Garden paths made of wood - how to make a practical and decorative decoration for the garden with your own hands. Garden paths made of wood (35 photos): flooring from rings and the use of boards Paths in the garden from boards technology

On any personal plot all structures and buildings (house, terrace, gazebo, swimming pool, greenhouse, garden, etc.) communicate with each other through paths that play important role in . Wooden walkways are original way yard decorations.

Arrangement of wooden paths

Before starting work on landscaping the garden, you should choose the route along which the future wooden garden paths will pass. Each of them must be laid in such a way that a person can reach any point of the site in any weather without additional inconvenience. In addition, the paths should be wide enough so that one person can safely walk along them.

Wooden walkways have certain advantages over other materials:

1. Environmental friendliness. Nowadays, more and more owners of suburban areas are striving to equip their homes in an eco-style, so wooden paths will be especially relevant.
2. originality and beauty. All resulting saw cuts will be completely different in their patterns, so your path will be exclusive.
3. Ease of installation. For the device of a wooden track, special tools are not needed, as when working with other materials.
4. Cheapness.

However, along with the advantages, such wooden paths also have some disadvantages:

1. fragility. Being exposed to external factors, wood can rot, burn, and various insects can destroy it from the inside.
2. moisture sensitivity. This property of the tree is a very significant drawback.
3. The need for regular treatment with protective compounds.

wooden walkways

This design of the paths is very popular with the owners of summer cottages and fits perfectly into landscape design. Wooden paths in the country are harmoniously combined with lawns, flower beds, paved terraces, and their cost depends on the varieties, which can be as follows:

• from saw cuts;
• from planks;
• from wooden tiles.

Walkway made of sawn wood

Paths made of wood saw cuts organically fit into the design garden plot. Such saw cuts can be cut from almost any tree, both old and recently cut down. Not only tree trunks are suitable for this, but also thick branches, which can also be sawn into circles. As an option, suitable material can be found even among firewood bought for home heating. A path made of wooden circles will allow you to move around the garden without getting your shoes dirty and without injuring the plants.

Wooden paths from planks

If you decide to build paths from boards, then it is better to choose larch wood, which is considered the most durable, although you can choose boards from pine, alder, aspen, oak. Wooden paths in the garden from boards can be of two types:

Wooden tiles for walkways

The so-called decking is wooden tiles made from high quality boards. The square slabs of this "garden parquet" are 30x30cm in size. Decking is made from burnt larch, pine, cedar, as well as various tropical trees. The latter material is very resistant and durable, however, its cost is 3-4 times higher than the price of ordinary wood. Paths in the country house made of wood can be made from tiles impregnated with polymers or subjected to mineralization. Such material acquires the properties of petrified wood.

Paving slabs for tree paths

Tiles imitating wood can fit very organically into any rural landscape. Tracks from this will be especially durable and resistant to atmospheric phenomena. Wooden garden paths can be laid out paving slabs such types:

• hemp;
• boards;
• piece board.

How to make a wooden path in the country?

Before you learn how to make a path in a country house out of wood using saw cuts, you need to prepare the material. Slicing or buying wooden mugs, remember that they should all be of the same thickness, and their diameter can be very different: from 7 cm to 55 cm. Before starting work, the cuts should be treated with an antiseptic, and the part that will be in the ground with hot drying oil. Installation of a path from saw cuts of a tree consists of the following steps:

1. Trench. According to the markings made in advance, we dig a trench 20-25 cm deep. Its width should be equal to the width of the future track.
2. Waterproofing. It is done so that the wood has as little contact with the ground as possible. We lay a dense film or geofabric at the bottom of the trench.
3. Drainage. It will drain rainwater and protect the tree from rotting. To do this, you can use crushed stone of the middle fraction. It must be poured to the bottom with a layer of 10-15 cm, lightly moistened with water and tamped well.
4. Pillow. Saw cuts will be laid on this layer, consisting of sand or a gravel-sand mixture. Therefore, the pillow should be dense and even. Its thickness can be about 10 cm.
5. Laying saw cuts. We install the circles in the trench and, tapping with a wooden or rubber mallet, press them into the pillow. Make sure that all saw cuts lie in the same plane.
6. Filling in the gaps. Since the saw cuts are round, we fill all the gaps between them with sand. After that, we spill the path well with water and, if necessary, add sand into the cracks formed.
7. Finishing the edges of the path. You can simply add earth to them and compact it well, or decorate the sides with high wooden blocks or stone.

