Preformed Concrete Homes

Posts Tagged ‘garden’

Preformed Concrete HomesHow to Install a Stone, Paver Or Brick Garden Path Or Patio

Pavers, brick, and stone can be dry-laid over a bed of sand by a homeowner without difficulty. The installation process is fairly simple and is forgiving. In areas where no frost heave occurs, you can lay large stones directly over compact soil if need be. Then sweep sand between the stone to help keep them from shifting.

Here we offer a basic step-by-step way to install stones, pavers, and bricks to make a walkway, patio, or garden path. I will refer to all concrete pavers, bricks or stone as simply- stone, to save space.

The simplest form of stone paving is laying flat stones directly on the ground. Loosen the dirt so each stone sits firmly and is supported evenly underneath. Grass or ground cover grows between the stones and you mow right over them. This method is appropriate for rustic, natural settings. To help drainage, spread a half-inch layer of sand over the compacted dirt before laying the stone.

For a formal look or design and to get better drainage, lay stone in compacted sand over crushed stone. This requires more work, but you’ll get a flatter, more even paving with joints of sand between the stones instead of vegetation. The sand compensates for irregularities in the ground. Once the bed is in place, laying the stones is a lot like doing a puzzle. Try different stone combinations until you get the smallest gap between joints. If using pavers or bricks, the pattern will have been pre-determined.

TOOLS AND MATERIALS YOU MAY REQUIRE – Stones, pavers, or bricks, tamper, gloves, landscape fabric, safety goggles, tape measure, rubber mallet, string, plywood, wood stakes, 48-inch level, small sledgehammer, pencil, framing square, brick hammer, garden hose, pitching chisel, spade, broom, sand, gravel, and kneepads.

BASIC INSTRUCTIONS: The most difficult step in laying stone is preparing the bed. Normally a two-inch bed of sand is enough if your stones are the same thickness. If the thickness varies, you may need a deeper sand bed. To keep weeds down, use landscape fabric. If your soil does not drain well, consider a four-inch bed of gravel under the sand. Use landscape fabric between gravel and sand when using this method. If your soil drains poorly and you are in a cold climate, consider an even thicker gravel base.

When ordering materials, have your measurements with you so the dealer can help figure your needs. If you are NOT making your own stone, brick or pavers with concrete molds, purchase 5-10 percent over what you need to allow for breakage, cutting mistakes, and future repairs.

LAYING STONE IN PACKED SAND:

1. Lay out Your Area- Set stakes to mark the proposed edge of the patio or walk. Mark the outside corners a bit beyond the proposed edge. Use a framing square to confirm that the corners form right angles. For free-form shapes, lay out the curves using garden hose. Now go around the outline, sinking a spade into the earth to score the perimeter. Once you’ve scored the ground, remove the stakes, string, or hose.

2. Excavate Soil- Set your stones about 1 inch above the ground. To do this, excavate to a depth that equals: the thickness of your stone minus 1 inch. Then figure 2 inches for the sand bed, plus 4 inches for a gravel base if one is needed. Remove all grass, roots and large rocks from the area to be finished. Now place the gravel if using any. Tamp it down with a hand or mechanical tamper.

3. Install a Weed Barrier- Install a layer of landscape fabric on the excavation or on top of the gravel if used. Overlap by 4 to 6 inches. Landscape fabric is designed to prevent weeds while still allowing water to drain through.

4. Spread and Screed the Sand- Top the landscape fabric with about 2 inches of regular construction sand. Tamp it down, and use a straight length of 2×4 to screed the sand level.

5. Install the Stones- Starting in one corner, place the stones on the sand and tamp them into place using a rubber mallet. Make sure that they are solidly bedded, level, and do not wobble. If necessary, dig out sand to make the bedding more stable. Arrange the straight edges toward the outside perimeter and fit any irregular edges together. Leave a half-inch space between the stones. If using pavers or bricks, butt them against each other, with a quarter to a half-inch space between them. If you made your own pavers or bricks with concrete molds to save money, the angle of the sides needed to enable demolding will automatically give you the spacing when butted tightly against each other.

TIP: If you have to kneel on the sand to lay stone, use a piece of plywood to keep from creating depressions. After you have laid a few stones, kneel on the stone instead. Use a 4-foot-long level to maintain the paving level.

