When developing a project for a site near a country house, all details must be taken into account to eliminate unnecessary expenses and preserve the integrity and attractiveness of landscape design. This applies to any thing: plants, buildings and communication elements. There are no exceptions and tracks. Their number, the necessary functional parameters, shape and size should be justified by a number of factors: the total area of the site, the relief of the territory, the need to connect different zones, the frequency and weight load on the surface. For example, laying paving slabs on a concrete base is provided for parking cars and places with heavy equipment (boilers, pumps), and a decorative path would look better to the main entrance to the house and adjacent territories. Inland and to the utility rooms you can use cheaper material that provides only ease of use, but does not carry any aesthetic effect.
The reliability of the garden path, the durability and compositional attractiveness of your personal plot depend on how paving slabs are laid on a concrete base with high quality and thoughtfully, without foundation, with loose or hard coating. "Busting" in the paths, as well as their lack, equally badly affects the comfortable conditions in the arrangement of your garden.
Before deciding how to lay the paving slabs, you must determine the degree of operational load on the track. If it provides for the movement of vehicles or any other heavy equipment, it should be performed on a basis that can be sandy, gravel or concrete. The required base thickness, in turn, depends on the nature of the soil. With normal soil structure and average loads, its sufficient height will be 8-10 cm. If the site is clay or salt marsh, it should be 20-25 cm thick. When laying paving slabs on a concrete base or any other, the slope level of the track itself should be taken into account to drain water.
The technology for performing the foundation consists of the following steps:
- The first step in the implementation of the base is the excavation (depth of at least 20 cm) and the creation of the so-called "mirror" under the track. The bottom surface must be carefully sealed.
- Coarse slag or crushed stone is laid on it to a thickness of 10 cm, on top is a layer of the same material, but of a smaller size - 5 cm. The materials should be laid in a wet state. They serve as the base and drainage system at the same time.
- A binder is applied to the sealed base. It can be cement or clay soil. The layer is 1-2 cm thick. It serves to fix the previous ones and must be waterproof.
- On the prepared basis, lay the flooring of the coating material. It can be loose - pebbles, gravel, clay shards, sand; hard - natural or artificial stone, finished slabs. Nowadays, a variety of places where to buy paving slabs, a wide range of goods offered will allow you to choose the most suitable both in terms of aesthetic qualities and operational characteristics. It should be remembered that concrete and asphalt types of pavement heat up on a hot day, so walking around them inside the garden can hardly be called pleasant.
Beautifully made paths will serve you for a long time and will become an additional element in decorating the landscape design of your site. Combine them in colors, elements, coatings, consider operational parameters and they will serve you for a long time. Try, in fact, laying paving slabs on a concrete base is not as difficult as it seems at first glance.