How to make paths from slate. Do-it-yourself slate paths in the country house. Benefits of using slate fencing

Slate, being a traditional roofing material, has recently been superseded by more modern roofing materials such as metal tiles and bituminous tiles. However, it is too early to write it off. After all, how much more use can be made from old slate sheets!

The remnants of the shiver sheets are ideal for fencing the adjacent area.

Slate for fencing

Small remnants of the chiver can be used as shelves in the cellar.

There are many options for giving a second life to used slate. For example, in the majority, summer cottages are fenced with a net (chain-link), through which dogs or hares can easily penetrate. It will help you solve this problem old slate. The sheet, which has a length of 175 centimeters, must be cut in half and, with an overlap on the chain-link, dug 40 centimeters into the ground, after which the earth must be tamped.

That's all, the slate does not need further fastening. Thus, you have created an excellent barrier not only for unexpected guests, but also for weed roots that cannot penetrate either to you or from you. In other words, old slate can be used as a fence, which can be painted if desired.

Slate for shelves in the cellar

Often in the cellars, shelves for supplies become unusable. Often in this situation they use the old slate. You can proceed as follows: at the corners of the cellar, it is necessary to lay out the wall-racks (in half a brick), which should have a length equal to the width and height of 90 centimeters.

You can also use slate for fencing beds.

We put slate on top, in the waves of which we lay metal rods or reinforcement, we construct formwork from boards along the edges and fill it with mortar (crushed stone, sand and cement). Everything must be done in one step, so that we have a monolithic layer of concrete. You will get a wonderful solid shelf, under which there will be space where you can put boxes or any other container. The thickness of the solution must be at least 10 centimeters.

If the cellar area is large enough, the shelves can be built using two or three sheets of slate, both in length and in width, the rack walls are laid out only under the joints. It is enough for slate sheets to overlap the ends of the supports by 6 centimeters. Compared to boards, the use of slate, in this case, is much more economical and much faster. After the concrete mortar has hardened, there is no need to remove the slate, it can simply be whitewashed or painted.

If you are just going to build a cellar, then you need to calculate its dimensions, based on the dimensions of the slate, so that it goes onto the supports at the distance indicated above. If sheets 175 centimeters long are too small for you, then you can use sheets that have a length of 250 centimeters.

Shelves must be built immediately, since in the further construction of the walls of the cellar they can be used as excellent scaffolding. In the place where the manhole is planned, they also use old slate, put formwork on it with approximate dimensions of 80 × 80 centimeters and, after reinforcing, fill it concrete mortar not more than 15 centimeters thick. After some time, it will be possible to pierce or cut out the manhole itself in the formwork. Here is another example of where you can put the slate sheets of the former use.

Foundation slate

If there are no funds and there is a desire to save money, or maybe there is simply nowhere to put the old slate, it can be used to build the foundation formwork. But I would immediately like to note that in the future it will be difficult to insulate and waterproof such a foundation, since it is embossed. Of course, if you have even slate slabs, then the design will not be inferior to a board product at all.

So, in order to build a formwork for the foundation, you must first clean the trench and plan the surface.

Slate sheets can be used for foundation formwork. This will save a significant part of the family budget.

If your slate is not solid, it must be trimmed by cutting the edges. If the slate has holes, they must be sealed, as an option, with sealant, and then these places should be protected with roofing material. Attach a support (in the form of a stick) to each piece of slate.

Often the support is fixed with nails, in this case the main thing is that the slate does not burst, so you do not need to hammer the nail to the very head. Then we install the formwork in the trench, while it is necessary to tightly connect the joints. The resulting seams are best protected with roofing felt or tarpaulin, can be covered with sealant. At the last stage of the construction of the formwork for the foundation, it is necessary to make sure that the structure does not tilt, after which the formwork can be carefully fixed. That's all, your structure is ready for pouring mortar.

Slate for gardeners

Old slate has also found its way to amateur gardeners. For example, it is widely used to protect grape plants. To do this, it is necessary to make a trench no more than 20 centimeters deep and no more than 50 centimeters wide. After that, a fascine is placed in it and pinned to the ground with staples, the trench is covered with old slate from above, and the cracks are covered with earth to protect the plant from drafts. Also, in the presence of long slate waste, gardeners often use them to protect the bark of trees in winter period. Pieces of slate surrounding the trunk are fixed with wire. This way, the hares will not be able to harm your tree.

