Do-it-yourself colored crushed stone - making a stone rainbow! Expanded clay color Paint crushed stone with your own hands at home

Painted crushed stone different colors, will be an excellent decoration for the garden in the form of paths and various other decorative elements. Today, buying colored crushed stone is absolutely not a problem, but why pay for something you can do yourself?

Painting crushed stone at home is quite simple, and almost any coloring compounds: enamels, water-dispersed paints, acrylic, etc. How to paint crushed stone at home with your own hands will be discussed in this site review.

The demand for colored crushed stone today is very high. This material It is used with great success in decorating plots, landscape design and more. Painted crushed stone has also become widespread in the design of aquariums. True, not any coloring matter can be used for these purposes.

So, before painting crushed stone, you should decide on the most optimal coloring agent for these purposes. How inappropriately they fit here. They can be skillfully replaced with PVA glue with dye. But why experiment when you can use a completely ready-made coloring composition to paint crushed stone.

The most important requirement for paint in in this case, this is so that it does not fade in the sun and does not allow moisture to pass through. As mentioned above, the most successful of all for painting crushed stone is acrylic paint.

However, the coloring substance is not all that is needed to paint crushed stone with your own hands. To perform this procedure you will also need necessary tool, namely:

1. Concrete mixer or vibrating sieve;
2. Sieve for drying material;
3. Empty containers.

Before painting crushed stone, it must be sifted to separate smaller stones that are unacceptable for further use. As a rule, the size of crushed stone varies from 3-30 mm, and anything smaller is eliminated manually using such a simple device as a sieve.

After the crushed stone has been sifted, it will need to be thoroughly washed running water. This is done so that the acrylic paint adheres to the material as well as possible and does not fall off of it later.

The easiest way to wash crushed stone at home is to pour it onto the same sieve, placing the last one on wooden pallet. It is better to rinse with running water from a hose, periodically stirring the crushed stone with a shovel or any other tool convenient for these purposes.

After washing the material, you need to give it time to dry completely. Under no circumstances should paint be applied to wet material!

So, after the crushed stone is sifted to the desired faction and thoroughly washed, you can start painting it. Here, inappropriately, a concrete mixer will come to the rescue, of course, clean inside, without dust and, especially, cement mortar stuck to the walls.

The process of painting crushed stone in a concrete mixer is as follows:

1. First, crushed stone is poured into the concrete mixer, approximately 2/3 of its volume;
2. Then 30% of acrylic paint from the total volume of poured crushed stone is poured directly into the concrete mixer;
3. After which the concrete mixer is put into operation for about an hour. After the crushed stone is completely painted on all sides, the concrete mixer can be stopped;
4. Well, then the crushed stone painted in this way is laid out on a sieve and dried until completely dry paints.

As you can see, painting crushed stone at home is not at all difficult. The main thing is to avoid mistakes at the stage of preparing the material for this procedure. Only in this case will the colored crushed stone last for the longest possible period of time, and the flowerbed decorated with it will always delight you.

Decorative colored crushed stone is a relatively new product on the construction market. However, in Europe it is already long time used to decorate flower beds, lawns, and also in landscape design.

Decorative crushed stone are obtained by crushing waste generated during the production of facing slabs, as well as waste generated during the extraction of blocks and architectural and construction products from solid rocks.

Advantages of decorative crushed stone

1. It is an economical building material.
2. Prevents the growth of weeds.
3. Sprinkling flower beds and beds with it retains moisture.
4. Easily removed from the soil.
5. Protects the soil from weathering.
6. Safe.
7. Has a long service life.
8. Eco-friendly.
9. Has a wide range of colors.

Scope of application of decorative crushed stone

• Framing monuments.
• Landscape design.
• Aquarium design.
• Creating banks and bottoms of streams and ponds.
• Decoration of houses.
• Creation of inscriptions on lawns and ground.
• Decor garden paths etc.

Manufacturing technology of decorative crushed stone

The production of this building material should be carried out exclusively using high-quality components - this will provide it with rich and bright colors, and long term storage So, decorative granite crushed stone is taken as the basis for production.

How to make decorative crushed stone

The process of creating decorative crushed stone is practically no different from the process of producing its colleague - construction crushed stone, except that after the main operations, the first one is painted.