6. Cut and Shape the Stones- Some stones may need to be trimmed for a better fit. First, hold the stone to be cut over those in place and mark the cutting line with a pencil or crayon. For small cuts, trim using a brick hammer. For large cuts, score the marked line with a pitching chisel and hammer. Gently tap off the unwanted piece using the hammer. With pavers or brick you may not need to trim anything if you’ve pre-planned the dimensions of your project.

7. Fill the Joints with Sand- When all stones are in place, sweep the joints full of sand. Wet the surface with a fine mist from your hose to compact the sand, then sweep more sand into the joints until they are full. Fill the joints again in a few days when the sand settles.

Now stand back and admire your work!

Preformed Concrete Homes

Preformed Concrete HomesEasy Ways To Add Water Fountains To Your Garden

People decorating their gardens usually consider adding some sort of water fountain at one time or another. There are many water we can use water in the garden. Some of the more popular ways include:

Recirculating fountains or statues, usually composed of an ornamental structure or statue that the water falls over.
Ponds, sometimes with fish such as Koi and water plants.
River scenes, often with boulders, rocks and waterways that resemble a mountain stream.
Small gazing pools of water made by filling pots, urns or other water receptacles.

Any or all of these methods can be used. They are each interesting projects that have benefits and will add life to outdoor areas.

Garden Fountains

These unique structures are usually made out of a durable and heavy material. Concrete is a good example. Most of the time they self-circulate water but they can also be used with auto-fill mechanisms to self-fill. The finishes are variable and they can be made to have a weathered and worn look that will make them appear as if they have been in your garden for many years right after you buy them.

Ponds

Ponds are usually made with a bottom watertight liner that sits in the ground. The liner is filled with water and you can add Koi fish for good luck, lily pads, small frog statues and other things you may find in a real pond. You never see the liner from above.

River Scenes

These are great for Feng Shui because the water course is directed and points favorable energy towards your home and garden bringing good luck, fortune and happiness your way. These are highly individual and you are more like an artist constructing these since the outcome will be specific to you and never the same.

Gazing Pools

These are the easiest to do. Just buy any pot or urn without a drainage hole in the bottom. Bonsai bowls without the hole make excellent basins. Fill with water or let the rain fill it, and you can gaze at the water. These are very beautiful because the wind will stir the water and sunlight will reflect on clear days. Great for patios by your chair or your kitchen windowsill. Just be sure to keep the water clean and fresh for that good energy.

Preformed Concrete Homes

Preformed Concrete HomesGarden Pond Designs

Everyone knows a great garden makes or breaks a home, some people spend more time in the garden than inside the house, with good reason too. Planning is the key to unlock the perfect garden pond. Let’s take a look at what designs are available to you and the requirements to build your own.

Before you even begin making a start on your garden pond, there are a few points we need to clear up. Safety comes first folks, a deep garden pond can’t have dangerous edges for children to slip and fall on. Electrical supplies used to power filters and lights need to be taken care of properly, seek advice from a qualified electrician if you are even the slightest bit unsure of what to do. This is important guys.

Now, depending on how creative you are you might want to go for a specific method. Pond liners allow for completely flexible shapes and designs (but this will be a lot of work). Pond liners vary in price and quality so read the description on the product and match it to you requirements. A preformed garden pond is a quick and easy fix to getting your pond done in a day. Sure, it’s not overly creative. If your local store has only a couple of models, expect to have a few matching ponds with other people in your area. You can always jazz it up with a good selection of plants.

Concrete is another option, i recommend the other two methods though as it’s easier to ‘repair’ if you make mistakes. Then again, a concrete build does have it’s advantages. At the end of the day it’s entirely up to you and comes down to how time you can put in to a project.

Preformed Concrete Homes

Preformed Concrete HomesThe construction of your water garden

Have you ever dreamed of your pool water garden? Waterfalls, koi ponds and polished glass in their backyard? Sounds good, but judging by the professional installation of web sites and magazines, no plan of construction is expensive and best left to experts. This is true in some cases – but certainly not all.

Water games complex, koi ponds, large, call a professional for this project. But even largeponds can certainly be done by DIY experts. I personally know two engineers who built the water garden the most beautiful and complex for them and their families. One of the engineers is my cousin. Unfortunately, it's my cousin by marriage, and not exactly brilliant engineering inherited genes. Fortunately, I have to create my own little pond. I am living proof that if I can do it, anybody can.

For your first pond, you can hire a company to obtain aspectacular. You can do a great job by themselves with some force, lending assistance and capacity building. Or you can make a small pond and beautiful for yourself. No need to spend much money or if you want. Think of goldfish rather than koi, small flexible covering large areas rather than poured concrete patio, container or garden can be built and filled in a day. Opportunities, as they say, are endless.

