How to lay paving stones with your own hands and what material to choose? Today, paving stones are becoming more and more popular because of their strength, durability, modernity and a number of advantages, which include convenience, maintainability, environmental friendliness and durability. This coating is perfect for paving a sidewalk, path or country yard, thus changing the familiar look of a country house. The owners, who decide to decorate the backyard territory with this material, first of all ask themselves the question: "How to lay paving stones?" This procedure is quite laborious, requires certain skills and tools. First of all, you need to choose the type of stone. Most often it is granite, gabbro or bas alt, since it is these rocks that are considered the most durable and of high quality. It is important to choose a stone that will look most harmoniously on a given territory, calculate and draw up a site project, choose a method for preparing the base on which the material will be laid and determine the level of labor intensity of the work.
Requiredmaterials
Next, you need to check the availability of the necessary tools or purchase them at any hardware store. You should also collect information on how to lay the paving stones. Before starting work, you need to make sure that the paving stones themselves, the measuring tape, crushed stone, sand, a source of water, a hammer, a shovel, lumber and rammers are available. You need to be prepared for the fact that in the process of work you may always need something else. When drawing up a project, you need to deal with the operating conditions of the future coverage, namely, whether it will play the role of a pedestrian zone, parking for cars, or will it become a travel zone for trucks. The choice of the base for the stone, the necessary materials and technology depend on this.
Styling Methods
How to lay paving stones? There are only three ways of laying the material: fan-shaped, in-line and arbitrary. An important point with any method is the exact implementation of the technology. First, you need to assess the scale of the plan. If a small path is planned, then a novice builder will be able to lay it out on his own, and if we are talking about a larger area, it is more expedient to involve professionals in this process. Then there is a marking of the territory with the help of pegs and a rope stretched over them. The plan must necessarily provide for the drainage of water with the indicated drains and the necessary slope, which is not more than 5 mm per meter, for unimpeded flow of the liquid. If you do not pay due attention to this issue, later the water will begin to collectunder the coating, eroding the base and destroying the masonry.
How to lay paving stones? Preparing the site before starting work
In this matter, the estimated load on the stone is very important, on which the thickness of the lining depends. Before work, the upper soil layer is removed to a depth that will easily accommodate a layer of sand, gravel and the material itself. The type of base under the material depends on the expected load. There are three types of it: a sand cushion is used for walking paths with moderate traffic; for paths with increased traffic of pedestrians and cars, a gravel-sand coating is used; for the base under trucks make a pillow of concrete. After choosing the base, the tamping process begins, which can also be done with improvised means.
Styling Secrets
The last and most important issue is the laying of the stone itself. During this process, you need to do everything as carefully as possible and not rush. You should start working with the main elements, moving on to less significant ones, because the appearance of the masonry directly depends on this stage. An equally significant issue is how to lay paving stones in the rain. During the rainy season, this is absolutely impossible. Just as it is impossible to fill the seams with a sand-cement mixture in order to prevent the destruction of the coating. After all, with changes in temperature, the stone changes its volume, so the coating must have the ability to depreciate.
