Build your own garden terrace
If you want to build a garden terrace yourself, you should plan strategically. If the plates are in bed, they can hardly be corrected. If the laying technique is correct, you do not need to worry about subsidence or an annoying appearance later on.
First, make an installation plan on graph paper if you are planning a gardenterrace build by yourself. Make a note of the tiles where they should be laid according to color, surface structure or size. Different slab dimensions or corner surfaces can be matched by using bricks or small paving stones. Fill in the gaps with mortar. So that you don't have to cut too many slabs, plan your garden terrace so that the area can be adapted exactly to the dimensions of the slabs. Depending on the material, consider a mortar or sand joint of around 1 cm.
Build the garden terrace yourself with the right tools
- If you build the garden terrace yourself, dig the earth about 20 cm deep. Fill in 17 cm of paving stones and shake or tread on it. You can also put a layer of gravel under it. Place boundary cords and align them according to length and height. Take into account the 3 cm sand bed to be applied to the gravel, the slab thickness and a longitudinal gradient of around 2% to the rain runoff.
- Place wooden slats at a distance of 20 cm to the sides of the terrace pit, at the height of the gravel bed. The grit can then be pulled off to a flat surface with an aluminum rail or straight edge. Remove the slats and fill in the furrows with grit and press it down with the trowel.
- With a special plate lifter you put the first plate in your bed.
- Instead of being laid in sand, the corner panels should be laid in a bed of mortar to ensure lateral stability. Align the first corner plate with the plumbing lines. Place a short board on the plate and tap it down with the rubber mallet until it is exactly the height of the guide lines. The plate must not rock. Check the slope with the spirit level.
- Lay the first row of edge panels from the corner panel. In order to make the joints the same width, insert suitable spacer pins of up to 1 cm between them, available in the hardware store. Use the spirit level to check the even height of the panels to each other and the slope. From the next corner tile, continue laying the edge tiles so that the terrace area is limited on three sides. Fill in the intermediate area according to the installation plan and use a spirit level and straightedge to check that the panels are level. You can use a 1 cm strip inserted lengthways as a spacer for the longitudinal joint.
- If you have to cut panels, you can rent a wet cutter at the hardware store or use a larger cut-off hunter.
- Remove the spacer wood and grout the joints with mortar or with fine, dry quartz sand, which is also weed prevents growth. If you are using mortar, press it into the joints with the trowel. The paving works better if the joints are 3 mm deeper than the surface of the paving. After the mortar has dried, wipe the panels clean with a brush and water.
- If the panels are above the adjoining surface (race), you can also insert boundary stones. They stabilize the terrace and form a visual finish.
Terrace slabs, both for indoor and outdoor use, are used in ...
