The dacha plot, in the design of which natural stone is used, looks stylish. Boulders can decorate flower beds and alpine slides, slate is used to decorate facades, and cobblestones can be used to lay out paths and recreation areas. True, the cost of natural stone is not encouraging. Expensive. What if you make it yourself?
1. What will you need to make homemade stones?
We will make homemade cobblestones from cement mortar. This means we will need cement, sand or ASG. It is possible to use crushed stone screening. Recommended proportion 1:4. In addition, we will stock up on plastic cling film. It is better to take it with a width of 50 cm. If the width is smaller, the cobblestones will turn out to be small.
2. Let's start production
Thoroughly mix the mixture of sand and cement. We spread the cling film on a flat surface and begin to lay out the prepared solution on it. The quantity depends on the desired size of the stone. We lay almost two trowels of cement mortar on the cobblestones for paving the paths. Having cut a piece of film to the required size, we wrap the concrete in it. The future stone is almost ready.
All that remains is to put it in place in the future path or area. This is where it will dry and harden. We place the cobblestones tightly one to the other. After all, if there are large gaps between them, the path will look untidy and will be overgrown with weeds in the future.
3. What then?
2-3 hours after making the stones, when the solution has already settled slightly, it is necessary to level the top of the cobblestones if possible. So that the surface of the path is smooth. Walking on stones of different heights and shapes will be very uncomfortable. And then we wait for the solution to completely harden. This will take at least two days.
Now our task is to free our pebbles from the film. The easiest way is to simply burn it with a torch. It will not burn completely, it will remain in the joints, but this can be neglected. Some gardeners suggest unrolling each stone separately, removing it from the path and then putting it back in place. And to make it look perfect, they also polish the top part of the cobblestone. The advice is very amateurish. Not everyone is ready to make such sacrifices.
Under the influence of rain and sun in summer, frost and snow in winter, the stones will acquire a natural shade and will no longer differ in any way from real cobblestones from some exotic Scandinavia.