For those who own a cottage, the improvement of the site is of no small importance. Laying paths made of asphalt, concrete or stones is possible, but this is a very costly business. Wood is what can replace the above materials, and it will cost much less. Finding out how to make wooden paths in the country with your own hands will be of interest to many.

Creation of wooden coverings on suburban area due to several reasons.

1. A solid surface on the ground makes movement around the site comfortable. After rain, walking through the summer cottage without soiling your shoes will allow paths made of lumber and even sidewalks.
2. In addition to the fact that the summer resident will remain in clean shoes, the soles will not cause wet soil to be dragged along the plot.
3. To care for the garden and harvest, the paths from the boards are laid between the beds.
4. In some cases, small wooden sidewalks are arranged near the house, on which tables and seats are placed.
5. Wooden paths are in harmony with the natural landscape of the local area.
6. And finally, it's just cost-effective.

All methods of arranging garden passages are similar in one thing - in the arrangement of the base under wooden coverings. Tree like any natural material plant origin, subject to decay and destruction. To stop these processes, you need to prepare the base for a wooden coating.

The base device is performed in several stages:

1. site marking;
2. excavation;
3. base filling.

Plot marking

To complete this stage of work, you will need a cord, tape measure, wooden pegs, a hammer and wire.

1. make up detailed plan household territory, if there was none.
2. The center lines of the tracks are applied to the drawing.
3. Determine the width of the passages. To ensure comfortable movement and not create difficulties for two people walking towards each other, the path is planned to be made at least 800 mm wide.
4. The center lines of the tracks are marked on the site, hammering the pegs into the ground. You can immediately fix the width of the tracks with the same pegs.
5. Axial markings are dismantled and proceed to earthworks.

Excavation

The so-called trough is being prepared - this is a shallow trench (100 - 150 mm). The depth of the ditch depends on the height of the fertile soil layer and the weight of the wood cover elements.

Base filling

1. The trench is covered with a layer of washed sand, 50 - 70 mm thick.
2. The sand is carefully compacted. To do this, you can use a piece of log with a nailed double-sided handle.
3. The second layer is made of crushed stone, gravel or granulated slag with a thickness of 80 - 100 mm.
4. If soil with high levels ground water, between the layers of backfill it is better to lay waterproofing from roofing felt, plastic film or geotextile.

Further work depends on the type of wood covering of the track.

Paths can be arranged from different types of wood. For laying transitions, wood is used in the form of various lumber.

Popular coatings:

• longitudinal cut;
• boardwalk;
• transverse saw cut of trunks and stumps;
• beam;
• pallets;
• garden parquet (decking);
• tree bark (mulch), nut shells.

• For coatings, logs spread along the sawmill are used - longitudinal cuts. It can be an ordinary unedged board.
• Saw cuts impregnated with an antiseptic are laid on a crushed stone base.
• So that the boards do not move around from walking, the saw cuts are reinforced with stakes driven into the base. In some cases, metal crutches are used.
• Saw cuts can be cleaned of bark and planed with a planer or treated with a thickness gauge.

The boardwalk path is made in the following order:

1. For the device of a garden path, boards with a thickness of 25 - 30 mm are used. For safe movement of heavy loads on a trolley on the deck, the thickness of the boards is significantly increased.
2. On both sides of the trench, logs of 100 x 50 mm timber are placed on the edge. To increase the bearing capacity of the structure, another log is placed in the middle of the track.
3. Logs are wrapped with roofing felt or other type of waterproofing.
4. Between the lags, transverse struts are installed from a bar 40 x 40 mm., In increments of 1.2 - 1.5 m.
5. The joints of the timber with the lags are fastened with nails or screws. The beam is also wrapped with waterproofing.
6. After that, the trough is covered (see earthworks).
7. Boards 150 mm wide are stuffed with nails on the logs. Between the boards leave a gap 5 - 10 mm wide. This is done so that moisture from rain does not linger on the surface of the passage.
8. All lumber is treated with antiseptics before installation.

