[BFEdenizen]

We have a large stack of rock that's been sitting next to the garage for the last 3 years.

I think it's it's pretty nice. I have no idea what kind of stone it is. Quite a few of them have fossilized shells visible along their surface. They're respectably large pieces. On average, they're 4"-5" inches thick and roughly 18"-36" on their longest dimension. There are a few small pieces, but they're all pretty big pieces for the most part. For reference, the tall piece leaning against the wall is about 4'6" in height.

Any ideas on what we should do with it? The initial plan was to make a driveway out of it, but we're rethinking the idea. Another option we were thinking about was setting them in sand around the giant pecan tree in the backyard, making a circular patio around the trunk. Or maybe even a large barbecue pit?

Thoughts? We're willing to play around with it.

 

[Larryh86GT]

That is very nice stone. A walkway or even better a pond with a cascading fountain comes to mind.

 

[hammerlane]

We have a large stack of rock that's been sitting next to the garage for the last 3 years.

3 years???

Put an ad on craigslist and sell it.

 

[Canarywood1]

My guess is Limestone,and the patio around the Pecan tree sounds nice.

 

[747]

Call somebody up who is in the business and say how much will you give me. Its nice stone.

 

[BFEdenizen]

No, we'd really like to keep the stone. We gathered it ourselves from a friend's property, so we picked out the pieces based on the colors we like and the interesting fossils on their surface. It's just been one project after another with this house, so we haven't had the time to get to the stone until recently. The patio is probably what we're going to end up doing. Would sand be the best way to lay it? Also, I really the idea of a pond with cascading waterfall. We probably have more than enough stone to do both. How difficult would that be? Neither of us have any experience with making water features, but that would be gorgeous.

 

[Tscarborough]

That stone is too thick to make a patio with, you will have a very hard time getting it level and flat. A water feature would be nice.

 

[Blondesense]

I'm doing a similar project with natural stone. The varying thicknesses make it difficult to lay evenly. You may have position each piece more than once to get it to the right depth. This also very time consuming and hard on the back. With pieces that large....?

A water feature would be nice, or maybe the outside surround of a fire pit. Something where it is not essential to have everything perfectly level.
By the way, from someone who's been-there-done-that. When you start piecing it together you won't have as much as you think you do.

 

[<*(((><]

Outdoor fire pit

 

[BFEdenizen]

Thanks so much for all the suggestions! It's very much appreciated.

Outdoor fire pit

An outdoor firepit or barbecue pit would be really nice. Would this rock work for something like that? I think I remember reading somewhere that you have to line it with brick on the inside, otherwise the rock breaks from the heat. Is that true?

And yeah, it was backbreaking to gather and haul. Many of the pieces are probably well over 100 lbs each. We love the unbroken large stones, but I can see where it would be a real pain (literally) to level if we tried to make a patio. Especially at that thickness. Husband might still be willing to try it, but I dunno about myself. Hmm.

As for the quantity of stone, we can always get more if needed. It's just a matter of exactly how big we want this project to be. Yikes. Another thought we had was making a raised flower bed of some kind.

 

[<*(((><]

Thanks so much for all the suggestions! It's very much appreciated.



An outdoor firepit or barbecue pit would be really nice. Would this rock work for something like that? I think I remember reading somewhere that you have to line it with brick on the inside, otherwise the rock breaks from the heat. Is that true?

And yeah, it was backbreaking to gather and haul. Many of the pieces are probably well over 100 lbs each. We love the unbroken large stones, but I can see where it would be a real pain (literally) to level if we tried to make a patio. Especially at that thickness. Husband might still be willing to try it, but I dunno about myself. Hmm.

As for the quantity of stone, we can always get more if needed. It's just a matter of exactly how big we want this project to be. Yikes. Another thought we had was making a raised flower bed of some kind.

Yes you would dig down 12" or so and put gravel down so water has a place to go and then line the edge of the fire pit with ceramic fire bricks (placing them vertically) and using fire rated mortar and then you would stack your rocks just on the outside of the fire bricks vertically until you get to the top of the ceramic blocks then you can place a 'capstone' over the top of the bricks that ties the brick wall together with the ceramic bricks to hide them.

You can either dry stack the stones or use some mortar to tie them together, I would recommend some mortar to keep things from moving. It all really isn't that difficult as one might think.

With regards to the stones getting too hot and breaking apart (exploding) it really depends on the type of stone you have, if the stone is porous and takes up water then you would have a problem and would definitely need to use some firebrick to throw the heat back towards the center.

 

[kwikfishron]

I did a patio out of Limestone slabs (just like what you have) at my place.

I was a little concerned with the unevenness of it at first but in the end it wasn't a problem.

Just set them in sand and get all of the edges relatively flush to each other so you don't create any trips and you'll be fine.

It is a lot of work but I get complements on mine all the time.

 

[cleveman]

If you really have a lot of it, and the width of the pieces isn't too great, I would consider building a climbing wall up the gable end of a garage, etc.-something tall.

Obviously, you would want it to be very random and "ugly".

This would require quite a footing.

Otherwise, I guess you are looking at a patio/walkway. If you could sort the stuff by thickness, I think this would help you.

 

[Dorado]

I know nothing about building stone paths, but I would have guessed you'd need a jackhammer or rotary hammer to shape and size most of the pieces to make it look good. Making a waterfall from them would be easier because you could arrange them like steps and the higher layers would hide the gaps between the different shaped stones.

 

[kwikfishron]

I know nothing about building stone paths, but I would have guessed you'd need a jackhammer or rotary hammer to shape and size most of the pieces to make it look good.

No jackhammer needed for Limestone. That stuff about breaks if you look at it wrong. Very soft rock, at least any of it I've ever dealt with.