Beautifully arranged paths radically transform the look of a summer cottage. In addition, they bring not only aesthetic, but also practical benefits: moving around the garden will be noticeably easier. Specialty stores are full of materials, as well as special equipment for construction. Almost the best results are obtained if the formwork for the garden path is used in the arrangement of summer cottages.
What it is?
The formwork is a special form (looks like a rectangular, square or figured frame with hollow compartments), with the help of which a garden path or its fragments are cast from concrete. This device is inexpensive and very easy to use.
On sale you can find a variety of plates or stones for arranging paths. However, these materials are quite expensive. Formwork for the manufacture of garden paths will help to equip the path in the garden much cheaper.
These devices vary in size, shape, number of compartments. Their appearance is very different: they can repeat straight shapes (triangles, quadrangles, etc.) or have smooth shapes. In addition, formwork is made of durable plastic. They are easy to clean, durable and can be used repeatedly.
Formwork for a garden path allows you to make not only paths. In the same way, you can easily build a site, for example around a gazebo or a summer house.
How to use plastic formwork?
First you need to mark the location of the future track. To do this, you can use a thin rope and pegs. When marking, the width of the formwork is taken into account, also a margin of about 10 cm is left from both edges.
This form - formwork for the manufacture of a garden path - can be placed for pouring directly on the ground. However, in this case, you should not count on durability. After heavy rains, snowmelt in the spring, some of the stones on the path may shift to the side, others will sink deeper into the soil, and others will rise slightly.
The likelihood of such an outcome is very high on loose (sandy or sandy loamy) soils. As a result, not only will the appearance of the path deteriorate, but it will also be unsafe to use it: you can easily stumble, especially in the evening or at night.
To avoid this problem, you need to equip a reliable track base.
How to make a basis for a track?
This is done as follows:
- According to the previously marked width and length of the path, a trench is excavated with a depth of about 15 cm.
- The bottom is leveled and carefully tamped, geotextiles are laid.
- The drain is falling asleep. First, a layer of gravel is laid, and then a layer of sand, each 5 cm thick. Each part of the drain is leveled and rammed. At this preparatory stage, you need to take into account the height of the future track. If the latter is below the soil or at its level, then after the rain, water will accumulate on the path. Therefore, the path should be slightly above the ground.
- Then the desired volume of solution is prepared. To do this, you need to take cement (suitable grade 150), mix with sand in a proportion of one to three and add water. In this case, the solution should not turn out to be too liquid.
- It is impossible to cast a track on a completely dry base: water from the solution is very quickly absorbed into a sand cushion or ground, and concrete slabs will turn out to be fragile and short-lived. To avoid this, the surface is pre-wetted.
Fill track elements
Next, the formwork for the garden path is installed on the base and poured with concrete. Excess mortar can be removed with a rail of the desired length, and then smooth the surface with a trowel.
After 30-40 minutes, the formwork is carefully removed and installed close to the newly made stones. Then the rest of the track is cast in a similar manner.
To increase the strength of concrete, it should be kept in a slightly wet state for a couple of days. For this purpose, the finished parts of the track are covered with polyethylene or tarpaulin and periodically watered. So their shape is better preserved. Formwork for the garden path will allow you to equip the site beautifully and in a short time.
In dry and sunny weather, after approximately 5 days, the concrete will harden completely. After this, the gaps between the resulting stones must be filled with earth, sand or very fine gravel.
How to decorate a track with paint or paste-in elements?
Formwork makes it easy to build a very attractive track. However, the best is the enemy of the good, and there are several very simple ways to make the path even more beautiful.
Due to its gray color, concrete looks dull. This can be corrected by adding a special pigment dye of the color you like to the solution. Moreover, in the form of individual cavities can be filled with concrete of various colors, then the track will turn out colorful and colorful.
After pouring the mortar into the formwork, the surface can be leveled and treated with a coarse metal brush. Alternatively, a layer of gravel or pebbles is laid on top (stones should first be put in a bag or on polyethylene - it will be easier to remove them), it is slightly pressed and removed. So the track will acquire a very interesting texture.
You can further diversify the appearance of the structure with the help of small tiles or their fragments. To do this, they are pressed into concrete to its full thickness. Then the surface is leveled with a trowel.
How to diversify the track form?
When the same formwork for garden paths is used for the entire length of the concrete path under construction, reviews say that the path with a symmetrical appearance looks pretty monotonous. To fix this, the formwork can be periodically turned over. Better yet, buy several devices with a slightly different shape at once. In the latter case, the track will not only become even more diverse, but its construction will require much less time, since several fragments can be cast almost simultaneously.
The gaps between the stones of the path can be covered with earth mixed with seeds. Sprouted grass will help the track fit seamlessly into the surrounding natural landscape.
Simple wooden formwork
Specialized stores offer a large assortment of these devices of various shapes, sizes and price categories. However, the made formwork for garden paths with their own hands will cost unambiguously cheaper.
The simplest formwork is a hollow frame. It can be assembled from durable wide boards. True, in this case, the shapes will not differ in variety - you can use only a square or rectangle. Triangular and polygonal structures will not be strong enough and durable, because when assembling them, it is very difficult to ensure reliable fastening of all parts.
The wood must be selected soft, with a thickness of not more than 25 mm. This is necessary in order to be able to make smooth bends. Solid boards in this case will simply break, and not bend.
To slightly bend the boards, it will be necessary to make transverse cuts along the entire length by half their thickness with a distance of 15 cm. It is better to nail pegs that will fix the shape to the wooden formwork so that it does not move. The thinner the boards are used, the more pegs will be required to fix them.
Metal formwork
Sometimes metal formwork is used, which is made of steel strips. They can be flexible, designed for curving types of tracks, and rigid.
If the formwork for the garden path is made of sheet metal, then the number of forms becomes almost infinite. Like the wooden structure, this one also represents a hollow frame. The metal is cut to the desired size, and then bent to give the desired shape. Pegs are attached to the metal strips to fix the formwork on the ground.
When using molds from wooden boards and metal, the cast concrete slabs will be quite large and therefore can quickly crack. To strengthen the structure in the solution, you can add gravel or put a metal mesh for reinforcement.
Formwork with internal forms
This will require wide boards and plywood (it is best to take a laminate: it will not quickly collapse from constant contact with raw concrete, and it will be easier to clean it). A rectangular or square frame is constructed from the boards. Then, internal longitudinal and transverse partitions are made of plywood. It is worth making several formwork at once - so building a track will be faster.
The greatest durability, strength and ease of use has a plastic formwork for garden paths. Unfortunately, at home, the use of various types of plastic for its manufacture will not be available, since this requires complex, expensive equipment and long production chains. Therefore, even with good carpentry and metalworking skills, it is unlikely that it will be possible to assemble formwork from boards, plywood and metal, which has the same variety of shapes and reliability as that produced by an industrial method.