Often after construction wooden houses there are unused chocks (short cuts of logs). If logging was carried out nearby, you can find trimmings of tree trunks, uprooted stumps.

• Armed with a chainsaw, the waste wood is turned into saw cuts in the form of a disk. If there is a circular saw at home, then this will help to prepare lumber to cover the passages right on the plot.
• Saw cuts are prepared with a thickness of 30 - 40 mm.
• A trench under the track is made with a depth of about 100 mm.
• The recess is filled with washed sand.
• Saw cuts of various sizes are laid on the base in such a way that the gaps between the wooden "nicks" are minimal.
• The wood is driven into the sand with a rammer so that the “pyataks” sink into the sand to the maximum.
• The garden path will last more than one year. From time to time it will be necessary to change rotten and cracked fragments and add sand.

bar

Optimal dimensions wooden beam for courtyard passages - 50 x 150 mm. The length may be different. Fundamentally, the construction of a bar is not much different from the flooring of the boards.

A beam, as a more “powerful” lumber than a board, requires laying on logs. Logs are dug into the ground in such a way that the surface of the track protrudes slightly or is flush with the ground.

In addition to processing protective impregnations, the timber is covered with tinted stain. Lumber from coniferous wood acquires a dark noble shade.

pallets

Pallets that have been used more than once can be purchased at any warehouse. A pallet is a finished element of a boardwalk with joists.

Sometimes the owners of the site redo the pallets, rearranging the boards on the shield more densely. In order not to waste time and money on the construction of the base, the pallets are laid on a rubber conveyor belt, digging the logs into the ground.

As in previous cases, the wood is impregnated with antiseptics, and the cross beams are wrapped with roofing material.

Garden parquet (decking)

Abroad, garden parquet is called decking. Parquet is a rectangular or square tiles of various sizes. The surface of the decking looks like a set of boards (lamellas) fixed on a lattice base.

Tiles are equipped with a locking system for interconnection. The surface may appear solid or with gaps between the lamellae. On garden parquet with gaps rainwater does not linger and quickly goes into the ground.

Installation of a garden parquet does not demand the device of the special basis. The lower part of the decking is made in the form of a lattice with sharp legs. When laying tiles, parquet is pressed into the ground with supports. By changing the places of the elements, the desired pattern of the track or platform is achieved.

Often, lamellas from tropical trees are used for the top layer of parquet. Cheaper parquet is made from coniferous wood.

Decking construction will cost much more than the above options for creating garden paths.

Tree bark (mulch), nut shells

On sale in the market building materials you can find waste products from the woodworking industry. This is chopped bark (mulch) of trees - soft wood material often used for arranging transitions along a personal plot.

Mulch walkway

• throughout the entire track, the top layer of the earth is removed, 50 - 100 mm thick;
• boards are dug in along the trench on both sides. This is necessary to keep the bark crumbs within the passage;
• the space between the curbs is filled with mulch. The bark is leveled and rammed;
• The bark perfectly passes water through itself, so after rain the path dries quickly.

Walnut shell path

At the enterprises of the food industry, you can buy shells of various nuts. The technology for making a garden passage is identical to the way a bark path is made. The shell also does not retain moisture in its mass. The only drawback of this design is that you can’t walk barefoot on it.

Both types of garden passages are short-lived and are temporary structures. To keep them in working condition, it is necessary to regularly update the tracks, adding fresh material.

Conclusion

It is not difficult to solve the issue of creating environmentally friendly and comfortable passages through the backyard territory of a summer cottage or your own home. You can always choose a design that meets the tastes and wallet of the owners of the site.

Wooden paths are a real find for connoisseurs of eco-friendly materials. Such paths do their job well - protecting the feet from mud and moisture in wet weather, and, in addition, they evoke a sense of romance and antiquity. The paths look great in the general style of timber and log houses, and can be a great highlight of any landscape design. At proper processing wood on wooden paths you can run barefoot, which cannot be said about concrete or stone. Wooden paths in the country do not chip or crumble after a frosty winter.
Such wooden paths harmonize well with the lawn, and with stone terraces, and with a flower garden, and can even be used to edge the pool. Paths mounted on logs allow you to lay a path under the trees without damaging the roots. And in the old days in cities they hid under wooden sidewalks drainage pipes. Since ancient times in Russia, in villages and cities, wooden paths and sidewalks have been made, which have served pedestrians faithfully for decades.

