I always thought a 3/8 inch joint was fine for everything, but a job in Phoenix changed my mind.

We were building a big garden wall and I was using my usual 3/8 inch joint. My foreman, a guy named Ray, told me to switch to a 1/2 inch for the whole thing. I thought it would look sloppy, but with the heat out there, the bigger joint handled the expansion way better. After a year, my old walls would have cracks, but this one is still solid. Anyone else run into this with different climates?

4 comments

4 Comments

tessalane24d ago

Yeah, my buddy had a similar thing happen in Minnesota. He was building a stone patio with tight joints, the way he always did. That first winter, the freeze-thaw cycles just popped half the stones right up. He had to redo the whole thing the next spring with wider joints to give the stones room to move. It was a hard lesson, but now he always asks about the local weather before he picks a joint size.

kevinallen24d ago

What did you end up using to fill those wider joints? I switched to a coarse sand mix with just a little polymer after my own freeze-thaw mess. The sand lets water drain but the polymer keeps it from washing out completely. It's held up for three winters now without any stones moving.

evan_grant7020h ago

So you're saying wider joints are actually better in cold places? I always thought tight joints looked nicer so that's what I used to do. But after reading what happened to your buddy and seeing what @kevinallen said about his sand mix, it makes total sense. Letting the stones move a little and having a joint filler that drains is way smarter than just going for looks. I guess I'd rather have a patio that stays flat.

ray_burns24d ago

Hard lesson" is right. Water always wins.