How to lay a tile to get a beautiful and comfortable path

Improvement of the infield is one of the main tasks of each gardener. First of all you should take care of comfortable and beautiful paths. To find the most suitable variants, it is necessary to take into account many factors. These include the composition and mobility of the ground, a harmonious combination of the covering of the track with the rest of the decorative elements and your building skills. For our site we chose a paving slab. And they did it for good reason, because this coating meets all the requirements, so necessary for us. And we began our acquaintance with this finishing material with a simple question: "How to lay a tile?"

Before the beginning of the work we were interested in both the technical characteristics of the building material, the speed of the work and, of course, the labor costs. Since we decided to do everything ourselves, we had to thoroughly study how to lay the tile. And the time we spent on it paid off with interest.

But let's start in order. Before laying the tile, you need to decide on the purpose and area of future tracks. What is this for? It's simple. If you only walk on the walkways, you will need less building material and work. And if they are intended for movement or parking of the car, then they need to be strengthened.

First, draw a plan of our site and mark out all the paths and driveways, car parking and blind area of the house. We calculate the area and the number of necessary building materials. A wide range of colors and shapes, as well as numerous options for laying tiles will allow you to achieve a harmonious combination of the path with the surrounding landscape.

Now we are preparing the right tool. We need: a broom, a roulette, about 15 meters of twine and pegs, a rubber hammer, a rake and a shovel, a wheelbarrow and a stone saw, a standard carpentry and a linear level, a geotextile, and a flat construction vibrator.

Before laying the tile you will need to do some preparatory work. Checking with the drawn out plan, we mark out on a site of a path. We use pegs and twine for this purpose. After that, we carry out excavation. For simple tracks, a depth of 10-15 centimeters is required, and for driveways and parking lots 20-30 centimeters are needed.

Carefully remove the turf and put it aside. We will need it for further laying along the borders of the tracks. The primer is removed all along the track, increasing its width by 15-20 centimeters on each side. Only after the completion of these works, we proceed to prepare the basis for the subsequent laying of tiles.

For this we use a sand-gravel mixture. The thickness of the basis for the tracks should be at least 2-3 centimeters, and for the access alley - 15 centimeters. We lay geotextiles on the bottom and fill the trench prepared with a mixture of base evenly. After that, we level it with rake, water it with water from a watering can and a ramming vibrator. It is necessary to know that the height of the layer for simultaneous ramming should not exceed 10 centimeters. If you need more base, then you need to rammer in several stages.

Since the height of the standard paving slab is 6 centimeters, the distance from the compacted base to the expected height of the track must be 8 centimeters. The surface must be flat, with a slight slope to one side for draining rainwater.

After the preparation of the foundation, it is necessary to lay a curb. You can use prefabricated blocks or simply set the required number of tiles to the edge. The choice is yours. We made a choice in favor of ready-made long blocks, since to install and align them is much easier and faster.

Lay out the first row of tiles and mark the position of the curb on both sides of the path. It is for this purpose that we have increased the width during excavation. It is necessary to arrange a border so that when laying a coating it is possible to use a larger number of whole tiles. Only after that, we dig a small trench into which we lay the prepared border. On top of the foundation we pour a layer of sand and level it with the help of a strip, periodically checking the level.

Now let's look at how to put the tile correctly. You should start from the right corner. This will maximize the use of edge stones. We select the layout scheme in advance, in accordance with the general style of the site and your preferences. During the work, do not forget to leave 3 millimeters between the individual elements of the coating. We try hard not to press on the tile, tapping them gently with a hammer.

Using colored elements for packing, we take a tile from several pallets simultaneously. A slight difference in shades due to different amounts of added dye can be strongly visible. By mixing the tiles with each other, you can equalize the overall perception of the entire track cover.

After the final laying of the whole tiles, we proceed to fill the remaining empty areas. Tile a little napilivaem, then exactly split. We put it in voids and make sure that it fits as closely as possible to the surrounding elements.

After finishing the work on laying the ramp several times the paved area with a vibrator. This will help bring the tile to the final level and compact the sand cushion, as well as the sand in the joints of the tile.

The last step will be the sprinkling of the track with a small amount of dry sand and repeated ramming. After that, the path is swept and carefully poured water from the watering can. We leave the finished coating for three days for complete adhesion of the tiles. After the end of all the works we use our paths with great pleasure for 25-30 years.