Concrete yard

For a city dweller, the “concept of a house” usually does not go beyond the staircase or the porch. Accomplishment of the adjacent territory is also of little interest to him, since it is the patrimony of municipal services. The house is perceived in a completely different way by those who live in the frequent sector.

For them, the word “yard” is not an empty phrase, since the quality of its improvement depends not only on the appearance of the entire site, but also on the comfort of staying on it. Looking at the design of the local area, you can immediately get an idea of ​​how diligent the owners of the house. This zone can be put in order in different ways: lay out with tiles, arrange wooden flooring, asphalt, finally, but the most practical and clean owners prefer nevertheless concreting the yard.

In that, whether to give preference to this option and if so, how to do it competently, we will try to understand.

Three reasons for concreting

Why should the decision to concrete the yard be considered correct?

First, it is easier to keep the concrete paved area clean. On such a cover impassable dirt will not be collected, the grass will not germinate through it and it will not have to be weeded out. In winter, the yard will be easier to free from snow.

Secondly, you will get a solid level surface, which can enter any car class, even a truck. In this case, the yard will not be torn by wheels and covered with gullies.

Thirdly, it is simply aesthetically pleasing. Concreting the adjacent territory, you can ennoble it in passing, allocating places for flower beds, benches, providing a network of alleys, etc.

To ensure that the concrete retains its attractive appearance for a long time, and its surface is integrity, it is necessary to follow the technology of its filling precisely.

How to properly pour concrete in the yard

“Plastic will be very handy if you are planning to concreate the courtyard in an abstract form with figured paths”

Preliminary work

First of all, we prepare the site. The surface must be leveled and the top layer of soil covered with grass roots removed. Removal of the soil layer should be done wisely. If this is fertile land, it should be moved to flower beds or sent to beds. Concreting of the yard must be made at the level of the natural relief.

Work on this issue begins with the fact that marking the territory, indicating the location of sites, tracks and other elements and in accordance with this marking, produce excavation. On average, it is necessary to remove up to 20 cm of soil. This is not much, as it may seem. The fact that the concrete coating reacts poorly to the effects of moisture, so under it should be laid a good drainage cushion. The creation of the latter will have to be dealt with immediately after the removal of the soil. For the drainage, rubble is required. He falls asleep in the prepared grooves and rasklintsovyvayut with the help of sand. The thickness of the ballast cushion should be at least 15 cm. If drainage is planned to be made from a mixture of crushed stone and construction debris such as broken brick, the remains of old concrete or asphalt pavement, etc., then it needs to be covered even more.

Provided that your house is on an infertile land and you will be transporting and pouring of chernozem, the area for concreting can not be deepened. In this situation, the preparatory work will be reduced to marking and pouring rubble. If the basis of the site is clayey soil, which does not shrink, then you can do without a drainage cushion. In the same way they act on a hard, not overgrown grass and well compacted earth.

Experts recommend to cover the drainage layer with a polyethylene film, in order to protect the concrete from moisture and not allow it to break up the sprouting grass.

In order for concrete to solidify in the required form, rather than spread over the whole area, it must be poured into the formwork, which can be constructed from an improvised material with a smooth surface. In the course you can start:

1. Boards (this is an ideal option).

2. Plastic panels.

3. Pieces of particle board.

4. Slate sheets.

Plastic will be very handy if you are planning to concreate the courtyard in an abstract form with curly paths. The material is very pliable in the work and without any problems accepts any configuration.

Formwork put on the perimeter of the site, exactly repeating its outline. Mount the structure is not difficult. Planks or other material, laid on a given trajectory and supported by pegs driven into the ground. Now you can start the main job.

Stage one – beacons

The technology of concreting the yard is somewhat different from the work on leveling the floor in the room, so the standard level you do not helper. The relief of the terrain will not allow you to sustain the horizon during the flood, so you need to find an alternative level for the level. With the task will help to cope with an unusual system, called professionals – “spider”. It is created from 4 taut threads.