If you are the owner of a private house with a garden, then the old slate can be used as a sheathing compost pit. From small pieces you can make a low fence for flowers, paint it in bright colors and get a great decoration for your site. You can beat the sheets with a hammer into small pieces, resulting in something similar to gravel, which is well covered with paths, porches and even the floor in technical buildings. During rains, water does not accumulate on such coatings and dirt does not form.

There are a lot of ways to reuse old slate. Take sheets of slate, add fantasy, and you will surely get something useful. As a last resort, give them to those who wish, maybe they will be useful to one of your neighbors.

Arrangement of a garden at a country house or personal plot almost never goes without refining the beds. We will show you a great way to arrange elevated beds, suitable both for covering with a greenhouse dome and for open cultivation cultures.

General description of the design

Why do you even need to take care of the device for fencing the beds, if most garden crops feel quite comfortable when planting in open ground? On the one hand, it may just be a wish to improve aesthetics. landscape design. On the other hand, cultivated and fenced beds are an excellent indicator of the proper organization of plant care and an important factor of convenience for gardeners: when working on an elevated ridge, the back gets less tired, while walkways can be covered with mulch, gravel or paved with paving slabs without fear of silting further.

By itself, the design of the beds is very simple. The walls are made of asbestos-cement sheets, fastened together at the corners and at straight joints. From a third to a half of the total height of the walls is under the ground, the rest rises above the ground level. Inside the beds can be filled with a specially prepared substrate, thus reducing the cost of making compost and buying fertilizer.

In general, such formwork turns out to be quite strong and reliable, but it requires some reinforcement. For example, to counteract the pressure of the bursting soil, the opposite walls of the beds are pulled together, and also firmly fastened at the corners to prevent the divergence of the joints. Slate is a very durable material, even when under a layer of soil. However, the sheets are often additionally painted, which improves the aesthetics of the garden and helps to reduce the water absorption of the walls.

Marking and preparing plots for beds

Of course, it makes no sense to split the entire sown area under high beds. Usually, in this way they equip places for growing flowers and vegetable crops, while melons and root crops grow successfully in open ground.

Slate beds can have an almost unlimited length, but it is advisable to keep their width within 120-150 cm, so access from both sides will be most convenient. The space between the beds, intended for the installation of walkways, must be at least 50 cm, at the same time, a width of more than a meter will be redundant. Before preparing the soil for the arrangement of beds, it must be marked out by driving pegs in the corners.

The soil development process itself is quite simple. It is necessary to remove the top layer of black soil and temporarily take it to a dump nearby. The walls of the formed pit must be cleaned and leveled in accordance with the geometry of the beds. With an indent of 10 cm from the walls, the bottom of the pit is deepened by another 10-20 cm, which is necessary to equip a barrier against pests moving in the upper layers of the soil. The soil extracted from this layer is put into a separate dump.

Making walls from slate

As source material sheets of the smallest format 100x150 cm are suitable. It is more convenient to deliver such sheets to the country house, and there will be fewer problems with further processing. However, the width of the sheet can be chosen individually so that it is a multiple of the total height of the walls. As a rule, 50 cm is enough for arranging beds, but individual summer residents may have their own thoughts on this.

Sheets must be dissolved into strips along the long side. For cutting slate, a grinder with a diamond wheel on stone is best, however, certain precautions should be observed when working. Asbestos, bound in the mass of slate sheet, is absolutely harmless, however, when cutting, an impressive amount of very harmful dust is formed. Therefore, it is imperative to use a respirator and goggles. It is also desirable to cut the strips at a time, subsequently spilling the dusty areas with plenty of water.

From the cut edges of the slate, it is necessary to remove small chamfers with an emery bar. Also, holes should be immediately made at the edges and in the center of the strips for installing stretch marks and connecting structural elements into a common formwork contour in accordance with the selected type of fastening. After machining slate sheets will be correctly covered with one layer of budget-quality alkyd enamel.

