If you have a country house, then, being away from the bustle of the city, you want to relax your body and soul. Modern personal plots can hardly be decorated with asph alted paths. But in landscape design, garden paths and cozy courtyards occupy one of the main positions today. As a covering for the tracks, you can use paving stones, which you can lay on your own. Initially, paving stones were granite or bas alt pavement used for paving paths and pavements, as well as sidewalks.
Why choose paving stones
Nowadays, paving with paving stones, the price of which will be mentioned below, involves the use of products from different materials. The described solutions for paths and territories have visual appeal, are highly durable and are offered for sale in different shades. By visiting the store, you can find concrete coatings that have excellent consumer properties and low cost.
Clinker brick in the form of paving stones has durability, frost resistance and strength. The basis is clay, and the shape of the product can be very different. The classic variety of paving stones is made of stone. The base can be marble, bas alt or granite. However, this solution may seem expensive, so it is often replaced with artificial stone.
Paving technology
If you decide to paving with paving stones, then you should follow the technology. The first stage involves preparatory work. The site plan should be transferred to paper, marking the location of the paving stones. Knowing the length of the area to be improved, you will be able to determine the need for material.
To the figure obtained, add 10% for marriage. To carry out the work you will need:
- rubble;
- gravel;
- cement;
- sand;
- geotextile.
The area is marked with a nylon cord and pegs. The latter must be placed 1.5 m apart from each other.
Preparing the base
Paving with paving stones involves excavation to such a depth that the future path coincides with the ground level or is slightly higher. Otherwise, excess moisture from rain and snow will accumulate and stagnate - it will have to be removed. It is necessary to add up the thickness of the layers of crushed stone or gravel, as well as sand, adding to the resulting value of the height of the bar. This will determineestimated depth of excavation.
To prepare the base, the earth is leveled, rhizomes of plants and stones are removed from the surface. The base should turn out to be even, the pits should be filled in, and the tubercles should be leveled. The soil needs to be compacted. If there is no special tool available, then you can do it yourself.
The soil is covered with geotextiles, this will prevent the germination of weeds. If we are talking about dense soil, then a layer of sand should be used for backfilling, the thickness of which will vary from 10 to 20 cm. If there is loose soil on the site, it is better to strengthen it with gravel, its layer should have a thickness ranging from 10 to 15 cm. Be that as it may, the layer compacts well.
Crushed stone can also be used as a pillow, in this case the surface will not be deformed. Paving with paving stones begins only after careful preparation. At this stage, special attention should be paid to complex terrain. In this case, concreting or cementing cannot be avoided. The solution should be prepared from a part of cement and 3 parts of fine sand. The mixture is poured into a 5 cm layer.
Border edging
The walkway will look complete and tidy if you use a border. For this, finished products are usually purchased. You can also use larger paving stones. To install the curbs, a trench is being prepared, which will be located along the nylon cord. Cement mortar is poured into the trench as the curb elements are placed.
Each part of the edging should be adjacent to the previous one, while the edge of the border will be in contact with the stretched cord. Use a rubber mallet to make adjustments. Quite often, edged boards are used to strengthen the curb. It is fixed in the trench at the first stage in order to closely position the tile or curb stone.
Installation of the main sheet
Paving with paving stones begins only after the mortar for laying the curb dries. The sand at the bottom is poured with water, only after that you can start laying the products. Sometimes boxes of edged boards are pre-prepared for this. Their recommended size is 1x0.7 m. These forms are installed and fixed on the pillow, after which you can start the paving process.
To check the quality of work, you can use the building level. For cutting elements, a grinder with a diamond disc is used. Usually, sawing elements is necessary when designing complex areas, when there is a need to go around some kind of object like a garden sculpture, porch or pond. If you have a vibrotamping tool, then it should be equipped with a rubber base so as not to damage the pavers.
Additional work recommendations
Paving paths with paving stones usually provides for the formation of a depression in the ground at 0.65 m. It is important to determine how deep the groundwater is in order to carry out drainage work. Important to dosurface with some slope ranging from 2.5 to 4%. This corresponds to a limit of 2.5 to 4 cm for every 100 cm of length.
Concrete curbs are quite often installed on semi-dry concrete. It is important to provide a gap of 3 mm between the elements; there is no need to fill the seams. For backfilling, sifted sand should be used, the fraction of which does not exceed 7 mm. Cement-sand mixture is not required. The bedding layer is laid with a thickness ranging from 3 to 5 cm. In order to preserve it, the installation of paving stones starts from the edge of the curbs so that subsequent rows act as a support.
The laying direction is from the edges to the center. The evenness of each row should be controlled with a stretched cord. The paving stone paving technology at the final stage provides for filling the joints with dry washed sand, the fraction of which is equal to the limit from 0 to 2 mm. The surface is watered, and excess sand is removed. The base should be compacted with a rammer. The work was carried out correctly if the path or territory turned out to be complete and smooth with uniform seams. At this stage, it can be considered that the site is ready for long-term operation.
Features of laying granite paving stones
If you started paving with granite paving stones, the price of such work should interest you. For one square meter of area you will have to pay about 500 rubles. If you plan to do the work yourself, then it is important to follow the rules. After preparing and compacting the soil, it is laid on its surfacegeotextile. Next comes a crushed stone pillow 10 cm high. The material fraction varies from 5 to 20 mm.
The resulting layers are well leveled and compacted, at the next stage, you can start backfilling a layer of sand and gravel with the addition of cement. Paving with granite paving stones is accompanied by the installation of another layer, which involves the use of geotextiles or concrete screed with reinforcement. Both of these layers can be used in combination. It all depends on the geological and man-made situation in the construction area. At the next stage, you can start laying paving elements using the same technology that was described above.
Features of laying clinker paving stones
Paving with clinker paving stones after site preparation provides for the creation of a drainage layer. It is important to provide slopes for the runoff of precipitation. The next step will be the formation of a gravel-crushed stone layer 30 cm high. The minimum thickness will be 15 cm. The track must have curb stops, their installation is carried out in the next step. Next, you need to fill in a layer of sand, which will rise 5 cm above the surface. Paving stones are laid on it.
