How To Make Them Colored Plates For The Track On The Site With Your Own Hands

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

Production of colored slabs for paths on the site

Paths made of paving slabs on the site are not only convenient and comfortable movement in rainy weather, but also aesthetics, and if the tiles are also colored, then this is a delight to the gardener's eyes. Unfortunately, commercially available tiles with dimensions of 50x50x6 cm, which are made by vibropressing, are very expensive, moreover, they are made in only two colors - gray and red. As I was told in one of the companies, you can make tiles in other colors, but these will be very expensive products. A lot of tiles are needed for the paths on the site, and the creation of a "road network" in the garden will cost a fairly large amount.

So I decided to make my own inexpensive paving slabs, and my attempt was successful. The cost of an ordinary gray tile turned out to be about 25-30 rubles per product, a colored one - 40-45 rubles, which is 4-5 times less than the cost of a purchased tile.

Materials and tools

My technology provides for the production of reinforced concrete tiles with dimensions of 50x50x4 cm and weighing about 25 kilograms. Moreover, all the work on the manufacture and laying of tiles is quite within the power of one, even an elderly person. To do this, if you decide to repeat my experience, you will need:

• bowl for concrete mixes with a diameter of 50 cm;
• a container with a volume of 1.2 liters (any);
• plaster trowel with a rounded end;
• garden shovel (wide), in which it is necessary to replace the handle with a longer one;
• building level 25 or 50 cm long.

In addition, we need more materials for making a casting mold:

• edged boards (non-planed) 25 mm thick;
• bar 40x40 mm 2.2 meters long;
• a piece of plastic wrap measuring 75x75 cm;
• nails 40 and 60 cm long;
• the two most inexpensive pens.

Of course, you will need all the other materials needed to cast the slab. Here is a list of them:

• cement M400, - about 4.5 kg;
• fine-grained sand is possible and ASG, from which large stones are selected;
• any metal rods or tubes with a diameter of 6-15 mm and a length of 40 cm - 4 pcs.;
• steel wire with a diameter of 2 mm - 4 pieces of 40 cm.

If there are no rods and wires, you can use the cheapest reinforcing mesh measuring 40x40 cm.

Form making

When you have collected all the necessary materials, you can get to work. First, let's make a fill mold. For this, boards 60 cm long are stacked tightly to each other on a flat surface. Then, two planks are nailed along the edges with nails 40 mm long to form a shield. It flips over (if there are ledges between the boards, that's not bad - there will be better grip on the outsole). After that, bars are nailed to the front surface with nails 60 mm long: two with a length of 58 cm and two with a length of 50 cm. In this case, it is necessary to use a square to ensure that the corners are straight. Then, on the outer sides of the bars perpendicular to the boards, the handles are fixed approximately in the middle. After that, the plates are removed from the bottom of the mold. Here is the form and ready. Now you can start filling it out.

Filling the mold with mortar

Before filling, the form must be exposed, i.e. occupy a strictly horizontal position - a board is placed on the form, and a level is placed on it. This operation must be done twice - along and across the form. Pour three containers of sand (without top) and one container of cement (slightly compacted) into a basin. After that, you thoroughly mix the mixture with a spatula until completely homogeneous. Then pour about 0.5-0.6 liters of water and mix everything.

In the future, water must be added in small portions, stirring the solution each time. When the consistency of the concrete dough becomes optimal - it should not be tough, but it should not flow either, we will assume that the mortar is ready for pouring. Now you can start working on it.

Put a piece of plastic wrap 75x75 cm into the mold and plug the corners. Using a trowel, first put the mortar in the corners of the mold and seal it there with the end of the trowel. Then we completely pour the entire batch into a mold, distribute it evenly and compact it with a light tap with a trowel over the entire surface of the solution. At this tapping, the surface of the solution should "tremble".

The second batch is exactly the same as the first. Pour the solution back into the mold and distribute it evenly with a seal. Then we put longitudinal reinforcement on the surface of the second batch - two rods at a distance of 5 cm from the sides and two rods at equal distances between them. Longitudinal reinforcement is located parallel to the mold boards. On the longitudinal reinforcement we put the transverse reinforcement, that is, the wire, while it needs to be slightly bent in different directions. We lightly press all the reinforcement into the concrete.

We make the third batch with half of the ingredients - cement, sand and water. Pour the reinforcement with the resulting solution. We make this mix a little more liquid, so that after tapping the mortar with a trowel, the entire surface is horizontal. The form must be completely filled with concrete, flush with the bars. At the end of the process, lightly spray the surface with water (you can from your hand) and then put boards on the mold, and polyethylene on them so that the rain does not soak the solution. All these operations after gaining a little skill take about one hour.

The solution is set for two days, after which we turn the form over and carefully remove; we tear off polyethylene from concrete (this film can be used in the manufacture of the following tiles). Then we put it vertically. In this form, it costs three weeks. Concrete gains full strength after 28 days. Let me remind you: 4.5 kg of cement is needed for one tile.

Painting slabs

It is carried out immediately after stripping, on damp concrete, in 2-3 layers. For this we use acrylic paint for slate "Tent-B". At my site, when painting, I used paint in four colors - blue, green, red-brown and white. By mixing each of these colors with white, you can get a large number of shades of primary colors. There is a wide choice here, because the manufacturer produces this paint in a variety of colors. One kilogram of paint is enough for about ten tiles.

With this paint, you can paint the gray slate roof of an old country house in a bright color. You can also paint the wood paneling of the house with this paint. It gives a long lasting finish.

Laying tiles

A path is marked along the cord; then, along its entire length, we remove the top layer of soil (or the entire vegetation layer). Fill the entire groove with sand to a level just below the surface of the earth. Then we pour the sand heavily with water, level it and lay tiles on it. The surface of the tiles should be slightly above the ground. What the tiles look like on my site, readers can see in the photo.