Despite the availability of the material, wood is rarely used in modern landscape design. A cubic meter of high-quality, “pedigreed” wood can cost a pretty penny, but more budgetary (and sometimes free) options are also suitable for building paths - used pallets (pallets), remnants from building a house or a bath. The production of such tracks requires insignificant financial costs and labor intensity.

However, this material, traditional for us, also has a number of features that must be taken into account when building wooden paths on the site.
The most durable wood for walkways is larch. The durability of larch is explained by the fact that the structure of its wood includes both transverse and longitudinal fibers, unlike conifers, which have only longitudinal fibers. You can also make paths from wood such as pine, aspen, alder, oak. Modern means for wood processing will help to extend the durability of any type of wood.
By design, wooden walkways are divided into three types:

Before assembly, it is necessary to process the boards - the side that will be in contact with wet ground is smeared with bituminous mastic, the remaining surfaces are impregnated with antiseptic agents for wood and dried. If the surface of the boards is notched, they are “grinded” - they pass with a planer, sandpaper, or they are “burned” gas burner. Heat treatment gives the wood an "aged" look.
A foundation of sand and gravel is being prepared on the ground, in the same way as when arranging the foundation of a house. Longitudinal logs are laid on top of the base, to which cross-beam boards 25-50 cm thick and more than 80 cm long are fastened with self-tapping screws. an additional central lag is added to the power load on the canvas.

The caps of the fasteners must be drowned flush so as not to injure the legs.
When building wooden paths on the logs with your own hands, it is also possible to arrange the boards along the logs longitudinally, as was done earlier in the construction of old sidewalks.
There is one big “plus” in such a design of wooden paths on logs - since the path is raised, it is well ventilated and better preserved. The path can be assembled with a small slope so that water does not accumulate and the boardwalk dries out faster. The gaps between the crossbars also contribute to the best stock moisture.
After assembling the canvas, the wood can be varnished or painted.

2. Wooden paths without lag, laid directly on the ground in width.

You can lay the boards directly on the ground, but in the first case, the track will last longer.

A “trough” is dug in the ground - a layer is cut along the width of the track, with a depth of 20-35 cm. The bottom of the “trough” must be made even and compacted. Sand is poured into the trough, rammed, then a layer of gravel and compacted again. Such a "cushion" contributes to better drainage of moisture under a wooden path made of planks. You can also lay geotextiles or roofing material between the layers. For temporary wooden flooring, it is allowed not to make a “cushion”.

3. Do-it-yourself dug-in wooden paths.

For the manufacture of this type of wooden paths with their own hands, cross-cut logs are most often used, but boards or timber can also be used. The laying of washers from saw cuts can be alternated with saw cuts of small branches, and the timber can be laid in a checkerboard pattern, imitating brickwork. The “forest pavement” obtained from saw cuts looks very original.
First you need to prepare the base well, similar to the second method of laying tracks. The thickness of the sand or gravel "cushion" should be more than 10 cm in order to create good drainage. To protect the path from weeds, you can lay a geofabric under the path.

Details of the wooden track are recessed by tapping with a rubber mallet, flush with the ground level, or slightly protrude above it. In this design, the tree needs more thorough protection from rot and moisture. Track details are pre-soaked in antiseptics, white spirit, drying oil, and the lower surface is covered with bitumen before laying.

AT decorative purposes the outer surface can be coated with paints and varnishes. The voids between the elements of the wooden path (pictured) are covered with coarse sand, stone chips, gravel.
There is also an “elite” version of wooden paths in the country - from decking. Decking is wooden tiles made of high quality boards, the so-called "garden parquet". The size of the plates is most often 30x30 cm, there are plastic fasteners at the ends.
Decking wood material - antiseptic cedar, burnt pine or larch, Asian kempas, ipe, bangkirai, kumaru, African iroko, paduk, bilinga.