Assembly of fences

You can fasten sheets at corners and straight joints in completely different ways. Tightness at the joints is not required, and the strength of the fastening should be purely nominal - only to ensure the integrity of the structure before it is backfilled with soil.

In everyday life, the most common options are when the corners are fastened by inserts from profile pipe or wooden bars, to which slate strips are screwed with self-tapping screws. This method is good for its cheapness, besides, it is possible to align the geometry of the beds in advance and provide the required installation height of the sheets. However, both wood and structural steel quickly become unusable from rotting and corrosion, especially when active use mineral fertilizers.

There are also Alternative option– aluminum profiles for the assembly of commercial equipment. In addition to durability, this method provides simplicity and high manufacturability of the assembly process, has a more accurate appearance. It is only important to choose the right width of the installation groove: in the smallest profile size it is 5.5 mm, which is well suited for assembling 6 mm slate sheets - again, the smallest thickness for this material. On sale you can find profiles with a groove up to 10 mm - these are optimally suited for high beds of great length. After docking, a box of slate sheets is temporarily fixed through the profile body with metal screws and placed in a prepared pit on a brick scaffold.

As for connecting straight joints, for this purpose it is quite possible to successfully use slate trimmings, reinforced rubber from spent conveyor belts and others. sheet materials not subject to decay. It is advisable to fasten the slate strips to their final installation, carefully combining the joints. In order for the fastening to be of high quality, it is necessary to pre-drill holes at the joints with an indent of 20 mm from the edge and use galvanized self-tapping screws with a press washer.

Strengthening and mortgages

To prevent the pressure of the bursting soil, the walls must be pulled together according to the same principle as the formwork when pouring concrete. It is optimal for these purposes to use galvanized wire with a thickness of at least 1 mm. On opposite walls, you need to drill two relatively coaxial holes, then roll the wire into a loop and pull it through the slate sheet, inserting a small metal pin as a stopper.

On the reverse side, the tails of the wire are twisted together until the slack is completely taken out, and the walls are slightly bent inward, after which the twist is also fixed with a pin and a pair of self-tapping screws. There is no need to place screeds in the underground part of the walls, they work effectively when installed with an indent of 10-12 cm from the top edge.

In order to be able to install folding domes of greenhouses, it is necessary to drive several pieces of angle steel into the ground, placing them close to the inner wall of the bed. Between themselves, the corners should be connected with reinforcement of 8 or 10 mm, placing the stretch marks diagonally. After installation, the mortgages are cut flush with the upper edge of the walls, after which horizontal metal plates are welded to them for attaching the hinges. When all installation work is completed, it is advisable to wrap the flower bed from the inside with a dense plastic film, putting it on the bottom of the lower tier of the pit about 10 cm and wrapping it on the sides of the fence. This will help prevent the entry of bears and other pests into the bed, which migrate in the upper layers of the soil during the warm season.

Soil backfill

All soil removed from the lower tier of the pit must be poured back and compacted by spilling water. At the same time, it is desirable that the embankment covers the walls to a height of at least 5-7 cm. After that, a fertile layer can be poured.

Soil dump removed from the surface should be leveled in a free area and mixed with manure, compost or humus, the concentration of which depends on the natural saturation of the soil nutrients. After thorough mixing with a pitchfork, the substrate can be poured back, but in no case should it be compacted, only break up large lumps. The flower bed needs to be filled up along the very edges of the formwork, in the near future the soil will naturally settle. When the bed is filled up from the inside, it is necessary to fill the gaps between the walls and the soil adjacent to the outside, while carefully compacting it and spilling it with water, after which you can start arranging the paths.

Related videos

• Practical fences
• Shelves in the cellar
• Slate beds
• Disputes about the dangers of slate

Practical fences

Until recently, slate has been the most common roofing material with many performance benefits. Today, its popularity has fallen slightly, more modern materials: bituminous tiles and metal tiles. It is a pity to throw away the old coating, which is why many in the country have warehouses of old slate sheets. It's a pity to throw it away, and you don't need to do it.

You can easily assemble and make a temporary toilet, a summer shower from slate sheets, you can build fences out of it, covering them with a fence made of chain-link mesh, for example. Such a solution will protect the personal plot from the prying eyes of passers-by and the penetration of neighbors' dogs.