Make a “spider” is not difficult. To start, drive in the corners of the area preparing for concreting wooden stakes or pieces of reinforcement. Now let the two parallel threads run from corner to corner. The remaining threads are fastened in the same parallel order, but not to pegs, but to the already stretched threads, and we do this on so-called “air loops” so that they can be moved freely in the desired direction. At the point of contact with the creeping threads are placed beacons. Next, choose the angle of inclination of the site. This must be done to ensure the outflow of rainwater. Look at the peculiarity of the surrounding landscape and decide where it is best for you to direct torrential floods.

Now you can begin to remove the level of the backfill of the drainage layer. To set the “spider” in the right plane, you need to work with the threads. The main ones, which are fixed on the stakes, are lowered to a height of 15 cm from the base of the site. Sometimes there is a need to adjust one of the parties on the level. This is done with the use of a special device designed specifically for such works. The level for the threads is equipped with hooks, thanks to which it is very simple to attach them. Now set the required position of the thread, having achieved its absolute horizontality, and you can consider your “spider” adjusted in space. Everything is ready to install beacons.

This is done so. Mix the solution and place it in a row with small slides. They will become the holder of pieces of the profile used in creating gypsum board systems. The height of the beacon should be such that it only touches the threads of the “spider” lightly. Set the landmarks at a distance equal to the length of the rule, which will stretch the concrete.

Stage Two – Reinforcement

Experienced summer residents know firsthand how to fill a yard with concrete. They are aware that concrete has a tendency to crack. Especially often this happens at the junction of areas filled at different time intervals. To prevent trouble will help styling between beacons reinforcement. The best option will be a reinforcing mesh made of thick wire filaments, there will not be sharp edges that need to be bent.

To skip the reinforcement stage is not worth it, since this is the only way to ensure the integrity of the concrete and reduce the number of cracks to the minimum threshold. Very much help out the presence of the reinforcing layer of those who carry out the reconstruction of the yard in parts. The coating will be smooth and will retain its integrity and attractiveness for many years.

Stage three – concreting the yard

To pour the yard with concrete, you first need to prepare a working solution. This can be done in different ways, so consider the most common way. Let’s start with the definition of proportions. To produce concrete, you need to mix three components:

1. Cement.

2. Sand.

3. Crushed stone.

They are mixed in a certain proportion. On a bucket of cement put three buckets of sand and a bucket of rubble. You can find recommendations where it is stated that two buckets of sand and rubble should be allowed to mix with a bucket of cement, but if there is no screed, do not prepare it. Manually you will never be able to stretch and perfectly level the concrete surface.

Significantly facilitate the work on mixing the presence of a mechanism such as a concrete mixer.

In the absence of auxiliary mechanisms, it is possible to concrete the yard in an alternative way. It provides for two actions. The first you pour a solution, which contains a lot of rubble, and leave it almost without alignment, that is, as it lies. The second – pour the area with a concrete solution, in which there is practically no admixture of crushed stone. The finishing layer can be quite thin, only a couple of centimeters. This is a very economical version of the design of the yard, as it does not require the involvement of expensive devices. However, even here there is a “reef”. To concreting passed “with a bang,” you need to fill the yard in one day. Breaks per day are not allowed here. If the lower layer grabs, you will not be able to tie the top layer to it.

The process of mixing concrete begins with a bay in a concrete mixer or a trough of water. Its quantity is determined by experience. For a landmark, again, you can take a bucket. Approximately the ratio of water and cement should be 1: 1. Add the remaining ingredients to the water and carefully knead them. The solution can be considered ready when it does not look through the sand.

We pass to the very fill. Concrete is unloaded onto the ground and neatly, with a shovel, distributed to nearby lighthouses. The solution layer should cover them. Now you need to remove its surplus. You need a flat rake or something similar. It should be put on the nearest visible beacons and pulling, as if on rails, to scrape excess concrete. The procedure is repeated several times in different directions. Your task is to make the surface as flat as possible. If you are too far from the ups and downs of construction, but you have a great desire to equip your house with your own hands, you can find thematic videos and see clearly how to fill the courtyard with concrete.