Tropical wood is the most resistant, it far exceeds the durability of larch. But the price of exotic woods is about 3-4 times higher. The tile can be impregnated with polymers, or mineralized, after which it acquires the properties of petrified wood. The average service life of tiled paths is at least 15-20 years.

Appearance"Garden parquet" significantly outperforms homemade flooring. However, the price of parquet is quite high, and not every owner of the site can afford the manufacture of wooden paths in the country from this expensive material.
All types of wooden paths have one significant drawback: a planed or sanded board, when water, dew gets on it, and also after frost, becomes very slippery. Such paths are especially dangerous for clay areas. If the board is not processed, then it is no longer possible to walk barefoot on it - there is a risk of getting a splinter.
So that wooden paths are not slippery and safe for walking, it is best to brush the wood - process it with a metal brush fixed in a drill or grinder.

This "cleaning" allows you to remove soft fibers that absorb water and rot. After brushing, the wood structure becomes embossed and non-slip. Impregnation of wood with white spirit or special terrace oil also improves the relief of the surface. But ordinary oil impregnations (for example, used motor oil) are not recommended, since treated wood becomes slippery like ice when in contact with water.

One can only envy those who have the opportunity to make paths out of wood. Wooden paths attract the eye even in the most prestigious property. Walking barefoot on them is an inexpressible pleasure: there are pleasant tactile sensations both in the heat and in the cold. Of course, the paths must be suitable for the landscape and be suitable for the conditions of use.

Saw path in the garden

Features of wooden paths.

We have already noticed that, unlike other materials for paths, wood has a low thermal conductivity, and it is pleasant to walk on it barefoot. Let's note others positive traits country paths of this kind:

• available material in some cases;
• ecological cleanliness;
• low complexity and labor intensity in manufacturing;
• unique appearance of each track;
• available and limited list of necessary tools.

Unfortunately, there are also disadvantages:

• sun cracking;
• rotting under the influence of moisture;
• destruction by insects;
• instability to fire;
• wet surfaces become slippery.

Note that the fragility of the tree is balanced by the ease of repair. Of course, wooden country and garden paths will last longer in a dry climate and subject to the laying technology.

Walkways made of sawn wood

Options for laying wood saw cuts

garden paths from tree cuts are popular and attract attention with their unusualness. When using this technology with your own hands, you can easily create variations with a change in width and direction, and without the use of a border. Saw cut paths are especially appropriate in a rustic and eco-style landscape.

As you can see, the gaps between the wood can be filled with fine gravel, gravel, soil, covered with pine needles, or planted with grass. On a decorative path, as well as when it is rarely used, saw cuts are laid at a step distance.

Wooden paths can have steps and serve as retaining walls when the ground level changes.

Material preparation

When preparing wood and paving the path, you will need the following tool.

For a track from saw cuts, it is recommended to use the following wood:

• larch;
• pine;
• Birch.

Preparation of saw cuts for the track

If possible, it is best to use larch as the most durable option. It can last thirty years. The service life of pine is 5-10 years. Small-diameter saw cuts are placed between large-diameter workpieces, ensuring maximum web density. Logs are sawn into pieces 10-20 cm high. The path of stumps, peeled from the bark, will last longer. If the cut surface is perpendicular to the log, the installation of the coating will be easier.

Saw cuts processed and ready for installation

To protect against decay, the blanks are processed in two stages. First, they are impregnated with hot drying oil or a special ready-made antifungal impregnation. Dipping saw cuts in boiling drying oil is cheaper, but more dangerous than treating with an antiseptic. After complete drying, the lower parts of the pieces of wood are covered with hot resin. In this case, it is also more convenient to use bitumen diluted in gasoline, which is called automobile anticorrosive. The upper planes of the cuts can be forcibly "aged" by treating with copper sulfate.

Track laying

Trench ready for paving

Before paving a path from slices, it is necessary to carry out preparatory work on the site:

• perform track marking;
• remove the fertile layer and dig a trench;
• equip waterproofing and foundation.