Thus, in order for the crushed stone to acquire long-lasting color, modern equipment is used.

Before you start painting the material, it is divided into fractions in special devices, from which the appropriate sizes of 4.3-6.4 mm are selected. However, one should not think that such a variety is necessarily subject to coloring, since white crushed stone is nothing more than marble chips natural color.

The process of creating decorative colored crushed stone includes a number of stages:

1. Initially, the crushed stone itself is purchased.

2. Fine particles and debris are then sorted out to ensure that only suitable and selected material remains. For this they use special device, called "rumble". With its help, crushed stone is sifted automatically, which is pre-loaded there with a shovel.

3. If such equipment is not available to you, you can use a large mesh with small holes. It must be stretched and placed at an angle, after which you need to pour building material there and begin to carefully sift through it. When using this technology, all operations are carried out manually.

4. The next stage involves painting. For this, it is recommended to use crushed stone with a fraction of 10 mm or more. Thus, the previously sifted material is placed in a special device, which can be used as a conventional concrete mixer.

5. Then the color is poured into the equipment. To paint the stone, it is advisable to use acrylic paint with a volume of at least 20-30% of the volume of crushed stone.

7. Upon completion of the work, the crushed stone is moved to the receiving hopper, which is a box with a mesh. The latter should be pulled a few centimeters higher from the bottom metal device. The cells in the grid must correspond to 10 mm. Such equipment will reduce paint consumption, since excess acrylic will flow through it to the bottom of the box, from where it can then be reused.

8. The finished product must be thoroughly dried, leaving for outdoors.

Laying decorative crushed stone

Laying colored decorative crushed stone does not require much skill. It's quite simple:

• Initially prepare the terrain (remove debris, weeds and rhizomes);
• then the soil is insulated using roofing felt, geotextile or polyethylene film. In addition, it is fashionable to fill in the required quadrature concrete screed up to 5 cm thickness;
• then drainage is created in the lowest place of the relief;
• a barrier is installed along the perimeter;
• at the end, crushed stone is lined, which is evenly distributed throughout the entire area.

• if you used roofing felt or plastic film, then under the layer of crushed stone it is necessary to pour sand with a thickness of 3-5 cm. It is first recommended to level it around the perimeter, compact it and water it with water for shrinkage;
• if you are doing design garden plot, then designers recommend using decorative colored crushed stone of a fraction of 4-10 mm;
• can be used as a border wild stone, ordinary sidewalk curbs, as well as special plastic or metal strips.

Thus, modern polymer paints for decorative crushed stone are characterized by increased resistance to external and mechanical influences, which allows you to maintain an attractive appearance for a long time appearance designed landscape. Wherein this building material can withstand heavy loads - you can safely walk and dance on it.

Looking into the modern and elegant garden, you can see colorful pictures of pebbles scattered around the bushes and flower beds. Paint the crushed stone for landscape design You can do it yourself on the site; it’s not difficult and inexpensive.

What is decorative crushed stone

Crushed stone is an inorganic product obtained by crushing rock or mining and stone. Such bulk material happens various sizes, called a fraction, and has a varied composition, shape and natural color. Crushed stone, rolled sea ​​water and rounded is called pebble, and grain-shaped with smooth edges is called gravel.

What is it made from?

Decorative stone chips are produced in quarries where marble, granite, limestone or iron ore. There, stones are divided into fractions of 5 mm and more.

To obtain multi-colored crushed stone, polymer weather-resistant dyes are used.

Application area

On the lawns nearby administrative buildings crushed stone is used to create huge paintings, logos and images; children's playgrounds, parks and squares are decorated with gravel. In the apartments they give it to them winter gardens, flower containers, aquariums and terrariums.

In private plots, this material is used to fill the soil around plants, create dry streams and imitation ponds, and fill garden paths.

Advantages and disadvantages

This one has natural material there are a lot of advantages:

• absolute environmental friendliness and safety;
• service life is at least 7 years;
• mobility, if necessary it is easy to remove or move to a new place;
• protecting the soil from weed germination and dust formation, maintaining soil moisture;
• financial accessibility, neat and decorative appearance.

How to paint landscaping material

The cost of colored stone is 20 times higher than that of ordinary stone. You can reduce costs by making bulk material yourself, following step by step instructions.

