To realize design ideas when decorating an interior garden plot products with unlimited color scheme. Stone finishing makes the landscape expressive, emphasizing its features. The use of painted crushed stone allows you to create unusual and original decoration.
Crushed stone is an inorganic bulk material of various grain sizes, obtained from gravel, granite, limestone, as well as waste from the construction and metallurgical industries. Its characteristics depend on the raw materials.
1. The frost resistance indicator, as well as strength characteristics, may be low. Crushed stone with medium or weak parameters is quite suitable for painting.
2. There are several forms of grains obtained by crushing stone:
- regular;
- cuboid;
- improved.
Gravel is formed naturally, has a smooth rounded surface.
3. The natural range of shades is:
- white-gray;
- beige-pink;
- brown-red.
Other color options are extremely rare in nature.
4. In landscape design, the most popular colors are blue, green, red and other tones. You can get them only by painting the crushed stone yourself in a concrete mixer or by hand. For this, dyes are taken that:
- resistant to precipitation;
- do not interact with soils;
- do not affect plants;
- safe for people.
| Properties | Usage |
| Large palette of shades, high aesthetic qualities. | You can give a neat look to a site with any type of soil. A landscape of stones suits any style. |
| Environmental Safety. | Crushed stone for landscape design has an indicator of radioactivity< 370 Бк/кг, что позволяет применять его при декорировании открытых площадок, садовых дорожек, для благоустройства мест детских игр. |
| Long period of operation. | High resistance to temperature changes. Retains color intensity under the influence of moisture and UV rays for up to 7 years. |
| Prevents soil from drying out and weeds forming. | Sprinkling for decoration promotes the growth of plantings located on them. |
| Simplicity and versatility. | Does not require special care; can ensure the aesthetics of the territory at any time of the year; It’s easy to make colored crushed stone with your own hands; the backfill is easily restored and removed; if the decorative effect is reduced, it can be used in drainage cushions. |
| Harmonizes both with different plants, and with any materials. | Combines with concrete, metal, glass, wood. Looks organic among trees, flowers, moss. |
In most cases, gravel or granite backfill is used for decoration. Limestone or secondary types are used much less frequently due to their technical qualities.
Work technology
With the advent of painted crushed stone, the task of improving the space around the house became easier. The finished material offered by manufacturers has a high cost. Doing the work yourself is much cheaper.
There are 2 methods of painting at home: mechanical and manual. The choice depends on the volume of processing required.
- For production, it is better to take cube-shaped gravel with a fraction of up to 10 mm.
- To ensure uniform coloring, the products are divided into fractions. For sorting, a grid or sieve with a certain mesh size or a “screen” is used.
- Depending on the applied composition, the color coating can be either matte or glossy.
- The main requirement is adhesion. It can be good not only for natural stone, but also for crushed stone obtained from recycled materials.
- Paint consumption is small. The proportional ratio for mechanical application is 1 liter per 100 kg of gravel.
| Method | Equipment | Technology | Nuances |
| Mechanical | Concrete mixer; vibrating sieve for separating crushed stone into fractions (“screen”); shovels for loading and unloading stones; pallet; place to dry the finished product. | The washed crushed stone is poured into a clean concrete mixer. Added special dye required saturation. Depending on the load, coloring lasts from 20 minutes to 1 hour. Then the gravel is poured out in an even layer to dry. | For high-quality coloring you need to fill 1/2 - 2/3 of the container volume. If the device is completely filled, the color will not be uniform. The dye is added in a ratio of 3:7 in relation to the total loading volume. Mixing in a concrete mixer continues until the grains are covered with a uniform film. When drying, a tray must be placed under the sieve to collect excess. |
| Manual | Storage tank; sieve; pallet; shovel. | Option 1. The stone is poured into a container with paint, thoroughly kneaded, placed on a sieve, and dried. Option 2. A large sieve with a reservoir is built on the frame; crushed stone is dipped in the composition and laid out to dry. Option 3. The gravel is painted by spraying an aerosol and then dried. |
There is a possibility of uneven or weak coloring. The bottom will have a mesh pattern, which requires constant shaking and turning during drying to avoid. |
Before you start working, the gravel needs to be washed, dried, and slightly heated with a burner. This will improve adhesion and allow you to create the desired shade; in addition, unwashed stone will darken.