It is convenient to mark the contours of the path with pegs and a cord, or fill it with sand. A groove is dug in depth 10 cm more than the height of wooden blanks.

Geotextiles, crushed stone and sand are laid in the trench

The bottom of the trench is leveled and geotextiles are laid on it, which allows water to pass through upper layers, but does not allow gravel to mix with the ground. Then they fall asleep and lay a layer of crushed stone 5-10 cm high. On top of the gravel, 5-10 cm of sand is poured, which is moistened and rammed. Ideally, another layer of geotextile should be laid between the sand and gravel.

Saw cuts are set according to the level

Pieces of logs are sequentially placed on a sand bed and hammered into it a little with a rubber mallet. From saw cuts, you can draw a picture or mount them, focusing on ease of installation. The work is easier to do, starting with larger elements. The upper planes of the pieces of wood are set according to the level. The gaps between the tree are filled with fine gravel, gravel, soil or sand.

Plank paths

You can make a wooden path in the country with your own hands using edged board. This work is much easier than laying saw cuts. At the same time, the quality of the material used and the level of its processing determine whether it will be the simplest paths or paths with high decorative properties.

As in the case of the use of saw cuts, the best wood larch stands out, and the most popular option is pine. Timber flooring can be made above the ground at a height of about 10 cm, laid on the surface of the ground, or it is in the ground. The recommended coating thickness is at least 40mm.

Winding boardwalk

To extend the service life, the flooring material is first treated with an antiseptic and then painted. If you want to preserve the structure of the tree, the wood is covered with stain and yacht varnish. To organize paths in a cottage of complex shape, boards of different lengths and with a variable width of one element are used.

Experienced builders must leave a gap of 5-10 mm between the boards to compensate for the expansion of the material when wet.

Flooring and logs from the same boards

Before installing the flooring, it is recommended to equip the base for water drainage. To do this, a trench about 15 cm deep is opened, into which geotextiles, 5-10 cm of crushed stone and 5-10 cm of sand are successively laid. Crushed stone and sand are compacted in turn. The frame for flooring above the ground is mounted on logs made of timber or boards. They must be sequentially treated with an antiseptic and resin, they can be wrapped with roofing material.

Between the lags of the boards through each running meter install cross bars. This will not allow the lags to fall to the side. The flooring is attached to the supports with nails or screws. To ensure the same gap of 5-10 mm between the boards, bookmarks from thin rails are used.

The path is laid directly on the ground

Wood flooring is easier to lay directly on the base. To mount the track, the boards are put on two cables through a pre- drilled holes. Between the individual elements, segments are put on the cable plastic pipe to ensure the same gap.

The path from the boards is convenient to use on the sand

The decking elements can be attached to a fire hose or garden edging. In this case, the screws are screwed in from the side of the tape, and then the finished track is turned over. Such a path can be rolled up and hidden from the weather for the winter.

Easy to walk on buried wood

The path made of boards laid at the level of the soil surface looks original and easy to use. In this embodiment, the material is in conditions high humidity. This means that it is imperative to arrange the above-mentioned preparation of sand and gravel. The gaps between the individual elements are covered with rubble. Wood must be preliminarily and carefully treated with protective impregnations and coatings.

Decking laying

Wooden paths are very attractive in appearance, but short-lived. To solve this problem, developed synthetic material- decking. It is made up of shredded wood and plastic. A terrace board made of such material is very stable in atmospheric conditions and does not need additional coating. Of course, decking is much more expensive than regular lumber, but its appearance and reliability are worth it.

Decking looks great on the lawn

Note that with noticeable bends, the terrace board may crack, so for laying the decking, you will have to equip a fairly even and reliable base. It is best to prepare in the form of a cement screed. The installation of the coating is carried out on logs made of the same material, with a step of 0.2-0.3 m. When laying them, it is necessary to provide a gap between the individual elements of 3-10 mm for water to drain.

The appearance and stability of the decking is undeniable

At the same time as decking, you should purchase all necessary accessories for assembly: corners, plugs, connecting brackets, end strips and hardware. Self-tapping screws should be tightened with sufficient force, however, excessive diligence can lead to the destruction of the material. Fasteners are closed with plugs or painted. In the case of a closed connection, no mounting elements are visible. The material must be unpacked the day before use. Do-it-yourself decking from decking is assembled only at a positive temperature.

