Sounds about right to me.

WOW!!! What a difference the area makes.

I'd place Oklahoma Blue flagstone on an existing concrete deck for less than 20.00 per sq/ft any day of the week.

Area SE Texas.

See ya,
Kelly

deckman22, can you give me a general breakdown of the costs? I am ignorant here and just want to educate myself. I am thinking no more than $6,000 for materials. Is the rest just labor? We are talking a square concrete slab with one step. No retaining wall or caps or anything. Just trying to figure out where the other money is going since it looks like it would be a fast job.

huskyridor, you both are in texas so it is kind of interesting to see the difference.

quote" $6,000 for materials. "quote

Another big difference here too.

I'm curious, how much does blue flagstone cost in your area? I sell mine for 20 cents per pound to do-it-yourselfers, a 400 sq/ft deck would use about 8 to 9000 lbs with a rock thickness of 1 1/4 inches. There are extra costs for the installer, portland cement, masons sand, coloring agent, and diamond blades. The rest is labor.

See ya,
Kelly

Hey Kelly,

I came up with that price by looking at the most expensive bluestone I could find online and then adding some money per sq. ft. and then added some more for cement and such. I figured it could not be any more than $6,000 for material. Was just wondering if I was wrong, because another $17,000 for labor just seemed like a lot! Then again, I certainly don't think I have the skill to do it!

steelersguy, Get a crew from Pittsurgh!

SteelersDude,

Are you talking about flagstone or the real thing - bluestone as in the rock formation above a coal seam?

If the later, then it is extrememly hard to break up - must be specially cut - very expensive. Very rare mineral. The comparison would be like a diamond and a cubic zirconia.

We have several tens of tons of it on a hillside to the front side of our home, that when Morgantown said No to dynamite, we decide to forgot removal and are in the process of seeing what, if any plants will grow on a hillside with a abundance of bluestone, coal, shale and sandstone.

Hoping that the Irish Moss we have on order will take faster than the 900 ivy plants I did this summer. Thank goodness for tulip bulb planters! All the trees/shrubs I planted are doing well, but I am following the recipes in a wonderful book I bought, Jerry Baker's "Terrivic Garden Tonics".

Still waiting and about to Contest the Charges with Visa for quite a few trees I ordered from TyTy Nursery in April. Charged in July and still no plants. Every time I call they say they are scheduled to go in the next month. Friday they told me that they would ship in November. Last month it was in October.

What's with on-line nursuries? I know, that is another subject all together.

Cheers!

That sounds very expensive to me. I had bluestone patios installed in Montauk, NY, which is way way out and quite expensive. A crew from Southampton did it for $25 per square foot and they had to install a 4" concrete base beneath it.

That being said, i have also heard quotes in the $40-45 per foot range.

$57.50 seems excessive.

Ok, I spent some time on the web searching for bluestone and what I found was either Bluestone or bluestone pavers.

Soooo, I asked my younger brother, an oil geologist for the past 25 years, whether the stuff in our front hillside was Bluestone or bluestone. He said that what they make bluestone pavers and block from is the 'shale like' layer above Bluestone.

If it were real Bluestone, then it would need NO SUPPORT other than good leveling, as you could run a military tank on it 24/7/365 and you would be lucky if it even scared.

Bluestone, because of its' density and sheer structural strength would need no support and would be very expensive because each chunk has to be either explosive removed or cut with machinary. Bluestone sit atop a shale seam for thousands of years, compresses the shale and the outcome are gas, oil and coal. Simplistic as I can make it.

$57.50 a sq./ft. is probably middle grade quality material (which probably adquate for 70% of us) and from a contractor that is trying to keep his crew busy so that he does not have to lay them off and risk not getting them back when all this economic crap gets settled, as it did in the 60's the 70's the 80's the 90's and now the 00's.

Just my dimes worth!

Brian

I just picked out the bluestone for my porch so I can speak with experience here. I went to a stone supplier in Central NJ (Stone Center of Bridgewater...wonderful place by the way). I picked out my bluestone (PA Bluestone). I needed approximately 350 sq. feet. This turned out to be approximately 5300 lbs. The cost per lb. was 0.13/lb for the 3/4"-1 1/2" thickness. There is a larger thickness as well, but it would have been too thick for my porch depth. I also added some lilac blue stone to the mix, at 0.18/lb. for some color variation.

What I can say is that installation is VERY labor intenstive. These pieces of bluestone are large, heavy, and leveling and filling with mortar seems to take a LONG time.

Just my 2 cents...but I just went through it so I thought it would help.

$57.50 sounds very high...

over the summer a friend of mine had it done on long island (nassau county) for about $24 a square from island associates.

it looks great...

Here is a link that might be useful: Island Associates

the cost of it in minnesota is 5.75 per sf material only. that cost is for low quality bluestone with various thicknesses between 1-1/2"-2" thick. not good if you have your base material perfectly level and have to set each stone one at a time to get them flush.

a better way would be to buy "tight tolerance bluestone, where it is sawn to an even thickness, not just pulled from the quarry and loose-sorted. cost here jumps to 13.50 a sq ft.

*raw material ($5400)
*labor will run you $30-35/hr. try to guesstimate how many hours the crew might be there, or just ask how long it will take. maybe 3 days with 3 guys, say 100 hours ($3000)
*figure miscellaneous costs (10%),($500)
*wasted product for cutting (10% of 400= 40 sq ft), ($540)
*travel (3 men, 3 days, 1 hour both ways= 18hrs) ($540)
*skidsteer cost (350 per day @ 3 days), ($1050)
*tax (7% of 5940), ($416)
*subtotal ($11,446)
*and markup (total cost +25%)($2861)
+/- $14,307 - - - $35.76 sq ft

i install for $26-40 /sq ft depending on the job scope, access to the project site, and whether dropping the price means getting the job.

i wouldnt install over the concrete patio though. is it in good shape? is is full of settling cracks? how old it is will tell you whether or not settling might occur in the future. id rather start over with a base i know is set right. extra costs, i know.. but really, whats the advantage of the slab? good luck

I can get it done for $24.00 sq foot in NJ. Complete with 4" slab, set in Mud and grouted. The allowance for the Bluestone is $6.00 per sq foot.

Here is a link that might be useful: Best Flooring Direct

Seems very high. Should be around $3,000-$4,000 in materials depending on the grade of the stone. Thermal Bluestone is the highest grade. Polowy Stone in lafayette nj has the largest selection and best prices in the area and will ship anywhere in the country. Wholesale supplier. I would get another quote. My patio came out awesome! Here is a link to their website www.polowystone.com

Here is a link that might be useful: Polowy stone

We live in Shrewsbury,NJ ( Monmouth County) I just got a price today from a company doing a lot of very nice work in our development. They will provide a 4" gravel and 2" sand base and will charge $2500 for an area of 125 sq. ft.. This is suppose to be the top grade bluestone- he gave us 3 different options.