If you are planning to fill a path in the garden with crushed stone or make a mound in the yard, you have a choice - to use gray nondescript crushed stone or decorative crushed stone painted in all the colors of the rainbow. You don’t need to spend much – anyone can make colored crushed stone with their own hands.
DIY decorative crushed stone - a practical novelty
Decorative crushed stone has recently appeared on the construction market - manufacturers of this building material are just beginning to master the technology of painting it 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. The production of colored crushed stone promotes the use of this material in landscape design - these include colored garden paths, and rainbow flower beds and flower beds, creating all kinds of inscriptions on the ground, adding bedding around the walls of houses and cottages, framing monuments and creating a bright bottom and bank in artificial streams and ponds, designing children's 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 flower beds. Indeed, backfilling with colored crushed stone is an extremely durable way to solve various problems. Crushed stone inhibits the growth of weeds, prevents the soil from weathering, allows moisture to pass freely and promotes its retention in the soil, and if necessary, it can be collected and used elsewhere or even used for construction purposes.
You can either purchase a ready-made decorative material, and paint it yourself. When purchasing, be sure to ask what paints were used to give the corresponding color - polymer paints can retain their color for several decades. In addition, do not be shy to look into the bag - the material must be of the same fraction, evenly colored and without signs of premature peeling of paint.
Making colored crushed stone with your own hands - production technology
You can make colored crushed stone yourself - there is nothing secret or super complicated in the technology itself. To do this, you will need a concrete mixer, a metal mesh, a container for painted crushed stone, a shovel and, of course, crushed stone and paints. Granite crushed stone is most often used - it paints better and, moreover, is quite cheap.
How to make colored crushed stone with your own hands - step-by-step diagram
Step 1: Preparing the Material
Manufacturers of crushed stone for construction work Of course, granite crushed stone is not specially prepared for painting, so in the general pile you may end up with stones of very different sizes. Manufacturers of colored crushed stone use special device called "rumble". With its help, bulk materials are sorted into small and large fractions using the screening method. It’s unlikely that you have a “rumble” lying around in the barn, but you probably have a metal mesh. Before you paint the crushed stone with your own hands, pull it at an angle of at least 60° and pour crushed stone with a shovel to the very top to ensure a larger sifting scale. Larger pieces will roll down the mesh, while smaller pieces will fall to the ground underneath the mesh. For painting, it is best to use pebbles about 10 mm long - such crushed stone is most convenient for filling garden paths. Smaller ones will also be useful for decorating flower beds and flower beds, and you can always use large pieces for construction purposes.
Step 2: Painting the crushed stone
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 crushed stone - 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 crushed stone loaded into the concrete mixer. Having started the unit, you can calmly rest for the next 40-60 minutes - this is exactly how much time is needed for uniform coloring.
Step 3: Drying the Stones
While your DIY decorative crushed stone is taking on a new color, you can prepare a receiving container if you haven't already. The container is a large box with a mesh stretched around its perimeter. If it is a metal mesh, then it can be stretched a short distance from the bottom of the box; if you are using a regular mesh, stretch it to the very top of the container. Thanks to this device, excess paint will flow freely to the bottom of the box, and the painted material will remain on the mesh.
Remove the crushed stone from the net and spread it on outdoors for drying, placing plastic wrap. The paint remaining in the box can be reused to paint a new portion.
How to paint crushed stone with your own hands - laying and creating patterns
You can also create bright garden paths or colorful flower beds yourself, without the help of specialists. To do this, you will need a shovel, a wheelbarrow, plastic film, borders, plastic or metal strips and ready-made decorative crushed stone.
How to paint crushed stone with your own hands - step-by-step diagram
Step 1: Prepare the place for installation
In the place where the material will be poured, it is necessary to remove about 10 cm of the top layer of soil. Pour the soil into a wheelbarrow - there will probably be a place in your garden where you can put it later.
Step 2: Place the borders
If you decide to make a regular garden path, all you need to do is add borders. They can be used as natural stone, or plastic and metal strips. The borders should sit securely on the surface, you can even dig them lightly into the soil.
