How I'm replacing the old broken grout between my flagstones

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My favorite project lately is replacing the old broken grout between my flagstones in my backyard, and replacing it with a flexible adhesive. I'm enjoying doing it, and it may or may not be appropriate for you. I'll see if I can explain.

I'm in the Phoenix, Arizona area, where flagstone can be laid directly on the ground. That is, it never gets cold enough for frost heave, so all I did was to put a base of sand down and fiddle with the stones until they sat properly, with no teeter-totter. I started doing this many years ago, and once the stones were all in and stable I added some grout between them which I poured in and wetted to set. And then over the years as the grout cracked I touched it up, because the stones do move, at least a little bit - enough to crack the grout, which is just kinda like concrete.

But this year I did something different, putting in something that was flexible. It comes in a tube, and you have to use a caulking gun to apply it. Believe it or not, in a long life I'd never used a caulking gun!

But I accepted the challenge, and even watched a YouTube video on how to use a caulking gun, and after I had chipped out the old grout (which came out pretty easily), I started filling in the gaps with the flexible adhesive. It takes some care, and if you're a messy person, this isn't for you. My goal was to leave a bit of a lip showing, which is how you show off that it's genuine flagstone, so it took some finesse.

Once the adhesive was in, I disliked the plasticy look of it, in spite of the fact that it's tinted grey, so I dirtied it up with some of my leftover grout, which was still in the garage. In places that the adhesive wouldn't reach I just tapped in more of the old grout, and wetted it to set.

I have some small plastic "traffic cones" from my physical therapy, and I set them out so that I wouldn't accidentally step where I shouldn't - it also kept the dogs from walking on that area.

This is messy stuff, so I wore disposable gloves and kept plenty of rags handy. Unfortunately, I discovered that if it touched the top of the flagstone it immediately stained it, so I had to be very careful not to drip. This was more of an art project than a construction project!

Once it's set, it just looks like ordinary grout. You can push it with your finger and feel it flex a bit, so I'm sure that it won't crack. Like I say, this isn't a weekend project, and it takes a lot of fiddling to get it just right, but I'm fine with that. My garden is a labor of love.

Update - the going is slow, but I like the results. This area requires smaller pieces to help fill in the gaps, and I'm enjoying the process of finding "puzzle pieces" to glue in place. Because it actually is glue, you know.

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