Calculation Of The Safety Factor Of A Garden Path - 1

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Service life determines the basis

The paths that serve as access roads to the parking lot and garage, connecting the main buildings on the site, are used with the greatest intensity. The larger the size of the plot, the more its transport lanes look like full-fledged roads. The load on their canvas is low, and the service life of the garden "highways" stretches for decades. But all this will be only on condition of preparation of a qualitative foundation.

Foundation needed

Transport lanes are operated with the highest frequency and load, and their service life is equal to the life of the main building on the site, therefore they are made of the most durable materials. These are mainly solid concrete, preformed concrete tiles, clinker (burnt clay) bricks, cast blocks, gravel and asphalt. All these materials have a large specific weight, and if we remember that the width of the tracks for transport varies from 2 to 3 m, it becomes obvious that a massive foundation is needed for them. The gravel-sand pad evenly distributes the weight of the web over the surface, but it also exerts significant pressure on the soil itself.

Side loads

Modern builders, following the wishes of the customer, often neglect the elementary physics of loads and "close their eyes" to the fact that the pressure of the masses of the roadway and its base is directed not only vertically downwards, but also is distributed to the sides. Unfortunately, in today's homestead construction, there are frequent cases of striking "bungling" when a road for transport is built right next to the house. The result of such "saving the useful area of the garden" manifests itself either immediately - in the form of cracks on the walls of the house caused by the displacement of the walls of the foundation, or a similar picture develops over time - a slight displacement due to a slight violation of the integrity of the foundation dump is gradually aggravated by moisture entering the cracks and cracks. Avoid costly and troublesome foundation alterations,and sometimes the overhaul of the entire structure of the building is possible only for those who managed to "turn on their heads" in time and move the path away from the house. Another common "blooper" of landscapes is called - tree by the side of the road.

Roadside tree

Usually, it never occurs to anyone to plant a sprout of a tree at the edge of the roadway, which eventually promises to grow into a giant giant and plow the entire road with its roots. But somehow this only applies to plants from our area. And when an exotic sprout is chosen for planting, then for some reason it is believed that in our cold latitudes it cannot rise above a meter and a half. But here there are still exceptions: when, after a few years of harsh adaptation, the trees suddenly receive a "gift" in the form of an unexpectedly mild winter with heavy rainfall or a heating system pipe laid nearby. Or when a family often visits the house and even settles on the site, which means that sewage water begins to drain in large quantities, and septic tanks are always full and warm. In a word, it ends abruptly for a tree "ice age ", and it begins to grow rapidly, and with the growth of the root system.

All of the above illustrates the good old rule, which is fraught with neglect even now: the path for transport should not be located closer than 2 m from large trees and the border of the building foundation.

Earth to earth strife

In the process of organizing a full-fledged foundation, first, using pegs and a rope, the contours of the path are marked on the ground. A trench is being dug inside the borders. If the soil is very loose, it is recommended to reinforce the walls with plywood shields and wooden posts. The depth of the trench in most cases is equal to the thickness of the soft soil layer: depending on the area, on average, it is from 100 to 300 mm. The best are soils from large rock fragments. For them, the depth is provided for 100-300 mm. The quality of the soil decreases as the size of the fraction of debris decreases to crushed stone, with the thickness of the carrier layer playing a role. Sand is suitable as a base, but a supporting layer of crushed stone with a thickness of 150-200 mm is required on top. Sandy loam, loam and clay filter water much worse and are subject to the risk of frost heaving, in addition,in a state saturated with water, their bearing capacity decreases sharply, therefore, a trench up to 500 mm deep is required for them.

Lime soils - from a different classification. If it is a dusty fraction, the bearing capacity is low, if limestone crushed stone is good, although it is inferior to crushed stone from igneous rocks. The depth of the trench is chosen mainly for reasons of drainage of the base. In areas that are seasonally flooded and especially waterlogged, a drainage layer is strictly required. The degree of soil moisture is directly proportional to the thickness of the supporting layer. Naturally, in the construction of paths for cars, the "safety margin" is welcomed, and footpaths are less.

Ram and ram again

The very technology of laying base materials is standard. The bottom of the trench is moistened with water and filled with dense material 200-350 mm. But here it should be remembered that if a trench is dug deeper in a swampy area, then, accordingly, the thickness of the dense material increases. As a dense material, experts advise using a "layer cake": 50-100 mm - a layer of coarse sand, the rest - crushed stone mixed with sand, or crushed stone, covered with 20-40 mm sand. Because of savings in private construction, instead of rubble, recyclable materials are often used - broken bricks or concrete. Construction experts do not recommend this approach because chaotically broken pieces are difficult, and often impossible, to fit tightly to each other.

It is better to use rubble made from recycled concrete. It is completely unacceptable to use construction waste, because it can contain pieces of plastic or rotten wood, which, collapsing, form voids in the base over time. Any brick, except for clinker, is destroyed in the ground.

The dense material laid at the bottom of the trench is carefully tamped. This is a very important stage of work, the quality of which should be closely monitored. When the construction is carried out on its own, it is better to repeat the operation once again. After all, it is she who is the guarantee of the correct, and most importantly, the long service of the future track. The hackwork will show itself already in the next season: ground fluctuations caused by changes in humidity and temperature will affect the condition of the base, and the outer coating will begin to crack, it can go in waves. Within five to six years, the owner of the site will be guaranteed to be provided with a new "hobby" - patching holes or completely remodeling garden paths. But even then he will have to face the problem of high-quality thrombosis. It is carried out in layers, and each layer is wetted with water in advance. The best results in this difficult matter can be achieved by using a vibrating plate, and for large fractions of crushed stone and a large thickness of the compacted layer - and a vibratory roller, but not a garden one. The high quality of the result is guaranteed by the use of crushed stone of different fractions: the lower layer is laid out from a larger fraction, for example, 20-40 mm, the upper one - 5-20 mm. The finer fraction falls on the lower one in "wedging", which means that the upper layer wedges the lower one and fills the voids as tightly as possible. The finer fraction falls on the lower one in "wedging", which means that the upper layer wedges the lower one and fills the voids as tightly as possible. The finer fraction falls on the lower one in "wedging", which means that the upper layer wedges the lower one and fills the voids as tightly as possible.

The main thing is dry

At the base of even a small road (except for sandy soils), drainage should be provided. The underground waters are powerful enough to erode the foundation of any fortress, therefore, a "highway" should be laid on the territory of even a small estate, armed with a map of their flow: each direction is duplicated by drainage pipes. However, experts say that the flow of underground streams is changeable (unless the site is located on a granite slab), therefore, it is easier to do - across the path, drain pipes of a small diameter are laid at its base. The frequency of their laying is directly proportional to the degree of marshland - from 0.5 to 1.5 m. The trench for the path can also cross already laid drainage pipes. This brings us back to the question of the timing of the arrangement of the main tracks. When a road is laid on an area with a fully formed drainage system, the process of excavating the soil from the trench turns into a kind of archaeological excavation - the risk of damaging the pipe is great, and extreme caution should be used when handling a shovel. To protect the pipes from damage, they are covered with gravel mixed with sand.

And fill from above

The resulting dense "sandwich" of the base is completed with a layer of mortar: 1 part cement to 3 parts sand. It is recommended to be poured for hitching under thin finishing layer slabs with increased use load. In other cases, the finishing layer (paving stones, tiles) is laid on sand, or, when a rigid base is needed, on a sand-cement mixture.

Maria Novikova, designer