A standard slate sheet has a length of 175 cm, the sheet is cut in half and simply with an overlap on the netting, it is dug into the ground with the lower edge, to a depth of 40 cm. If desired, slate is easy to paint by picking up correct color, it is easy to easily integrate into the style of your site.

Note! Such a partition is able to protect the backyard from the spread of weeds, which are trying to gain a foothold on the edge of the neighbor's plot with their roots.

Shelves in the cellar

Another way to use the old slate was suggested by experienced summer residents and gardeners. To store supplies, they propose to build comfortable and durable shelves using slate, allowing you to organize convenient system storage for available supplies. Shelves are constructed as follows:

1. At the corners of the pantry, brick racks are laid, the length of which must match the width of the slate sheet. The height of the racks is 90 cm.
2. A sheet of slate is laid on the racks.
3. Formwork is built around it.
4. Reinforcement pipes are laid in the ribs of the slate.
5. The solution is mixed, as for a cement screed.
6. They pour a sheet of slate, the solution layer should be 10 cm.
7. The result should be monolithic concrete- strong enough capacious shelf on which it is easy to place any container for storage of vegetables and fruit.

If the cellar is large, such shelves can be placed around the perimeter, made short or long. Many will think that using boards in this case is easier than slate, but the use of the material described, as practice shows, helps to save a lot. In addition, the slate does not need to be removed from the formwork. It can be painted or whitewashed with lime. Then the shelves will look quite neat.

Slate beds

If there is a garden in the country house, with the help of slate it is easy to assemble neat beds. It's easy to make them yourself. Look at the photo, how decorative this garden looks. The use of slate has quite practical purposes. Such structures help to keep the soil within the same bed.

Such a partition is a reliable barrier to rodents and the spread of weeds. The process of laying slate itself consists of several stages:

1. First, the slate needs to be cut. This can be done along the plates or across the waves, as shown in the photo.
2. Then the boundaries of the beds are outlined.
3. Trenches are being dug around the perimeter. Their depth should be half of the prepared protective product.
4. Slate blanks are laid in the prepared trenches.
5. It remains to dig trenches and tamp the soil around the installed sheet parts.
6. In order to give the walls of the beds greater stability, metal pegs are buried in the ground.

Note! The installation of the described fence has certain nuances. If the waves on the beds are horizontal, the shoots of plants and their roots can easily grow along the depressions.

Any digging of the earth in this case will lead to the death of the plant. Vertically located waves will not become an obstacle to weeding the beds.

It is best to cut the slate with a grinder. Experienced craftsmen during the performance of such work, the angle grinder is sent in the direction opposite to the direction of the wind. In this case, the dust will be blown away from the cutting person. Since asbestos dust is dangerous to humans, it is necessary to protect yourself from it during work by putting on goggles over your eyes and covering your nose with a gauze bandage. You can not use a saw for wood to cut slate. This is a traumatic job, one wrong move can deprive a hand.

Benefits of using slate fencing

Experienced gardeners today make not only beds from slate sheets, they collect flower beds with it, lay slate on greenhouses. A garden path covered with flat sheets is obtained durable and reliable. Practicality and decorativeness are not the only advantages of such a solution.

• Slate is a material that quickly heats up in the sun, heats up and easily gives off excess heat to the soil. This favorably affects the growth of any plants.
• It is difficult to destroy the garden fence assembled with the help of asbestos-cement sheets.
• In the future, it is not necessary to carry out any other work with such a fence. Set and forget with them for a long time.
• Using old slate sheets, there is no need to spend on buying wooden beams.
• If desired, the sheets can be easily painted in any color, painting increases the decorative properties of the fence.

If you want to repeat a similar experiment in your garden, it is useful to study in advance the shortcomings of asbestos-cement products. On hot summer days, such a fence will contribute to overheating of the soil, so the plants will need to be watered more often. In places where long rains are a common occurrence, the soil under the fence is often washed out, so they constantly tilt. This forces the owner of the garden to constantly straighten the fence. For many, this procedure will seem tedious.

Foundation and pit latrine

Old slate sheets are often used to equip formwork for pouring foundations for outbuildings. In this case, after the concrete has hardened, the formwork does not need to be removed.