There is a decking option in the form of tiles for garden paths. Such elements consist of several boards fixed with screws to a plastic base. Separate tiles are fastened together with special locks on plastic grate.

Tiled flooring is eye-catching

A tile garden path looks flawless, but is even more expensive than regular decking. Plastic locks will fail with significant distortions, so it is necessary to prepare a fairly even base for the flooring.

Photos and examples

Of course, any work is easier to do with interesting role models in front of your eyes. Sometimes it's better to see once than hear a hundred times. We have tried to find for you the most interesting examples of photos with comments.

Often, saw cuts are laid without removing the bark. From a perfectly even calibrated log, you can make paths of geometrically regular shape. The path of stumps in the garden makes it surprisingly cozy. The path of wooden saw cuts organically fits into the surface of the lawn.

The paths on the site allow you to move freely between zones in any weather, without sinking ankle-deep in mud and without dragging the soil on your soles. They will become an element of landscape design, given not only the practical, but also the visual component. When choosing material for the tracks, they are guided by the general style of the design of the site and their financial capabilities. Wooden paths in the country are always universal - they are combined with lawns, and with flower beds, and with paved terraces, they can really be made independently, they look great without a border, and the cost depends on the chosen variety. Many users of the FORUMHOUSE portal ennoble the landscape with the help of wooden paths.

Do-it-yourself wooden paths

Wood as a material for garden paths is not the most popular category, but it is quite in demand, due to its high decorativeness, relative durability and availability. Although a cubic meter of processed board costs decently, many use construction residues for paths, which significantly reduces the cost. But even if you take new lumber, due to the lack of wet processes during laying and taking into account the peculiarities of the preparation of the base, the tree can be cheaper than other varieties. According to the manufacturing method, there are two types of wooden tracks.

Do-it-yourself wooden walkways

The main canvas rises above the ground level, the frame is laid on the prepared base. The boardwalk is raised above the ground to provide free air access - such ventilation will significantly extend the life of the track and protect it from waterlogging. It turns out a real "wooden sidewalk". This design needs a slight slope - it helps water to roll off the surface of the "sidewalk", even after heavy rainfall the canvas will dry out faster.

The basis for the flooring is a frame of longitudinal logs, on which, by means of fasteners, crossbars from a board or timber are fixed. It is possible to alternate segments of the same length, but different in width segments, it all depends on the idea. To avoid warping, a wide board is attached to three or four self-tapping screws (nails) from each edge, two are enough for a beam, hats are heated in depth to avoid injury to the legs when walking barefoot.

In order to move normally along the flooring, calmly pass by an oncoming one or, if necessary, roll a wheelbarrow, a track width of 80 cm or 1 meter and a board thickness of 25 - 50 mm are sufficient.

If family members have a solid weight, or the path in the garden will be used for transporting weights in a wheelbarrow, an additional, middle log is laid.

How to process a tree on a path

To protect the logs in direct contact with the ground, they must be treated with liquid bituminous mastic or a similar agent. The crossbars, if necessary, pass with a plane, grind with sandpaper, after which they are impregnated with antiseptics, dried and mounted on the frame. Two assembly options are possible - close, without gaps and with equal gaps between the elements. The wrong side of the flooring is also covered with mastic, the front surface is painted or varnished. Pre-treatment of structural elements with a coating before assembly is more effective than in finished form; it is easier to cover the assembled flooring with bitumen and tinting.

Garden path from boards: how to make a sidewalk at their summer cottage

Although the flooring can be laid on a flat surface and without prior preparation, so that it lasts as long as possible and does not have to fight with weeds during operation, it makes sense to follow the technology. There are two ways to prepare - for logs or for the entire width of the track, preparation is carried out in several stages:

• The soil layer is removed with a depth of 20 - 30 cm, the bottom is compacted;
• A layer of sand is poured, rammed, spilled, a layer of fine gravel is poured on top, rammed.

If possible, geotextiles are placed between the layers so that the materials do not mix, this increases the drainage capacity of the pillow.