Purchasing or preparing raw materials yourself

You can buy ready-made crumbs at the garden center, hardware store or purchase raw materials in the form of unpainted crushed stone and give it the desired shade. Suitable for painting are granite, marble, limestone of any original color, as well as more expensive and rare ones: shungite, quartzite, and serpentine.

If there is a coarse stone available, it can be crushed using a crusher

What can be used as a dye?

To add color, acrylic paints and polyacrylate-based dyes or special ones are usually used. facade compositions under stone, weather-resistant enamels and even use PVA glue.

In order to decorative rock did not change color brightness in pouring rain, snow and sun rays, the paint must have the following properties:

• water resistance, weather resistance;
• resistance to mechanical stress, in particular abrasion;
• frost resistance and environmental friendliness.

You can purchase these materials at any hardware store; they are quite affordable.

Preliminary preparation

Stages of preparatory work:

Coloring

Coloring stones can be done in several ways.

1. Pour a portion of crushed stone into the container.
2. Pour paint of the desired shade 20% of the volume of raw materials.
3. Stir with a shovel until the stones are evenly colored.
4. If the amount of gravel is small, then it can be spread out on polyethylene and covered with a layer of primer and then paint from an aerosol can.

In a concrete mixer:

Drying

Drying freshly painted gravel is easy on a fine-mesh metal mesh with a tray to drain excess paint. The resulting smooth and evenly colored crushed stone should be laid out on plastic film until completely dry.

It is important that all fragments of crushed stone are painted evenly

Photo gallery: the use of colored crushed stone in landscape design

Areas of colored crushed stone combine well with decorative elements and shrubs High-quality dye allows you to preserve the brightness of the color of crushed stone longer Stone chips can be used to decorate places where plants do not take root well

Reading time ≈ 5 minutes

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 purchases 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 we look at the issue of painting from a technical point of 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 much effort. All you have to do is follow the 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 of the same size, but also get rid of the debris 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 this case, crushed stone with a fraction of 10-15 mm will be the most marketable - it is easier to paint it yourself, so the sieve cell should be selected based on these parameters. The sifted material should be washed with running water to remove dirt and dust from the granite - on clean walls, adhesion to paint will increase by several orders of magnitude.

How does coloring work?

Musical flowerbed

Almost everything is suitable for coloring painting compounds, and this:

• enamels;
• water-dispersed paints;
• alkyd paints;
• acrylic paints;
• color mixed with PVA glue.

When choosing coloring matter two things are taken into account:

• Resistant to ultraviolet radiation(does not burn out).
• Moisture permeability (will not wash off).

Acrylic paints best meet these requirements - they are not washed off when exposed to precipitation and do not fade in the sun. Another plus this drug we can call it environmentally friendly, 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:

1. The washed and dried material is poured into the drum, filling it 2/3 of the total volume.
2. 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.
3. Pour paint into the rotating drum at the rate of 3/7, as mentioned above in the text.
4. Stir the resulting composition for 1 hour. This should be enough to evenly distribute the pigment over the stone.
5. 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 stretched over it, where the mesh 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 you are probably convinced that it is not at all difficult. So, if you need a beautiful one, then everything is in your hands.

From the author: Hello, dear readers! Create beautiful space around the house is quite possible for everyone thanks to the new decorative elements, for example, crushed stone! You heard right, material that is unattractive at first glance can surprise color palette and a variety of design ideas.

Flushing

If you took our advice and preferred acrylic paint, then for better adhesion of the coloring pigment to the material, it is necessary to rinse the crushed stone under running water.

Important: Unwashed stone tends to quickly lose its rich color and darken.

The crushed stone is washed on a “screen”; due to the vibration created by the machine, you can easily clean all the material from all sides.

Drying

Drying is carried out in a receiving hopper; any metal container of the appropriate size and volume can be used for this design. Stacked on top metal grid with cell size less than 10 mm. This simple device will allow us to save paint; it will flow through the cells in the mesh, and it can be used the next time we paint.

If you have a drying bin with a system forced ventilation drying the material, of course, it is better to carry out the process in this device. Again, the device is expensive and highly specialized, so there are always other ways to perform this operation.

For example, you can use a stove, but first read the technical recommendations for the paint itself. You can simply leave the crushed stone on the mesh in the receiving hopper; drying it in the open air is, of course, the easiest way, but also the longest!