How to Install Dry Stacked Flagstone

Locate the flagstone that you wish to use. Consult a local building material supplier and purchase the necessary amount. Remove soil, sediment, tree roots and rocks -- 6 inches in depth -- from the footer or area in which you wish to lay the dry stacked flagstone. Dig out the footer slightly wider than the base width of the dry stacked flagstone wall. Use a shovel for the majority of digging and a pick, if necessary, to get to the rocks and debris.

Level the dirt footer and verify it with a bubble level. Add a layer of gravel and tamp the gravel level, rent a gravel tamper if necessary to do this step. Double-check to ensure the gravel base is level.

Lay out the flagstone for the first course before installation, lay out the entire base course. Fit the pieces and lock them together to ensure a strong and stable first course. Do not allow large gaps between the first row pieces. Any gaps that are left behind will be filled with broken pieces or "chinks" of flagstone.

Begin laying the first row of flagstone. Keep the pieces tight and level each piece to the piece adjoining it. Use a large rubber mallet to tamp in high pieces, add gravel under low pieces. Pieces in the first row may settle -- tamp in every piece with the mallet to avoid settling later on.

Start the second row by centering the first piece on the middle of the piece below it or "staggering" the piece, this is done to aid the structural integrity of the dry stacked flagstone wall. Verify the pieces in the second course are not protruding vertically, keep them in line with the first row. Check to ensure the second course is level and continue.

Repeat each course as above until the dry stacked flagstone structure has achieved the desired height. Use small scraps of flagstone to fill in any remaining voids on the surface of the wall, tap them in with a rubber mallet.