If the device of wooden flooring is planned as temporary, you can do without a pillow, geotextiles, roofing felt, conveyor belt or similar materials are laid under the logs, weeds are treated with herbicides.

How to make wooden garden paths

Among the users of the portal, wooden floorings are well-deservedly popular.

Andjey FORUMHOUSE Member,
Moscow.

They came to make wooden paths in the country, the remnants were used - bars (larch, substandard) 3 cm thick and 10 to 2 cm wide. In the future, I will paint with some kind of impregnation. The soil was chosen for half a bayonet, a small layer of sand (tamped), geotextile, and small gravel on it. On crushed stone - logs from the remains of a log and a beam of the 100th, 10 cm high. The logs were covered with mining.

Ilya79 Member of FORUMHOUSE

A board 25 and 50 mm, transverse solid, covered the planks with an antiseptic with coloring, the width between the lags was by eye so that the boards protruded slightly from the edge (about 10 cm). I decided not to make a span between the crossbars: it is difficult to mow the grass, you scratch the trees.

Julia397 FORUMHOUSE member

We decided that we would have in the country wooden walkway from planks. So far, 21 meters of canvas are in the plans, 4.5 meters were knocked down over the weekend. For the next, we plan to finish knocking down and start polishing and painting in the color of the house.

Path from boards

frog555 Member of FORUMHOUSE

I am also for paths from boards in the country, clean and barefoot nice to walk on the concrete "roads" so do not run around after a bath.

Alternatively, the flooring is made from used pallets from building materials - a pallet. For laying in its original form, choose pallets with a narrow span between the elements. Such a device does not have great decorative effect, but requires minimal cost time and effort to work. Not the most beautiful, but as a prefabricated temporary building - best option, proven by dacha practice.

To make such a path more decorative and last longer, pallets are treated with protective compounds and a full-fledged flooring is knocked together from them. More time is spent, but the result is much more attractive, and the cost of the track, both in the first and in the second option, cannot be cheaper.

A counterweight budget option from pallets, laid paths from decking - special wooden tile modules from a terrace board (pictured). This garden parquet is laid on a flat base and surpasses home-made varieties in external data, those who made it leave only positive comments, but not everyone can master it due to the high cost.

Wooden garden paths

dug in

Wooden elements in such paths in the country are dug into the ground flush with the surface or protrude slightly above the ground, the voids are filled up drainage materials- crushed stone, coarse sand, granite screenings. Boards, saw cuts of logs, stumps, branches, thick beams go to the paths, dies are cut 10–15 cm long. the saw cut is covered with bitumen, the top one can be varnished or waxed. The laying of saw cuts is arbitrary, to increase the decorative effect, small ones are inserted between thick round timber. If a beam is used, imitation is relevant brickwork with ligation of rows.

Unlike flooring, which can be placed directly on the ground, dug-in paths made of saw cuts and timber require careful preparation of the base, as they will be in the ground and exposed to the external environment.

To avoid water stagnation and premature wear, an effective drainage cushion of sand and gravel is made under the saw cuts, at least 10 cm thick.

The bottom of the trench dug according to the marking is rammed, covered with geotextiles, after a layer of sand, compacted and spilled, a layer of rubble and the last layer of sand. The cut is put on the substrate, the alternation of different diameters increases the decorativeness of the track, the chocks are tapped with a rubber mallet, the horizon is controlled by the building level. The gaps are filled with fine gravel, coarse sand, granite screenings, clay.

The path from the saw cut perfectly fit into the landscape of the site of the forum member NikNikTar.

NikNikTar FORUMHOUSE member

From the remnants of aspen logs from my construction site and the abandoned freebie behind the fence, I sawed washers 15-20 cm thick, took out the soil and laid it in peace on the geofabric and sand cushion, having previously bathed them in Senezh. The gaps were filled with chopped aspen trunks (there is a lot of it on the shore of the lake) and covered with sand, and the top layer was rubbed with fine granite chips. Aspen paths fit very organicallyin the area, pleasing to the eye, but slippery after the rain. I would not dare to make them as the main ones, but as an element of design and for sedate movements between small architectural forms on the site and walks in the garden - that's it.