Do-it-yourself curb stone installation: technology, features

When arranging flower beds and paths, decorating a yard or adjacent territory, it is often necessary to install dividers. Most often, curbs are used for this (curbs are also called). Moreover, the installation of the curb is not so complicated that it is necessary to invite a team. It is quite possible to manage with your own hands. At least with helpers.

Purpose and types of curb cameos

Borders are used to separate areas with different coverage and / or different loads. They can separate paths from lawns, flower beds, a garden or vegetable garden, serve as a border between a pedestrian and a roadway, etc.

They perform several functions at once:

• serve for visual design of tracks;
• redistribute the load;
• protect the paths from washing out and destruction.

If you want the tracks to last a long time, you need to install a border around the edge. It holds all materials, preventing them from collapsing or changing shape.

Borders or curbstones are of various sizes, they are made from different materials, they use different technologies. The most common type is concrete curbs, but there are also plastic, vibropressed ones.

Types of concrete curbs and curbs

Concrete curbstones are the most common, they are available in different sizes. They are divided into two categories:

• Road stone. Wider and taller, often with reinforcement inside (one or two steel bars with a diameter of 12-14 mm). It is used to separate the carriageway and the pedestrian part.
• Curb stone (also called a curb, garden or sidewalk curb). Smaller and lighter, without reinforcement. Usually separate walking paths from lawns. Can withstand short-term collisions with a car. With more serious and constant loads, it is undesirable to put them, as they are destroyed.

Other types of curbstones are not used for fencing off the roadway, as they have an insufficient level of strength.

Roads are not always straight – there are curves. It is easy to make sharp turns at an angle – put it at the right angle, and fix the junction with concrete mortar. For smooth turns, there are radius fragments with different rounding radii. They can be used to create a fence for round, oval flower beds.

dimensions

Curb blocks are usually produced with a length of 1000 mm, those that are designed to separate walkways from fertile soil – 850 mm long. There are also elements with a length of 500 and 400 mm. Usually these are curbs for paths made of paving slabs. They are produced not only according to the technology of poured concrete, but also according to the technology of vibrocompression, according to which the paving slabs themselves are made.

The height of the curb stone can be:

• 300 mm – to separate the sidewalk from the carriageway;
• 200 mm, 180 and 150 mm – for tracks.

Width 200, 180 mm (road stone), 150, 100, 80 mm (curb stone).

Installing a curb on sand-cement mix or concrete

On soils prone to heaving, it is necessary to install a curb stone on a bed of sand and gravel, on top of which a layer of concrete is laid, a curb is laid into it. With this installation, the curbs stand for years without problems. The procedure is as follows:

• With the help of pegs installed in key places and laces stretched between them, markings are made.
• According to the markup, they dig a trench. The width should be such that there is a distance of 10-15 cm on the sides of the installed stone on each side. The depth is chosen so that the layer of compacted rubble at the bottom is at least 10 cm, on top – at least 5 cm of sand-cement mortar, and the curb stone itself rises above the surface of the track by at least a few centimeters (how much depends on your desire).
  

• The bottom of the trench is ready to be leveled and rammed (when using a vibrating plate, the width of the trench is made according to the width of the plate).
• Lay a layer of geotextile with a density of at least 160 g/m². This layer is needed so that sand and gravel do not mix with the soil. It increases the life of the curb, reduces the likelihood of shifts during spring heaving.
• A layer of coarse-grained sand or crushed stone of a large or medium fraction (20-40 mm) is poured. The minimum layer is 10 cm, the optimal one is 15 cm. The crushed stone is rammed.
• A thick solution is mixed from sand (3-4 parts) and cement (1 part) (there is very little water, just so that it can be stirred). It is laid with a thickness of 5-7 cm (preferably 7 cm) on crushed stone.
  

• A curbstone is laid on the concrete, leveled in level (in the horizon or with a slope – depending on the geology of the site).
• A sand-cement mixture lock 5-7 cm thick and about 10 cm high is laid around the fragment installed and placed in the desired position.
• After the concrete has set, the remaining free space between the installed curb and the edge of the trench is covered with sand or gravel, rammed, and sprinkled with soil on top.

Subject to this technology for installing a curb stone, the likelihood that it will budge during heaving is very low.