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Colored decorative expanded clay (sale). Crushed decorative colored Decorative pebbles for decorating a flower bed - do-it-yourself

From the author: hello dear readers! Creating a beautiful space around the house is quite within the power of everyone thanks to new decorative elements, such as rubble! You heard right, a nondescript material at first sight can surprise you with its color palette and variety of design ideas.

flushing

If you took our advice and preferred acrylic paint, then for better adhesion of the coloring pigment to the material, you need to rinse the crushed stone under running water.

Important: an unwashed stone tends to quickly lose its saturated color and darken.

The crushed stone is washed on the “roar”, due to the vibration created by the machine, you can easily clean all the material from all sides.

Drying

Drying is carried out in a receiving hopper; any metal container of the appropriate size and volume can be used for this design. A metal mesh with a mesh size of less than 10 mm is laid on top. This simple device will allow us to save paint, it will drain through the cells in the grid, and it can be used the next time we paint.

If you have a drying bin with a forced ventilation system for drying the material, of course, it is better to carry out the process in this device. Again, the device is expensive and narrow-minded, so there are always other ways to perform this operation.

For example, you can use the oven, but first read the technical recommendations for the paint itself. You can simply leave the crushed stone on the grid in the receiving hopper, drying in the open air is, of course, the easiest way, but also the longest!

Recently, owners of private households have been creatively approaching the arrangement of the site. own house. Equipping the backyard territory, decorative gravel is often used for landscape design.

What does it mean - "decorative gravel"

This is crushed stone of a cubic shape of a fine fraction (10-15 mm), painted bright colors. Industrial enterprises use a coloring pigment that is resistant to external factors and at the same time non-toxic, absolutely harmless to the soil and plants. Therefore, without a shadow of a doubt, use it in garden beds, playgrounds, for artistically designed inscriptions on the ground, framing monuments, as well as to create a bright bottom and shore, not only in reservoirs, but also in artificially created streams and ponds. Decorative painted crushed stone used for landscape design resistant to frost and sunlight. Be sure, before purchasing rubble, pay attention to radioactive indicators. Crushed stone of the first class of radioactivity is suitable for ennobling children's, park areas, and home gardens, and the second is used only in construction.


Crushed stone in design

Colored gravel intended for landscape design is not only a harmonious combination of color, but also practical use. gravel supports water balance in the soil, freely passes moisture, at the same time contributes to its preservation and does not allow to weather. The technology of laying multi-colored stone does not allow weeds to grow. Gravel, if desired, can be laid out in different styles again and again or collect and move to another location. If necessary, even use for construction purposes.


Imitation of water with gravel

Painted gravel can be bought at construction hypermarkets or construction sites. But at the same time, you will part with a large amount. But you can paint it on your own. This thought raises a number of questions. What gravel is suitable for painting? What size stone should be for the best staining? Is it possible to paint gravel at home and how to do it? What paint to use?

Do-it-yourself multi-colored crushed stone - coloring technology

What gravel is suitable for staining

Granite, marble, lime are three types of crushed stone that are available to residents of our country. Granite and marble stones lend themselves better to staining. Limestone, due to enhanced coating, is not subject to high-quality staining.


Crushed granite and marble

What size stone should be for the best staining

The stone should be the same size, within 10-15 mm. If the stone is of different sizes, you will need a metal mesh with small cells for "sifting". Fix the metal mesh on both sides and pull it at an angle, about 60 degrees, for better screening. Pour a stone on the grid. Small fractions will fall through the cells under the grid, and larger fractions will roll down it. Do not try to measure the crushed stone to the millimeter. The main thing is to get rid of large stones.


Gravelling

How to paint gravel at home and what paint

Be sure to rinse the gravel before painting. To do this, we pour a stone in batches on the same metal mesh and dip it into a container of water. We pour the washed crushed stone onto the ground, having previously laid old linoleum, oilcloth or sheet of metal, to dry for 0.5-1 hour. Acrylics are suitable for coloring water-based paints. If you have a concrete mixer, use it. Pour dried crushed stone into a concrete mixer, pour paint in several passes, depending on the desired color saturation. If you don't have a concrete mixer, use spray paint. After pulling out of the concrete mixer, the painted gravel must be dried. Allow excess paint to drain on the metal mesh beforehand. Place a tray for paint under the grid. The same paint that glass can be used in subsequent staining. Painted gravel will retain its brightness and color saturation if you use a high-quality dye and adhere to the staining technology.