Try to mix the solution well. If this is not done, the appearance of the yard will not be very aesthetic. Poorly tightened solution will be full of boogers and lumps of unbroken sand. But even if everything is perfect, do not apply concrete to reinforce the polymer layer. Be sure to process the most weak points to load the load:

1. Angles.

2. Edges.

Polymer treatment is carried out in two ways. In the first case, its dry mixture is poured over freshly placed concrete, in the second – a liquid solution of the fixer is prepared, which is poured into grooves prepared in the already grasped concrete, centimeter depth.

Features of concrete coating drying

The concrete screed must be properly dried. This will give it extra strength. The process must go slowly. After leaving the surface of the grasping concrete of water, it is cleaned, eliminating all the tuberosities and rips, and covering with a film. If the weather is too hot, the concreted area will have to be watered. This must be done, since already at + 30o the concrete, mixed with alumina cement, will lose half the strength stock.

If during the filling of the yard in the concrete surface no thermal gaps were made, it is necessary to take the Bulgarian in hands and cut them through the dried layer.

Now the process of concreting the yard can be considered complete.

Care of the concreted territory

In principle, the hardening of the concrete occurs quickly enough, but here the main strength is gaining a longer time. So, in the first days after becoming, it is not necessary to drive cars onto a freshly melted area, drop weight on it, etc.

Humidity balance is important to maintain not only the period of the formation of concrete solution, but also in the further operation. In a strong heat the courtyard will be superfluous periodically watered from the hose. In the rest of the period, it will suffice for the moisture to fall during the precipitation.

It is good to treat the concreted yard with special protective compounds that are sprayed on the surface from the spray gun.

Thinness of street concreting by one’s own hands

“To support the comfortable moisture of concrete will help its treatment with compounds with hygroscopic salts”

1. The quality of the resulting concrete is affected not only by the cement brand, but also by the quality of a seemingly secondary element like sand, so do not be lazy to check its quality. Let’s start with the fact that it is better to work with coarse-grained sand, practically without clay impurities. Check how good the product you offer can be the most primitive way. Put a small amount of it into a plastic water bottle, shake it lightly and let stand for a few minutes. If the water is cloudy, and the turbidity that has appeared does not go to sediment, the sand has silty deposits or there is too much clay in it. Naturally, you do not need to take it into your work.

2. The concrete surface can be further strengthened by applying the glanding technique. On the already setting solution, apply a small amount of pure cement and trowel it with a trowel or spatula into the surface.

3. To maintain a comfortable moisture content of the concrete will help its treatment with compounds with hygroscopic salts. They are able to absorb and accumulate moisture from the atmosphere. The method is unacceptable for use in regions with too low air humidity, as in this situation, the salt will draw water from the most concrete coating.

4. How to properly pour concrete yard and protect it from loss of moisture, we considered, now we must take care of protection from exposure to the sun. The easiest way to do this is to paint the surface with white paint, the light-repelling qualities of which are widely heard.

5. If the topings were used to harden the corners and edges of the yard, then it is not worth pouring water into these places immediately after the formation of concrete. This can provoke a detachment of protection.

6. The degree and side of the slope of the surface should be envisaged even during the preparatory work. At the same time, the organization of drainage grooves is also being considered. The love of concrete to the water does not mean that there must always be puddles on it. Rapidly form the drainage channels will help the iron pipes, which are placed on the hardening concrete and pressed with something heavy. After becoming a surface, the pipes are removed. The grooves remaining from them will perfectly cope with the tap of water.

7. Concrete is most often cracked in those areas where the islets of areas that have been poured and hardened at different times are joined together. If your yard is too large, then it is worth calling for helpers to try to do all the work, not allowing daily interruptions in the filling of the solution.

Conclusion

If you adhere to the described technology and work only with high-quality materials, then, without even presenting until today, how to properly pour concrete yard, you can do it at the highest level!

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Author: Mikhail Bond

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