Step 3: Prepare the base
After installing the borders, it is necessary to pour a layer of sand of at least 5 cm. Level it around the perimeter and pour water for better shrinkage. Let the sand dry a little and proceed to the next stage of preparing the base - lay insulating material over the sand. Manufacturers offer special synthetic materials with ready-made holes through which water flows. You can also use regular plastic film, in which you make a sufficient number of holes in advance for water drainage in case of precipitation. Another layer of sand is poured onto the polyethylene, this time smaller - 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 internal borders from 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: Lay out the colored stones
The last, final step is to evenly pour our decorative crushed stone onto the prepared base. You can level the surface with a regular rake. If you are laying crushed stone on a lawn or in a flower bed, a small layer of 2 cm will be enough; for pedestrian paths it is advisable to pour at least 4 cm of crushed stone.
You might be interested in: We can minimum price buy recycled crushed stone with delivery throughout Moscow in any volume.
Painting crushed stone (production of decorative chips) – good idea to start your own small business and not only. Having suburban area, it can be decorated with my own hands without resorting to the services of design bureaus involved in landscape design.
There are two ways to paint crushed stone:
- At home without the use of mechanized equipment,
- In conditions industrial production using concrete mixers and drying chambers with weighing equipment.
In both cases, crushed stone screenings with a fraction of 10-30 mm are taken for painting. In industrial production, it is recommended to install screens to separate crushed stone into equal fractions, which is more appreciated by companies working with landscape design.
IMPORTANT: only “clean” screenings (without dirt and dust) can be properly painted, the humidity of which should not exceed 20% of the specific gravity.
Therefore, the first operation in the painting process is washing the crushed stone screenings, preferably in a warm soapy solution. Don't rely on visual inspection material to check for dust. She still exists...
At home, when painting a small amount of material, this is easy to do. But if you organize industrial production, in the technological chain it is necessary to provide a washing unit with further drying and weighing, both before and after washing. This will help determine the moisture percentage of the finished raw material.
TIP: you shouldn’t wash crushed stone for the future...
While on storage areas, wet crushed stone will become covered with an even greater layer of dust than it was originally. It must be washed exactly as long as it will be painted.
There is an opinion that pre-heated crushed stone is coated with better quality paint. But this is not the case if you use ordinary stone dyes. When the paint base is exposed to temperatures of 65 degrees and above, it begins to delaminate, which leads to poor adhesion of the paint to the crushed stone surface. In the future, this will affect the reduction of service life finished material. Also, heated crushed stone emits gases harmful to human health, which can lead to loss of consciousness and injuries at work.
There are special heat shrink dyes for stone surfaces. But their cost is quite high. This will also include the costs of heating crushed stone and its final drying in high-temperature (110-130 degrees) thermal chambers. This reduces the profitability of production compared to the method without heating.
The operation of heating crushed stone chips can be replaced by applying a priming solution deep penetration, after absorption of which, crushed stone can be coated with conventional water-disperse paints on acrylic base without loss of quality.
The second stage of staining crushed stone is directly painting it
At home, any container with a tight-fitting lid is suitable for this. Most often, paint buckets or ready-made buckets are used for this purpose. building mixtures, into which no more than half of their volume is filled with crushed stone.
Next, the dye of the required shade is prepared. To do this, take paint (stone enamels, alkyd or acrylic paint, etc.) for exterior work. Pigment is added to it in fixed doses and mixed thoroughly.
Colored crushed stone
There are recipes for preparing dyes based on PVA glue with the addition of cement, water and coloring filler. But in this case, there is a possibility of the manifestation of the so-called “human factor” - a little more or less of some component and the color of the next painted crushed stone will differ from the previous one. This requires precision in dosages, which is not always feasible.
At home, you can paint crushed stone like this: pour paint into the prepared crumbs poured into a container, but not more than 15% of the volume of raw materials. The bucket is tightly closed with a lid and simply shaking for three to four minutes stains. Then the mass is poured into a sieve, under which a container-tray is placed to drain excess paint. The drying mass must be shaken periodically to prevent the elements from sticking together.
In industrial production conditions, such operations are mechanized. A regular concrete mixer can be used as a mixer for coloring. A higher quality finished product will be obtained if you equip the mixer automatic dispensers raw materials and paint, as well as a kneading timer. Unfortunately, in most cases, filling the mixer with components is done manually and “by eye.”
The third stage of coloring crushed stone chips is drying them
Depending on the dye used, it can take from several hours to several days. To avoid sticking, during the first time of drying, the painted mass must be shaken periodically.
In large industries, ejection tables located in thermal areas are used. drying chambers. The temperature maintained in dryers ranges from +28 to +35 degrees. The combination of such conditions makes it possible to produce colored crushed stone with high-quality coating and stable color gamut.