Crushed stone coloring (video)

Where decorative gravel is used

  • Picturesque drawings on flowerbeds, flower beds, between fruit trees, paths in personal plots or landscape gardening areas.
  • In the design of the flower beds, footpaths of the original inscriptions.
  • A blind area around a residential building and outbuildings, areas around the pool.
  • Tracks on playgrounds.
  • The border of the shore of the reservoir, the bottom of the pond.
  • Framing of obelisks, monuments.

Alpine hill with rubble

The photo shows examples of the use of decorative gravel in landscape design

Rules for laying decorative gravel

Gravel for landscaping can be easily laid by hand. But in this work you need to follow certain rules.

  1. Delimit the place of laying rubble. Prepare the area for gravel laying: remove, dig, approximately 10 cm of the top layer of soil at the place of filling the material.
  2. Set up borders. Regardless of what shape your path in the garden will be - straight or ornate - install a fence, curbs. Brick can be used as a border, natural stone the same size, wooden, plastic or metal blades. The fence should stand securely, not stagger. To do this, you need to dig a fence into the ground.
  3. Prepare the base. Sand, the layer of which is not less than 5 cm, pour into the prepared trench. Pour water over the sand layer for better shrinkage. Pre-level it over the entire area. When the sand dries, lay an insulating material - a polyethylene film with a large number of holes for the outflow of water. During precipitation or watering, water will not linger on the film, but will flow freely through the holes into the soil. The top layer of sand is poured onto the plastic film, already 2-3 cm.
  4. Prepare a stencil. If you decide to create a multi-colored composition, you will need internal borders to separate the color and form any geometric patterns. Thanks to the borders, the stone will not mix with each other.
  5. Colored gravel. After you have prepared the base, you need to evenly fall asleep decorative rock. For a lawn or flower bed, a small layer, 2 cm, is sufficient, and for playgrounds, paths for pedestrians or cyclists, at least 4-6 cm.

Step-by-step guide to gravel filling (video)

Examples of the use of decorative gravel in landscape design

First of all, multi-colored stone is used in the decoration of too shady areas, where practically nothing cultural grows, except for grass. In a shady area, you can break a dry stream, with a neat small bridge across it. In a swampy place, a pond looks great, the shore of which is strewn with multi-colored gravel. A neatly laid out composition of boulders will give the pond a natural look. The bottom of a decorative pond, lined with painted gravel, for example, in green, blue or blue, will look charming.

To create a garden in the Japanese style, it is also called the "garden of emptiness", "dry rock garden", without uniformly colored gravel it will not work to create such beauty.

Masking unattractive corners in a small area with stones - the main salient feature garden in Japanese style.

Designers use different stones in size, texture, shape, color. stones bigger size, if placed randomly, will resemble mountains and islands. In this case, it is possible not only to erect artificial structures, but also to use the natural unevenness of the relief. To convey the image of water, small decorative gravel is scattered in waves over the site or in circles around the stones. Contemplation of the silent immobility of stones makes it possible to relieve fatigue and anxiety, calm the spirit, relax and gain clarity of mind after the bustle of the passing day. illustrative examples Japanese garden can be seen in the photo.


Japanese garden

Another opportunity to use such a unique material as decorative gravel is to create a gravel garden. An original garden, less common than an alpine slide, but gradually winning people's hearts.

A gravel garden is a great idea for gardeners who don't mind spending a lot of time caring for plants. In a similar garden, compositions of low-growing steppe and mountain plants are framed with a backfill of colored or plain decorative gravel.

Don't be afraid to experiment and do it yourself. In your hands is not just rubble, but the opportunity to realize your fantasies and enjoy the creation of your own hands!

If you are planning to fill a path in the garden with gravel or make an embankment in the yard, you have a choice - use gray nondescript gravel or decorative gravel, decorated in all the colors of the rainbow. Special costs are not needed - everyone can make colored gravel with their own hands.