Some of the elements that most of the watergardens need are:

1. Or the outlet. A container is autonomous and can be a barrel of whiskey and half porcelain basin, a planter – all that is resistant to water and poison the water with chemicals. (You can align the container if you are not sure of this.) The most common method is to dig a hole and line them with cement, coatings preformed rigid or flexible coatings. The pre-formed from the coatings tend to be small, but the pipes of small, medium and largesize. Coated concrete, the size of your garden the water is all yours. (And the size of your property.)

2. Submersible pump / power combination pump. Water gardens need some movement of water clarity and health of plants and fish. Submersible pumps are more or less depending on the volume of water waiting to move. You can also buy pumps, cascade systems, if you want to get fancy. It is a glorious feature, of course, butfeel they have to put into immediate. You can always go slower and add functionality as you go.

3. Filter. You can opt for mechanical or biological filters. They should not be expensive. As with the pump, which maintain water clarity and health. Note that in a small pond that did not need much. My pond (4 'from end to end, 2 feet deep), only very well with a small pump and a cheap source /. Note: Do not add fish if you can – some of the best natural filters in the world.

4.Power. You need electricity to pump and mechanical filters. If your garden is water in a container on the patio, you can do with an extension cord outside. (Note to kids and dogs, though.) If the use of electricity in your backyard, you want to use a 120-volt outlet in the open with a ground fault circuit breaker near the lagoon. Do not worry, everything is worthy will be able to take your hands for you.

Building happy!

Preformed Concrete Homes

Preformed Concrete HomesThree Common Materials For a Garden Pond

Ponds need to be watertight and, within reason, it doesn’t matter how you achieve this. Today there are three main options:

Prefabricated ponds

Rigid moulded liners made from vacuum-formed plastic are the cheapest and they usually come with built-in shelves. They are relatively easy to install, and many people like them because the shape is predetermined, but they are fairly short¬lived. PVC-based and rubberized compounds are available; these are slightly more expensive, but are longer lasting. Moulded fibreglass pre-formed liners are the longest lasting of all, but are not so easy to find, and are more expensive when you do.

Flexible liners

These are basically lengths of waterproof sheeting, enabling you to build a pond of any shape or size. More planning is required, and calculating the amount of liner you need is not always easy. Lined ponds are ideal for informal schemes, since the sheeting will fit most shapes and contours, albeit with varying amounts of creasing. Many raised ponds, which at first appear to be constructed entirely of bricks and cement, are actually lined inside. The best reliability comes with rubber sheeting known as butyl, but PVC and LDPE (low-density polyethylene) sheets are also to be recommended. Buy lengths with a guarantee of 20 years or more. Polythene is common at the cheaper end of the scale, but it lacks pliability and becomes brittle after prolonged exposure to sunlight, so is best avoided. Finally there are ‘geotextile’ liners, which are rubber-based liners impregnated with sodium bentonite. These are self-healing liners -if they sustain a minor puncture, the bentonite will plug the hole.

Concrete ponds

Concrete was the main choice years ago, but is no longer favoured because making a satisfactory concrete pond takes a great deal of skill, time and hard labour. Achieving the right mix, applying it correctly and keeping it workable, are tasks that many beginners get badly wrong. Yet, properly designed and constructed, a concrete pond can be elegant and have an air of permanence unequalled by other materials.

Safety must be paramount at all times, as any water feature is a potential hazard. If a pond is big enough for plants and fish, chances are it is also big enough for a child to fall in. So safety must be a major consideration if children are likely to be present. Choose a site with all-round visibility, so that you can keep an eye on children while they are playing in the vicinity.

Barrier fencing is an obvious safety measure, and it need not be unsightly. Picket fencing is certainly an effective barrier (and can look quite attractive, too) but it must be at least 75cm (30in) high. If end posts are slotted into sockets at ground level it need not be a permanent fixture. Both metal hoop fencing as used in parks, and chain link fencing as used around school playgrounds, will merge into the background greenery and be less obtrusive if painted dark green. Heavy grilles placed over the pond might save lighter children from taking a dip, but this is hardly an attractive element for a garden pool.

The barriers mentioned above will also protect your fish from cats and herons – the two main enemies of the outdoor fish keeper. But as far as children are concerned, to be honest, if your pond poses a permanent risk to them, it is better to be without it until they reach an age when you do not have to watch them constantly.

Preformed Concrete Homes