Depending on the components used, the warranty period for paint fading on open surfaces can be 15 years or more, provided that it is backfilled in accordance with the conditions specified by the manufacturer in the technical description.
If the crushed stone was painted independently, then for a longer service life, several rules should be followed:
- Pour the painted crushed stone onto the previously cleaned and covered plastic film plot,
- Do not cover paths and walkways with painted crushed stone,
- Do not place painted crushed stone near ponds or decorative fountains.
Of course, coloring crushed stone can be perceived as good idea to start own business without large capital investments. This will not bring super profits, but it will give you the opportunity to bring your design concepts and solutions to life. And what could be better when work brings material and moral satisfaction.
Decorative colored crushed stone
The emergence of a new type of bulk building material for the domestic market has produced something similar to a revolution, in particular in landscape design, because for many years the crushed product different breeds stone, called crushed stone, was used mainly in the manufacture of reinforced concrete structures, concrete mixtures, pillows under highways and so on. Thanks to production technology, colored crushed stone has also gained recognition as a decorative raw material.
- Do-it-yourself painting
Characteristics, application
Fine stone is obtained by crushing granite and marble rocks and painted in various colors. The production of painted crushed stone involves the use of polymer and acrylic waterproof dyes. The parameters of this raw material are as follows:
| Name | Strength grade, (M) | Volumetric weight, (t/m3) | Fraction, (mm) | Frost resistance, (F) | Abrasion rate, (g/cm2) | Aeff*, (Bq/kg) |
| Crushed granite | 1200–1400 | 1,6 | 5–30 | 300 | 0,20 | up to 370 |
| Marble chips | 600–800 | 1,38 | 5–10 | 50 | 0,20 | up to 370 |
*Aeff – specific activity of radionuclides, indicator environmental safety raw materials.
The advantages are:
- high strength;
- durability, which significantly reduces the cost of maintaining and maintaining park areas;
- resistance to temperature changes;
- environmental safety, lack of toxic emissions;
- the coating can be easily removed and/or transferred to another area.
The scope of use of multi-colored stone is extremely wide:
- Landscape design, arrangement and improvement of personal and summer cottages. For example, decorative colored marble crushed stone is used to decorate flower beds and flower beds.
- IN road construction for the design of pedestrian paths.
- Pet stores and pet owners use it as a filler to keep their pets in aquariums and terrariums.
- In the field of funeral services, painted crushed stone is used in the cemetery for graves and backfilling paths in areas.
How to paint yourself
Making colored crushed stone with your own hands is quite simple. In addition to the raw materials, you will need:
- concrete mixer;
- metal grid;
- a container for painted stone, which is a large box with a fine mesh stretched over the top;
- shovel;
- polymer or acrylic waterproof paints for exterior use.
The manufacturing process consists of the following stages:
1. Preparation. Since factory raw materials (crushed stone) may contain grains different sizes, it is necessary to sift it in order to select a homogeneous fraction for staining. To do this, a metal mesh is installed at an angle of 60º to the surface of the earth and crushed stone is thrown onto it with a shovel. Large rocks roll down the mesh, and small rocks accumulate under the sieve.
2. Painting. The sifted material is loaded into a concrete mixer, then paint is poured in an amount of at least 30% of the volume of the stone, otherwise the coating of the raw material will be uneven. The dyeing process takes about 15 minutes on average.
Drying. The treated stone is laid out on a box with a mesh and kept on it until excess paint drains from it, and then poured onto a prepared piece of polyethylene for final drying. This process takes from 1 to 3 hours, depending on the air temperature, but it can be speeded up by using a gas burner.
The finished material must be uniformly colored and free of clay and other impurities.
Price
The price of colored decorative crushed stone is much higher than usual, due to the fact that the raw materials for its production are purchased at an average of 2,000–3,000 rubles/t. The cost of painting 1 ton of stone is approximately 4,000 rubles, resulting in a cost of 7,000 rubles/t. After processing, it is usually packaged in 20 kg bags, which are sold from 650 rubles/bag. Thus, the cost of a ton of painted stone is 32,500 rubles.
You can buy packaged colored crushed stone in Moscow at the following prices:
| Name | Fraction, mm | Packing in kg bags | Price, rub/bag |
| Decorative crushed stone | 5–105–10 | 520 | 250–280650–700 |
| Colored painted marble chips | 5–10 | 10 | 550–600 |
Colored decorative crushed stone and other stones for decoration
Production of colored crushed stone as a business at home
Do you have the basics of construction, free time and savings?
