stone, but is still pretty easy and DIY friendly.
https://www.google.com/search?q=concrete+paver+form&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjlytnerJnOAhVL2mMKHTNMDF0QsAQISA&biw=1041&bih=810

I did a small patio  and walkway using the Euro-style square form that turned out nicely. If you have or can rent a mixer, it is about 10 minutes per form if you work carefully. They turn out a bit nicer if you mix the concrete on the wet side. This is a lot easier than setting irregular flagstones in sand IMO. As shown in the generic google photos above, there are a lot of shape options to choose from. Tools are about $20 for the form, $10 for a concrete trowel, whatever it takes to get a mixer (I already owned one, so just had to roll it around), and then $3-4  bucks per form for an 80# sack of concrete.

[whitewaterchica]

Small river rock/pebbles (3/8") are wonderful for patios and walkways. Super easy to spread, feels nice under foot, looks nice, and doesn't require a depth of more than 1" (anything deeper that 1-2" usually results in visible footprints when walked on). I used it this spring to create a large patio, which was edged with railroad ties, as well as two garden paths and all turned out great.

*Edited to add: be sure to level everything out first and lay out good landscaping fabric before spreading the stone. Any weeds that come through later can be killed with boiling water.

[jacksonvasey]

I've made some good progress, ahead of a birthday party for our daughter this weekend.  I'm not sure I'll get the extra stone moved by then, but oh well.

I went with 3/4" CT blend crushed stone, and it seems suitable so far.  It's definitely compacted itself down a bit with the rain, seemingly.

[jacksonvasey]

Part of this project was knocking together a couple outdoor couches, a la the ones in this thread: http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/do-it-yourself-forum!/new-project-backyard!!-fence/

I've run out of time for getting them stained, but I think the end result is fairly good.  I wasn't able to find enough matching deep cushions at a sane price, so we ended up with some thinner cushions, which I'm not thrilled about.  I ended up needing to add the back rest on to make the seats comfortable.

I also knocked together a square bracket on the back of the couches to set a patio umbrella in, to provide some mid-day shade when we're out there.

I think I might also add some brackets on the back corners to hold up some conduit, and string some lights around the perimeter of the couches when we are out there at night.

[Glenstache]

Looks great!

[whitewaterchica]

Very pretty and welcoming!!