Do-it-yourself decorative crushed stone - a practical novelty

decorative gravel appeared on the construction market not so long ago - manufacturers of this building material are just beginning to master the technology of its coloring in industrial scale. The technology involves the use of paints that are resistant to external factors, non-toxic and harmless to the soil and plants. Obtaining colored gravel contributes to the use of this material in landscape design - these are colored garden paths, and rainbow flower beds and flower beds, the creation of all kinds of inscriptions on the ground, filling around the walls of houses and cottages, framing monuments and creating a bright bottom and bank in artificial streams and ponds, design of playgrounds and much more.

In addition to external beauty, it is also practical, and in this aspect of the issue, the Europeans, who were the first to master the coloring of crushed stone, certainly know a lot - according to their calculations, the use of such an element in the future significantly reduces maintenance costs beautiful view in parks, around monuments and in flowerbeds. Indeed, backfilling with colored gravel is an exceptionally durable way to solve various problems. Crushed stone inhibits the growth of weeds, prevents the soil from weathering, freely passes moisture and helps to retain it in the soil, and if necessary, it can be collected and used elsewhere or even used for construction purposes.

You can either purchase ready-made decorative material and paint it yourself. When buying, be sure to ask what paints were used to give the appropriate color - polymer paints can retain their color for several decades. In addition, do not hesitate to look into the bag - the material must be of the same fraction, evenly colored and without signs of premature peeling of the paint.

We make colored crushed stone with our own hands - production technology

You can make colored gravel yourself - there is nothing secret and super complicated in the technology itself. To do this, you will need a concrete mixer, a metal mesh, a container for painted gravel, a shovel and, of course, gravel and paint. Most often, crushed granite is used - it is better painted and, moreover, quite cheap.

How to make colored gravel with your own hands - a step by step diagram

Step 1: Material preparation

Producers of crushed stone for construction works of course, granite gravel is not specially prepared for painting, so stones of various sizes can fall into the general pile. Manufacturers of colored gravel use a special device called a "roar" to separate larger pieces of stone. With its help, the screening method sorts bulk materials into small and large fractions. It is unlikely that you have a “roar” lying around in your barn, but there will certainly be a metal mesh. Before you paint the rubble with your own hands, pull it at an angle of at least 60 ° and pour the gravel to the very top with a shovel to ensure a larger screening scale. The larger pieces will roll down the net, while the smaller ones will fall to the ground under the net. For painting, it is best to use pebbles about 10 mm long - it is most convenient to fill garden paths with such gravel. Smaller ones are also useful for decorating flower beds and flower beds, and you can always use large pieces for construction purposes.

Step 2: Paint the rubble

The sorted material must be poured into a concrete mixer. By the way, you can make a concrete mixer yourself if you have an unnecessary metal barrel. Paint of the color we need is poured over the rubble - you can use both polymer and acrylic paints. To achieve best color, the volume of paint must be at least a third of the volume of gravel loaded into the concrete mixer. Having started the unit, you can rest easy for the next 40-60 minutes - that is how much time is needed for uniform coloring.

Step 3: Drying the stones

While the decorative gravel, made by yourself, takes on a new color, you can prepare a receiving container, if you have not already done so. The container is a large box with a mesh stretched around its perimeter. If it is a metal net, then it can be pulled a short distance from the bottom of the box; if you are using a regular net, pull it to the very top of the container. Thanks to this device, excess paint will flow down to the bottom of the box without hindrance, and the painted material will remain on the grid.

Remove the gravel from the mesh and lay it out in the open air to dry, placing plastic wrap. The paint remaining in the box can be reused to color a new portion.

How to paint rubble with your own hands - laying and creating patterns

You can also create bright garden paths or colorful flower beds on your own, without resorting to the help of specialists. To do this, you will need a shovel, a wheelbarrow, plastic wrap, curbs, plastic or metal strips, and ready-made decorative gravel.

How to paint rubble with your own hands - a step by step diagram

Step 1: Preparing the area for laying

In the place where the material will be filled up, it is necessary to remove about 10 cm of the top layer of soil. Pour the soil into a wheelbarrow - for sure there is a place in your garden where it can then be placed.

Step 2: Putting up the borders

If you decide to do the usual garden path, all you need is to set the curbs. They can be used natural stone, or plastic and metal strips. Curbs should be firmly on the surface, you can even lightly dig them into the soil.