Then the production of colored crushed stone can become an excellent source of income. Such a business is easy to organize even at home.
The idea of producing colored crushed stone is as simple as the world. No specific knowledge or skills are required, because you will have to work with ready-made raw materials. The main task is to treat sorted crushed stone (fraction up to 30 mm) with acrylic paint. Already processed crushed stone has several names - painted pebbles, colored gravel, decorative stone.
It would seem, who needs colored stones? Meanwhile, the material is popular and has found wide application in:
Accordingly, the main categories of consumers include pet stores, individuals, public utilities, landscape designers, funeral services, and “green” farms. It is important to note that colored crushed stone is sold, as a rule, in large quantities, which allows us to assert the profitability and relevance of the business for its production.
How to make colored crushed stone at home
To paint the stones yourself, you will need:
- concrete mixer (200 thousand rubles);
- a pair of bins for raw materials and finished material (300 thousand rubles);
- packaging material (25 kg bags for 10-13.5 rubles/5000 pcs.);
- shovels (250-500 rubles/piece);
- paint (5 thousand rubles from the consumption of 20 kg of paint per 1 ton of raw materials for 250 rubles);
- sifter (if the stone is poorly sorted);
- drying sieve with vibrating block (45 thousand rubles);
- device for sewing bags (40 thousand rubles).
You can easily do without the last two categories if you have a well-lit drying room with proper ventilation and basic sewing skills (bags can be sewn gypsy needle with strong thread). If you are purchasing a production line, then you should focus on maximum productivity at the lowest cost.
Technology for the production of colored crushed stone
Producing colored crushed stone for landscape design is not difficult at all.
Decorative pebbles for decorating a flower bed - do it yourself
The raw material production technology goes through 3 stages:
- Primary processing. It involves crushing rock in a special bunker.
- Secondary processing. Involves repeated crushing into smaller fractions with a grinding effect.
- Sorting by size/type. The process is carried out in a special installation (screen).
Landscape designers often use colored natural materials in their work.
Making colored crushed stone with your own hands to decorate your summer cottage
The painting technology is simple, and the secret lies in the use of special paint, which should be firmly fixed on the surface of the mineral, convey bright and rich colors, but most importantly, not be washed out with water. The paint “Decoril” developed at the State Research Center “NIOPIK” has these properties.
Paint "Decoril"
High-strength paint "Decoril" is presented in a bright palette, designed specifically for
- coloring of natural and artificial stone;
- coloring of various crushed stones, including limestone, granite, marble;
- coloring of sand, marble and granite chips;
- coloring decorative wood chips, mulch;
- tinting of fire-retardant coatings;
- decorating an indulin roof.
Technical parameters of paint
The paint is made on the basis of dispersions of high-strength organic pigments, provides bright, saturated colors, and is environmentally friendly.
The paint is available in finished form and in the form of a concentrate, which, after diluting with water, is ready for use.
The resulting color has high light fastness (5-7 points), retains color for several seasons, and is resistant to water. The offered paint is easy to use and does not require special equipment.
Decorative work outdoors in the form of garden finishing, laying out sidewalk paths, flower beds can be decorated using such a popular material as colored crushed stone. It has an almost unlimited range of colors (like the paint itself), so it allows you to perform any design ideas. But in construction stores such material will cost 2-3 times more than its unpainted counterpart, so the question arises: how to paint crushed stone yourself?
Range of applications
Demand of this material due to the fact that with its help you can achieve brighter and stylish design adjoining plot, as well as create entire picture-messages reflecting some idea. Painted crushed stone is used for the following purposes:
- Creation original flower beds and lawns;
- design of areas around artificial reservoirs;
- landscape works;
- filling terrariums and aquariums (fine crushed stone).
Choosing a paint product
In conditions where you plan to conduct small Finishing work, you don’t want to purchase a large amount of building materials, so it’s better to make colored crushed stone yourself, measuring out as much stone as you need for the task at hand.
The good news for many will be that the production technology is simple, and the consumption is low - only 1 kg of paint is used for 100 kg of crushed stone. This rule applies if you are going to paint in a concrete mixer, but with other methods, the consumption increases.
To accomplish this task, you can use any coloring compounds: alkyd paints, water-dispersed, enamels, sometimes they even use PVA glue mixed with dye. But the most favorable option for this purpose is acrylic paint.
