Stone backfill

[Steve_in_C]

I have over excavated my site and backfilled with 57 stone (<1" stone, fairly uniform, clean washed stone). With the large size of the stone, its hard to make fine adjustments in the patio blocks. Has anyone topped stone with another material that won't wash away like sand and allows for fine adjustments? Or should I get as close as I can and shim up to make it as level as possible.

 

[Sseaman]

If it is compacted correctly, you should then be able to go with a smaller stone for the top couple inches then finish off with sand to fine tune the fit.