Do-it-yourself crushed stone paths in the country: choice of material and laying technology + photo of options for gravel paths

Which crushed stone is better to choose

For the manufacture of garden paths, crushed stone of various origins is used:

1. One of the durable materials is granite. The constituent components of such crushed stone are hard rocks. This material is resistant to changes in temperature and humidity. These properties allow the use of crushed granite when laying garden paths.
2. Irregularly shaped gravel crushed stone, which makes it easy to cover uneven surfaces and perform the function of drainage. Non-standard angular shapes of the constituent elements make you walk on them only in shoes.
3. Shale crushed stone is used only where the loads will be small. The tendency to splitting forces the material to be impregnated with special additives.

An important characteristic of crushed stone is its fraction. For the manufacture of paths, a size of 0,5–7 cm is used. Pedestrian paths are made using the smallest fraction – 0,5–4 cm. Larger gravel is used to equip adjacent roads along which cars pass. The use of marble or gravel screenings is acceptable for pedestrian areas.

Video “Installation of a walking path in the garden”

From this video you will learn how to make a walking path in the garden with your own hands.

How to properly fill paths

Compliance with the preparation technology is laborious, but necessary to maintain the functionality of the paths for many years. To make the tracks in the country reliable and durable, you need to follow the sequence of construction steps:

• make a design sketch or drawing;
• select the required gravel;
• mark the territory;
• prepare the ground;
• cover the required area.

When choosing the main backfill material, you need to understand the purpose of individual sections in order to use different fractions of gravel.

Marking and preparation of the base

Follow these guidelines:

1. First of all, a sketch is drawn that reflects the direction and purpose of all paths.
2. The central paths should be 1,5–2 m wide, and the remaining passages should be 0,8–1 m. Gravel bedding between the beds should be 0,4–0 m wide.
3. Using pegs and rope, make markings for future passages. All interference that occurs when installing markings must be smoothly bypassed. At the same time, the width of the intended directions is preserved. In some places, you can smoothly change the width to fit the path into the exterior of the garden.
4. After marking the routes, you need to dig the soil to a depth of 15 cm. If a large number of roots remain in the ground, then they must be removed by hand or with the help of chemicals.
5. The bottom of the resulting trench must be tamped using special hand tools.
6. Cover the bottom with waterproofing material. Usually roofing material or polyethylene is used for this. Geotextiles, which are designed specifically for such work, are best suited.
7. Install pre-prepared curbs or boards along all paths, which will become the boundary between the path and the ground. To separate individual sections of the tracks, you need to install transverse rails.
8. It is necessary to fill the waterproofing with sand with gravel or screenings. The bedding layer should be no more than 5 cm.
9. Moisten and compact the resulting surface.

Filling stones

The correct implementation of this stage, as well as the previous ones, will affect the durability of the tracks being built:

1. First you need to pour a small amount of prepared gravel along the curb and next to the partitions. The height of the poured layer should correspond to the level of the planks.
2. After making sure that the installation of curbs and partitions is reliable, we can fill all the prepared areas with rubble.
3. With the help of a shovel, chopper and rammer, all areas must be leveled and compacted.
4. After a few days, especially after rainfall, the constructed paths may sink in some places. For leveling, it is necessary to backfill and level the surfaces again.

Care instructions

The simple design of the paths makes it just as easy to care for. Along the borders, weeds must be broken through, and the surface periodically leveled, especially after the snow has melted. To do this, in the deepest places make backfilling.

Colored tracks

To make the garden paths colorful, painting work is carried out already at the initial stage of construction:

1. Crushed stone is poured into a concrete mixer or other container for mixing.
2. Next, you need to fill in more than a third of the volume with paint and mix for at least an hour. For such work, it is better to use polyacrylic paint for outdoor use. With stirring, it is desirable to add polymer glue – 3-7% of the volume of the dye. This amount will allow the paint to better stick to the rubble, but will not stick the rubble together.
3. Then pour the rubble on a plastic wrap and allow to dry.
4. In places where the color of the gravel path changes, you need to install a partition made of plastic or metal rails. When drawing up a drawing, the rails are installed along its contours.
5. After the painted rubble has dried, the areas are covered with it as planned by the project.

The use of a large number of bright colors makes the tracks attractive, and the manufacturing process itself awakens creative ideas.

Other options

In the manufacture of garden paths, along with rubble, you can use pieces of asphalt or concrete products. So, for example, identical concrete slabs smaller than the path itself are placed in the middle of the path at a step distance. Around the slabs, crushed stone is backfilled. This will give originality and cheer up.

Backfilling of paths is carried out not only with crushed stone, but also with gravel, pebbles or slate. Each of these materials has its own advantages and disadvantages.

The use of pebbles does not allow making paths high, and walking on it causes discomfort. This is due to the high mobility of the stones. Gravel also has this drawback. It’s just a little heavier.

The use of crushed slate rock or crushed stone can make the paths high and easy to move around. But the sharp edges of these materials do not allow you to run barefoot along the path. For the arrangement of paths, it is possible to use a combined composition of crushed stone and pebbles.

Making gravel paths is an excellent paving option for suburban movement. Such paths can become an alternative to monolithic concrete structures. The availability of material and ease of manufacture will allow you to spend less time and effort.