Step 3: Prepare the base

After installing the curbs, it is necessary to pour a layer of sand at least 5 cm. Level it around the perimeter and pour water over it for better shrinkage. Let the sand dry a little and proceed to the next stage of preparing the base - lay an insulating material on top of the sand. Manufacturers offer special synthetic materials with pre-drilled holes for water to flow through. You can also use a regular plastic film, in which make a sufficient number of holes in advance for the outflow of water in case of precipitation. Another layer of sand is poured onto the polyethylene, this time a smaller one - 2-3 cm.

Step 4: Prepare the stencil

If you are planning to make a path or other surface multi-colored, for convenience, prepare in advance the inner borders of strips of metal or plastic. Thanks to them, the crushed stone will not mix with each other, and you, in turn, will be able to form any geometric patterns. This step can be skipped if the material is the same color.

Step 5: Covering the Colored Stones

The last, final step - our decorative gravel is evenly poured onto the prepared base. You can level the surface with a conventional rake. If you cover gravel on a lawn or in a flower bed, a small layer of 2 cm will suffice, for walking paths it is advisable to pour at least 4 cm of gravel.

Reading time ≈ 5 minutes

Variety of colors for personal plot, especially in the immediate vicinity of the house, is always admired, and these can be bulk materials. But, how and with what to paint rubble at home, so as not to spend a lot of money on the purchase of finished material? If you stay on this page, you will get the answer to this question and more.

The color scheme of paints can include the entire spectrum of the rainbow.

Where can it be used


Video: A selection of landscape design photos

The use of painted decorative gravel began not so long ago, but, nevertheless, the popularity of the method and the material itself very quickly entered our lives. For landscape design and the exterior as a whole, such material can be called a real find. It is used for and , and .

Carpet of colored gravel at the gazebo

As always, the reaction of the construction market to demand was very fast and it is quite natural that these products immediately went on sale. Decorative crushed stone or, as it is also commonly called, granite chips, can be purchased at warehouses, stores and construction sites. shopping malls. But the whole problem is that such material costs an order of magnitude more expensive than ordinary fine gravel, therefore, for those who have enough time, it is much more profitable to paint it with their own hands.

If you look at the issue of painting from a technical point of view, then this process cannot be called too complicated, and it can be done at home. Of course, in addition to a burning desire, you will need necessary equipment and tools that will allow you to implement your plan without much effort. You just have to follow step by step instructions below and you'll be fine.

Separation of material into fractions

Different fractions of rubble

You probably noticed that in compositions using painted gravel, the entire stone has the same fraction, it looks much better in terms of design. But the question lies not only in the design requirements, but also in the staining technology - a material with particles of the same size stains much better than a different fractional instance.

Note. Sifting the material will not only make it possible to separate the particles by the same size, but also get rid of the debris that is inevitably present there.

There are special mechanisms for separating bulk materials by grain size, but we are talking about homework, therefore, there can be no question of anything like this - a sieve with one or another mesh size is used here. It is not difficult to make a sieve with one or another cell size: for this you can use the Chain-link mesh, with a certain size. The mesh is stretched onto the frame, crushed stone is thrown there with a shovel and raked with a chopper. The mini version is no worse, when the frame is made about 50 × 40 cm and the rubble is sifted by hand, but this requires physical endurance.

In this case, crushed stone with a fraction of 10-15 mm will be the most marketable - it is easier to paint it yourself, so the sieve cell should be selected based on these parameters. The sifted material should be washed with running water to remove dirt and dust from granite - on clean walls, adhesion with paint will increase by several orders of magnitude.

How does coloring work

Musical flowerbed

Almost all paint compositions are suitable for coloring, and these are:

  • enamels;
  • water-dispersed paints;
  • alkyd paints;
  • acrylic paints;
  • color mixed with PVA glue.

When choosing a coloring matter, two things are taken into account:

  • UV resistant (does not fade).
  • Moisture permeability (won't wash off).

These requirements are best met by acrylic paints - they are not washed off when exposed to precipitation and do not fade in the sun. Another advantage of this drug can be called its environmental friendliness, that is, such coatings are absolutely harmless to human health.

