In order to enjoy your vacation at a summer cottage, you need to equip a recreation area on the garden. The most popular today are decorative gazebos, terraces and patios. If everything is clear with the creation of a gazebo and a terrace, tk. the structure is often monolithic and is made from the same building material (f.e.: concrete paver molds), the patio is a more creative type of recreation area in an open space and requires increased preparation of the base. To make the foundation, it is necessary to properly prepare the territory and choose the appropriate material for paving, just about this we will talk now!

What is a patio?

A patio is one of the types of recreation area at a summer cottage, which is a small courtyard with garden furniture and a barbecue area or barbecue.

Choosing a place for the patio

The suburban area is divided into a functional part of the territory where there is a garage, a utility block, heaps of compost, a small warehouse of building materials, etc., and a part where the owners rest. The last part includes a garden of ornamental plants, a swimming pool, fountains and other accessories that decorate the landscape design and allow you to relax as comfortably as possible, it would not hurt to place a patio here.

First of all, the location of the patio must satisfy 3 main requirements:

Protection of the recreation area from unnecessary glances from neighbors and people passing by

The view from the patio should be beautiful, so that while relaxing in the garden, you can observe all the attractions of your territory

When constructing a barbecue and a place for frying meat (barbecue areas) on the patio, you must take care that smoke does not enter the house or the place where clothes are dried, otherwise everything will smell like a fire.

The patio should be on the side that is protected from gusts of wind and burning sunlight. It is best to connect the patio with a building - a residential building, because you will provide quick access to the kitchen where you will prepare meals for a pleasant time.

Based on this, it should be noted that it is best to equip the patio either in the backyard, in the garden, or adjoining the recreation area to a residential building. And that and that option will be pretty good, so it all depends on your taste and preferences.

What to make a basement for a patio?

The patio consists of several main functional units: the base of the patio, the awning, furniture and a garden path leading to the recreation area (if the patio is in the garden). Based on this, it should be noted that first of all, the material for paving the patio should be similar or combined with the garden paths, then only the whole composition will be in harmony.

The most popular materials for paving patios and garden paths are paving slabs, natural stone, or the simpler and cheaper method of pouring concrete.

The disadvantage of conventional paving materials is that they need to be sawed around the edges to make the patio the original irregular shape (in the form of a circle, oval or hexagon), and this leads to a huge amount of waste material for which money has already been paid.

As for the usual pouring of concrete, this is a simpler and cheaper option, but in this case the patio will also look cheap and there can be no question of some kind of creative decoration of the territory.

We recommend that you waste a little and make a base for your patio with paving slabs, which are highly durable, durable and chic in appearance!

The process of paving the foundation for a patio with your own hands consists of the following steps:

Create a blueprint for the patio. This is necessary in order to know the exact dimensions of the recreation area, as well as to estimate the necessary building materials that need to be taken with a small margin.

Choosing a suitable area. We talked about this a little higher, so you shouldn't stop and repeat everything anew.

Preparation and marking of the territory. The patio area must be cleared of garden debris, shrubs, etc. If the surface is not level, it must be leveled. Next, using wooden pegs and rope, mark out the boundaries of the future patio. Please note that if the patio is to be built with the same structure as the house, it is necessary to make its base (patio) 15 cm lower than the waterproofing level of the building.

We hammer in the so-called reference pegs along the contours of the patio, according to the level of which the height of the patio surface will be created. It is recommended to drive in additional pegs throughout the patio every 1.5 - 2 meters. In order for the level of all pegs to be the same, we put a long board on them, on which we put a building level on top, with which we control the horizontal position. If necessary, the pegs are driven into the soil more strongly, or, on the contrary, they are taken out.

Remove the soil layer (about 35 cm) over the entire marked area of ​​the patio.

In the resulting pit, we trample the bottom and fill it with a drainage pillow: 15 cm of crushed stone and 10 cm of sand, which we fill with water and carefully tamp. The drain cushion must be horizontal as paving slabs will be paving on the top layer of sand. Additionally, you can pour a concrete screed, but in this case, the depth of the pit should be even greater and in addition, you will have to build a formwork.

Let's start paving paving slabs. This process is described in detail in the advisory article, so we will not repeat ourselves, it is better to go and read. You just need to pay attention to the fact that the patio surface should not be strictly horizontal, but with a slope of 1-2 degrees, which will ensure spontaneous drainage of rainwater from the recreation area, because no one needs puddles!

Equip your patio with special drainage grooves that will drain water. The groove should be 0.4 m wide and not more than 10 cm deep.

That's it, the patio is ready! As you can see, the main difficulty lies in creating a patio surface with your own hands. And although this process is very costly and time-consuming, rest in the garden will cover everything, because in this case the end justifies the means!

We can optionally decorate the patio with ornamental garden plants, a barbecue area and homemade garden furniture. It is a very good idea to install a rocking chair on the patio, which is easy to make by hand.

Comments