Since there is often no central sewerage, toilet and engineering Communication, serving the kitchen and bathroom, cannot function without a cesspool. Slate in this case is used to strengthen its walls. Sheets are cut to the size of the walls of the pit, just go down. In order for the sheets not to fall, they are fastened together with the corners of the reinforcement. Further, reinforcement bars are laid in the gap between the pit and the slate sheets. The cracks are filled with cement mortar. In order for the walls of the cesspool to withstand the pressure, they are bursting with wooden blocks, as shown in the photo.

After the concrete has dried, cesspool ready for the toilet.

Disputes about the dangers of slate

Many, after reading the article, will put forward a lot of arguments in favor of refusing to use the described material. But experts are in a hurry to reassure everyone. The described material is made from a mixture of three ingredients: Portland cement, asbestos fiber and water. The first two components are completely safe for human health. But asbestos fiber can arouse suspicion.

There are several varieties of this material, two are used in the production of slate:

• amphibole-asbestos (natural basis);
• chrysotile asbestos (a derivative of the serpentine group).

European scientists conducted research and found out that slate of the first variety can be called dangerous for humans. In Russia, amphibole-asbestos for the production roofing material does not apply. Therefore, for those who are afraid for their health, experts recommend purchasing slate of domestic brands. It can be used in the garden easily without fear.

As you can see, the use of old slate helps to solve purely practical tasks on the household plot. You can make a temporary toilet, outdoor shower, build a greenhouse or any fence using waste.

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Do you want to make beds from slate with your own hands? Of course, many people want to arrange something similar on their site, because in order to give the site a well-groomed appearance, you need to draw the boundaries of the beds. You can create borders for beds from slate, which remains in excess after changing a leaky roof.

An example of installing a slate border for a garden bed

Create neat fences

They do it in order to create comfort in the country, so that it is easier to take care of the site. If you fence the beds, then you do not have to dig up the entire site every year. The original, created by oneself, will look neat, please the owner of the site.

Created strips for beds have the following advantages:

Original slate flower bed

• the earth does not crumble in such a bed;
• an obstacle to the penetration of unwanted weeds;
• reduction of heavy work area;
• flat slate beds are easier to cover for the period of winter cold;
• the beds can be given a variety of shapes, it all depends on the imagination of the landowner.

In an intensified fight against annoying weeds, slate garden fences will help summer residents. At the moment of deepening the fence into the fertile soil, weeds will not be able to get on the cultivated soil. In areas with loose, crumbly soil, fencing can strengthen it. Creating a strip for beds is not relevant in areas with dense soil; here you can do without creating the same sides.

How to make wave slate borders

Wave slate is available material to create neat beds. You can use the old slate for beds, which, as unnecessary, were going to be sent to a landfill. But don't make hasty decisions.


You can give it a second life by creating identical borders from wavy slate. It will get a presentable look if you paint it with water-repellent paint.

To create the same stripes for the beds, you need to use the following available materials:

• wooden stakes 60 cm long, slightly sharpened at one end and treated with special mastic;
• ordinary lime for slate processing;
• improvised tools: hammer, level, shovel;
• old waste paper to line the bottom of the future beds;
• small sawdust, dry leaves, water and fertile soil to fill the contents of the beds.

Formation of fences

Making slate beds is not as easy as it seems at first glance. Before installing the slate, it is necessary to cut it with a grinder. The slate must be carefully broken into plates so that the width is the same. Next, you need to dig shallow trenches, after which you can begin to install a fence.
Creating the same neat beds is as follows:

In this case, it does not matter whether these are flat or wavy slate borders, with the exception of appearance. flat slate it looks more neat, with it the beds acquire the correct geometric shape, it is easier to saw it, the integrity of the structure will not be violated here. Therefore, you can use any of the proposed options. To create such high slate beds in the country is within the power of all those who seek to simplify the physical work on the ground and give the site a well-groomed appearance.

Raised slate beds

It is possible in this way to fence raspberries from other crops so that they do not grow at a rapid pace. Creating a fence for raspberries is relevant in any area where it is available. The device of such fences is quite simple. There is no need to dig trenches over the entire area, you can dig channels around the entire perimeter of the fence, this is enough.

