We just put in a small flagstone path ourselves and I think we did it all wrong: the stones are pretty unstable. We did it with little research and no experience, and on a very tight budget so we cut a lot of corners. I think the main problem is that we didn't actually use flagstones. Someone was giving away granite tiles (12x12x3/8") that we liked, so we broke those up and used them as the main stones. I think they're probably just too light. But I'd like to understand what all we did wrong before trying to fix the problem. The path is on our front yard, about 3 ft wide and 20 ft long, gently curving, and gently downsloped -- there is about a 1 ft decline over the 20 ft distance. First, we put in benderboards on the sides of the path. We did this without scraping the underlying dirt to be perfectly flat, so the tops of the benderboards aren't even from one side to the other. Second, we poured in several bags of moist, all-purpose sand. Because the dirt wasn't flat and tops of the benderboards are uneven, the sand depth varies from 3/4 inch to 1.5 inch. We tamped it by pushing down with a piece of wood board -- we did not use a metal tamper. Third, we laid the granite tile pieces. Their sizes varied, but on average they are about the size of a business-size envelope. Then we filled the spaces between them (which are about 1" width) with 1/4" black beach pebbles. Right away the stones did not feel solid. They sank and shifted when walked on. After just one day of use, several steps are already out of place. And worse, the pebbles that were between the stones are are all over the place. So, I think the main problem is that our stones pieces are just too small and thin. But I wonder if not tamping the sand was also a problem? [B]In a normal flagstone path, what keeps each flagstone from shifting under the weight of a person?[/B] It seems to me that even if the sand had been packed very tight, it would eventually dry out and become fluid, and would not keep flagstones from shifting under people's weight. How does that really work? I'd appreciate any input. Thanks.

Hi, First post here and I don't know much about construction. My old 80 year old building has a brick support wall on its side. Recently a contractor poked a hole on the side of the brick wall in order to feed a cable but took out a considerable amount of brick out from the wall, which is probably size of a 2 mcdonalds chicken nuggets out from the wall, exposing the brick. I then use some Thoroseal and sealed the hole without much problems, but I did not any acryl 60 like what they recommended. Are there going to be problems if I don't use acryl 60? Thanks. Another question is the durability of Thoroseal. About 4-5 years ago, I had some contractors who painted on the side of my brick wall probably using thoroseal with acryl 60, but I just noticed some it started to fade. On my parent's place, they painted the whole wall with a generous amount of thoroseal 10 years ago but with no acryl 60 and the wall held up pretty well. So back on the wall of my house, do you think the wall started to fade because they did not use enough thoroseal or if acryl 60 is a factor? Thanks.