This is due to the fact that you need a substance that is resistant to moisture, and also does not fade in the sun, and can hold color for a long time. This is exactly how the above paint is characterized, but besides this, it is also harmless, both for humans and for nature.
Required Equipment
To ensure that the entire staining procedure goes quickly and smoothly, you will need the following equipment:
- concrete mixer;
- machine “rumble” - vibrating sieve;
- grid or sieve for washing or drying;
- pallet;
- container for storing finished material.
Preparing the stone before painting
When buying crushed stone, you get a heterogeneous composition; the size of each stone can vary from 10 to 30 mm. There are also smaller fractions that are more suitable for interior decoration. Therefore, packaging by size is necessary.
This can be done manually on a sieve with the right size cells, or, which is faster and easier, use a “screen” machine. Any of the above technologies provides for the separation of excess litter, too small pebbles, and sand.
But in order for the acrylic paint to adhere well, the crushed stone also needs to be washed. This will ensure better adhesion of the dye to the surface of the stone and will allow you to create exactly the shade that you want, since if the stone is not washed it can darken.
You can wash it directly on the screen, using a hose or water from a bucket. Due to the fact that the machine creates shaking, cleaning will take place from all sides. After this, spread the washed mass in a uniform layer on a wire rack and dry it in the open air.
The process of creating painted crushed stone
There is only one way to paint crushed stone, and it is almost automatic, since your participation in the main process will be minimal. The most effective and time-consuming technology involves the use of a concrete mixer. After you have properly prepared all the components, you can proceed to the painting itself, which consists of several stages:
- Crushed stone should be placed in the concrete mixer to two-thirds the volume of the machine (if the capacity is 0.7 cubic meters).
- Pour in paint in a ratio of 30 percent to 70 percent stone.
- Start the mechanism and wait 40-60 minutes until the stone is completely covered with a colored layer.
- At the end of the “kneading”, drying follows - lay everything out on the mesh, placing a tray underneath, where the remaining paint will run off.
It is not advisable to store dried, painted crushed stone outdoors; it is better to use closed containers.
To protect against external influence is possible to use . This will give the material an additional decorative effect.
Another way of coloring
If you don’t have access to a concrete mixer, then it will be more difficult to create painted crushed stone, but it is possible - you will have to pour the stone into a container with paint and mix it yourself, and then dry the crushed stone.
Or just spray on the stone spray paint, however, this method does not give a uniform color and uniform staining on all sides.
Making your own painted crushed stone for finishing park areas or a plot near your house is much cheaper than buying a finished product: for an unpainted product you will pay a thousand rubles, while a colored one costs over 20 thousand. Considering such savings and extremely logical production technology, the idea of making crushed stone for decoration with your own hands is rationally determined.
The color of expanded clay that is familiar to us is brown, brownish-pink is also found, inside it has more dark shade, sometimes almost black. This is due to the fact that expanded clay is made from clay, which gives the color. Its granules are spherical in shape. On the section you can see that they have a porous glassy structure.
Expanded clay can be called perfect building material. It is non-flammable and environmentally friendly, as it is made from clay. It has a wide range of applications. This includes floor screeding, noise and heat insulation, production of expanded clay blocks, from which houses are then built, and lightweight concrete.
In gardening, expanded clay is used for drainage. It benefits plants by optimizing moisture and air exchange in the soil. If there is excess moisture in it, it is absorbed by the granules; if there is a deficiency, they release water to the soil. It is also used for soil insulation. However, the only color of expanded clay does not give room for imagination, decorative properties expanded clay are small.
Colored expanded clay.
A way out of the situation was found - colored expanded clay was developed, preserving all the wonderful qualities of this material. It is used in the garden and for house plants (colored expanded clay is more often used for flowers as decoration). The variety of colors allows you to choose the desired shade. It could be your favorite color or some interesting combination that matches the interior of the room or garden design. Decorative expanded clay will perform several functions - it will prevent the soil from drying out, it will decorate a window sill or flower garden, and it will protect outdoor plants from the cold, maintaining a constant microclimate. You will be spared the hassle of weeding if you compact the granules tightly. Mosses and mold will not appear on the surface.
When decorating, it goes well with other materials - stone, marble, wood.
When producing colored expanded clay, the necessary standards must be observed. Coloring pigments are used only those that do not change the acid-base parameters of the soil and do not harm plants and humans through harmful secretions.