Thin slate has one significant drawback: at the time of distortions and heavy rains, this device needs to be corrected.

When working with this material, it is necessary to take into account the harm of slate: it contains asbestos cement, which has an adverse effect on the soil composition. Another disadvantage of using slate is its heating from direct sun rays, because of which the evaporation of life-giving moisture from the soil increases. It is easily eliminated with frequent watering.

An example of a slate curb in the country

It should be noted that it is slate that protects the fresh crop from the invasion of the bear due to deep digging into the ground.

Original bumpers for flower beds

You can decorate ordinary flower beds using. This is also a kind of strip for beds where it is planned to grow flowers. from wavy slate will look very nice. This material can also be used in this case. The device of the flower bed is similar to the creation of vegetable beds, only the form here is somewhat different.

It can be round or irregular in shape, it all depends on the imagination of the summer resident. A wavy slate is more suitable here than a flat one. It is very convenient to grow beautiful flowers in such flower beds, because they become inaccessible to pests and inhabitants of the yard, local cats.

The original three-tiered flower bed

In addition to traditional materials, it is possible, which are thrown into landfill in huge quantities. Their usefulness in everyday life cannot be underestimated; they will also come in handy for suburban area. With their help, you can create original stripes for the beds.

Every summer resident sooner or later wonders how to make the beds beautiful and well-groomed, with a minimum of effort. Everyone wants to work less bending over, weed less, get a great harvest. There is a way out - it is necessary to make fences for the beds. They will help to correctly place visual accents and turn an ordinary garden into a place of incredible beauty.

Ready-made fencing options

In addition to the available improvised means, you can use ready-made options to create borders. Fences from, and curb tapes are considered to be in demand. They are based on exclusively environmentally friendly materials. Such designs are not capable of harming either human health or pets and crops. High-strength plastic fencing is durable, because it is in no way affected by corrosive processes.

It will last for many years, while maintaining an aesthetic appearance. have different shape, some may look like wrought iron, others have openwork outlines. There are options for fences, going together as one big puzzle, or solid framing of the beds. Here you can experiment with shapes, creating vegetable beds and flower beds of various sizes.


Also, some prefer either from a material that imitates valuable breeds. It has a lot of advantages over other synthetic frames - naturalness, environmental friendliness, but creating framing beds with natural stone is not a cheap pleasure.

A more affordable alternative natural stone the usual paving slabs or brick, and the author's laying will give the flower beds a unique flavor.

You can make a unique brick edging by digging it in at a certain angle or laying it in several rows on a regular one. cement mortar. Some make a brick frame in the form of a barrier, digging a row of bricks on the edge, and setting the second flat. An alternative to traditional brick is paving stones, but such a design will have certain disadvantages - the high cost of the material and the stationarity of the frame.

Device variant garden bed from paving stones

It will not be mobile, as is the case with wood. You can frame the beds in rustic style using cute or reeds. They are 100% natural, only their durability is lame. After 2-3 years after the initial installation of such a fence, it may be necessary to change it, since the material rots very quickly. You can weave such a fence for the beds yourself or purchase ready-made copies.

Some craftsmen take old clay plates as a basis for creating frames, outdated DVDs, CDs, old disks from car wheels can turn into beautiful well-groomed flower beds with lush flowers. It all depends on the efforts and imagination of the summer resident himself, any useless thing in the country can come in handy and find a second life. The most affordable and environmentally friendly type of framing of flower beds and beds are wood structures. Process of creation wooden frames pretty simple, doesn't take much time.

Original flower bed made of logs

Only in terms of durability it loses to other materials, but this drawback can be eliminated by coating with a special antiseptic. new material you always need to mark and cut according to the scheme. As fasteners, ordinary metal nails are used. You also need to take care of creating legs that strengthen the joints. Wood has been and will be the most popular raw material for creating such structures, because it has always been used in everyday life and in the country.

Do not throw away old chocks and logs, they will make an excellent fence for flowers. Chocks of small diameter are suitable for her, they need to be selected from other more massive ones. Chocks of equal length are sawn from the available material, buried vertically around the entire perimeter of the future flower bed. To extend the shelf life of such a design, chocks can be wrapped with roofing material or dipped in a special bituminous mastic.