Painting in a concrete mixer

Coloring crushed stone in a concrete mixer

So, we need a bunker for painting crushed stone, and the most common concrete mixer used for small construction projects will serve as its excellent quality (most often it has a volume of 0.7 m3). The whole process can be divided into five main steps:

  1. The washed and dried material is poured into the drum, filling it by 2/3 of the total volume.
  2. Now the rubble should be slightly warmed up, if, of course, it did not dry out in the heat in the sun. For this, it is best to use gas burner- the flame is directed to the drum during its rotation.
  3. Pour paint into a rotating drum at the rate of 3/7, as mentioned above in the text.
  4. 1 hour mix the resulting composition. This should be enough to evenly distribute the pigment over the stone.
  5. Pour the painted stone onto a grid with a pallet.

Below you can watch the video of this process.


Video: Painting crushed stone in a concrete mixer

Drying

Drying of painted gravel

For drying, it is best to use some kind of container with a metal mesh, where the cell is less than 10 mm. It turns out that the excess paint will drain onto the pallet (container), and it can be reused. In addition, the release of excess coloring pigment will increase the drying speed. Please note that during the process it is undesirable for water to get on the drying material, therefore, in case of rain, cover the drying place with a piece of whole (without holes and breaks) polyethylene.

Conclusion

Now you know how and with what to paint rubble at home and, probably, you are convinced that it is not difficult at all. So, if you need a beautiful one, then everything is in your hands.

Painted rubble in different colors, will be an excellent decoration for the garden in the form of paths and various other decorative elements. Today, buying colored gravel is absolutely not a problem, but why pay for something that you can do yourself?

It is quite simple to paint rubble at home, and almost any coloring compounds are suitable for this work: enamels, water-dispersed paints, acrylics, etc. How to paint rubble at home with your own hands will be described in this site review.

The demand for colored gravel today is very high. This material is used with great success in decorating areas, in landscape design and not only. Painted gravel has also received considerable distribution in the design of aquariums. True, not any coloring matter can be used for these purposes.

So, before you paint the gravel, you should decide on the most optimal coloring matter for these purposes. How inopportunely they fit here. They can be skillfully replaced with PVA glue with dye. But why experiment when you can use a completely ready-made coloring composition for painting rubble.


The most important requirement for paint in this case is that it does not fade in the sun and does not let moisture through. As mentioned above, the most successful of all for staining gravel is acrylic paint.

However, the coloring matter is far from all that is needed in order to paint the rubble with your own hands. To complete this procedure, you will also need essential tool, namely:

  1. Concrete mixer or vibrating sieve;
  2. Sieve for drying material;
  3. Empty containers.

Before painting the crushed stone, it must be sieved to separate the smaller and unacceptable stone for further use. As a rule, the size of crushed stone varies from 3-30 mm, and everything less is eliminated manually through such simple device like a sieve.


After the crushed stone is sifted, it will need to be thoroughly rinsed with running water. This is done so that the acrylic paint lies as well as possible on the material and does not fall off from it subsequently.

The easiest way to wash gravel at home is to pour it on the same sieve, putting the latter on wooden pallet. It is better to rinse with running water from a hose, periodically mixing the crushed stone with a shovel or any other tool convenient for this purpose.

After washing the material, you need to give time for it to dry completely. Under no circumstances should paint be applied to wet material!

So, after the crushed stone is sifted to the desired fraction and thoroughly washed, you can start painting it. Here, as inopportunely, a concrete mixer will come to the rescue, of course, clean inside, without dust, let alone cement mortar adhering to the walls.


The process of painting rubble in a concrete mixer is as follows:

  1. First, crushed stone is poured into the concrete mixer, approximately 2/3 of its volume;
  2. Then 30% is poured directly into the same place (into the concrete mixer). acrylic paint from the total volume of poured rubble;
  3. After that, the concrete mixer is launched into operation for about an hour. After the crushed stone becomes completely painted on all sides, the concrete mixer can be stopped;
  4. Well, then the crushed stone painted in this way is laid out on a sieve and dried until the paint is completely dry.

As you can see, painting gravel at home is a very simple matter. The main thing is not to make mistakes at the stage of preparing the material for this procedure. Only in this case, colored gravel will last the longest possible period of time, and the flower bed decorated by it will delight all the time.