Colored expanded clay for landscape design is an irreplaceable thing. Gardeners and florists can endlessly experiment with this material. It allows you to diversify garden paths, flower beds, beds, giving them an unusual and attractive look. It also perfectly decorates an office or apartment, combining aesthetics with practical benefits for plants. To his positive properties You can also add the possibility of repeated use and an unlimited shelf life.
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Variety of colors on personal plot, especially in the immediate vicinity of the house, is always a source of admiration, and it can be bulk materials. But how and with what to paint crushed stone at home, so as not to waste a lot of money on purchasing finished material? If you stay on this page, you will get the answer to this question and more.
The color range of paints can include the entire spectrum of the rainbow
Where can it be used
Video: A selection of photos of landscape design
The use of painted decorative crushed stone 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 in general, this material can be called a real find. It is used for and, and.
Carpet made of colored crushed stone near the gazebo
As always, the reaction construction market The demand turned out to be very fast and it is quite natural that these products immediately went on sale. Decorative crushed stone or, as it is commonly called, granite chips, can be purchased in warehouses, stores and construction shopping centers. But the whole problem is that such material costs an order of magnitude more than ordinary fine crushed stone, therefore, for those who have enough time, it is much more profitable to paint it with your own hands.
If you look at the issue of painting with technical point 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 plans without special effort. You just have to follow step by step instructions below and you will succeed.
Separation of material into fractions
Different fractions of crushed stone
You probably noticed that in compositions using painted crushed stone, all the stone has the same fraction; this looks much better in terms of design. But the question lies not only in the design requirements, but also in the dyeing technology - material with particles of the same size is dyed much better than different fractions.
Note. Sifting the material will not only make it possible to separate particles by same sizes, but also get rid of the garbage that is inevitably present there.
There are special mechanisms for separating bulk materials by grain size, but we are talking about homework Therefore, anything like that is out of the question - a sieve with one or another mesh size is used here. It is not difficult to make a sieve with one or another mesh size: for this you can use a Chain-link mesh with a certain size. The mesh is pulled over the frame, crushed stone is thrown there with a shovel and raked with a hoe. The mini version is no worse, when the frame is made approximately 50x40 cm and the crushed stone is sifted out by hand, but this requires physical endurance.
IN in this case the most marketable will be crushed stone with a fraction of 10-15 mm - it is easier to paint it yourself, so the sieve cell should be selected based on these parameters. The sifted material should be washed running water to remove dirt and dust from granite - on clean walls, adhesion to paint will increase by several orders of magnitude.
How does coloring work?
Musical flowerbed
Almost all painting compounds are suitable for painting, and these are:
- enamels;
- water-dispersed paints;
- alkyd paints;
- acrylic paints;
- color mixed with PVA glue.
When choosing a dye, two things are taken into account:
- UV resistant (does not fade).
- Moisture permeable (will not wash off).
Acrylic paints best meet these requirements - they do not wash off when exposed to atmospheric precipitation and do not fade in the sun. Another advantage of this drug is its environmental friendliness, that is, such paints and varnishes are absolutely harmless to human health.
Painting in a concrete mixer
Painting crushed stone in a concrete mixer
So, we need a bunker for painting crushed stone, and the most ordinary concrete mixer used for small construction projects (most often it has a volume of 0.7 m3) will serve excellently as it. The whole process can be divided into five main stages:
- The washed and dried material is poured into the drum, filling it 2/3 of the total volume.
- Now the crushed stone should be slightly warmed up, if, of course, it did not dry out in the heat in the sun. The most convenient way to do this is to use gas burner– the flame is directed towards the drum as it rotates.
- Pour paint into the rotating drum at the rate of 3/7, as mentioned above in the text.
- Stir the resulting composition for 1 hour. This should be enough to evenly distribute the pigment over the stone.
- Pour the painted stone onto a grid with a tray.
Below you can watch the video of how this process occurs.
Video: Painting crushed stone in a concrete mixer
Drying
Drying painted crushed stone
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 excess paint will flow onto the pallet (container), and it can be reused. In addition, removing excess color pigment will increase 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 area with a piece of intact (without holes or breaks) polyethylene.
Conclusion
Now you know how and with what to paint crushed stone at home and, probably, you are convinced that it is not at all difficult. So, if you need a beautiful one, then everything is in your hands.
