Decorative bridge in the country with their own hands. Decorative bridge for the garden: what and how to make with your own hands Decorative wooden bridge with your own hands

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Many owners of suburban real estate equip various types of reservoirs within their local area to improve the microclimate and create an exquisite landscape design of the site. The ability to arrange a variety of artificial islands, straits or streams makes it necessary to make decorative bridges that you can do yourself.

Step-by-step instruction

Guided by step-by-step instructions with the attached photos, you can easily and simply make bridges for giving your own hands.

1. Before starting the construction of a garden bridge, it is necessary to measure the distance through which it is planned to transfer it. Allowances should be added to the resulting size, amounting to at least half a meter on each side of the existing water barrier.

2. For the manufacture of a wooden bridge, you can use different types of wood. For example, you can take pine as the easiest to process. In principle, the choice of wood depends on the wishes of the owners and their financial capabilities.

3. The design of the bridge consists of a frame made of two glued beams with a height of at least 32 mm, a width of 20 mm and a length corresponding to the calculated one (point 1). Also, a flooring of edged boards with a thickness of 20 mm and a width of 100 mm is required. The width of the deck boards is not constant and can vary both up and down.

4. With the help of stakes hammered into the ground, the necessary curvature of the future frame is made. Between them are inserted double bars, compressed together with clamps. In addition, the junction of the bars is impregnated with carpentry glue and fastened with self-tapping screws. For the convenience of working with wood, it can be pre-soaked in water, after which the bars will be more flexible.

5. The bent frame is left to fix the bend for at least a day. After that, a design inspection is carried out. If necessary, the defects of the wood are eliminated: cracks and chips are slagged, the seams of the conjugation of the bars are carefully sealed.

6. For flooring and transverse frame elements, boards of the required length are cut. At the same time, the ends and edges of the boards are processed at an angle of 45 degrees.

7. The finished design of the bridge of the required shape is obtained by connecting the transverse elements of the frame with the longitudinal bars.

8. To install the bridge in the intended place, holes are made in the transverse structures. Passing through them metal crutches with a length of at least 50 cm, the bridge is attached to the ground on the sides of the stream.

9. Running deck boards are attached to the frame with small gaps. To fasten the boards, you need to use stainless or galvanized self-tapping screws to avoid corrosion.

10. To protect against rotting and outdoor precipitation, the wood is impregnated with special compounds and varnished for outdoor use. The bridge can also be painted with waterproof enamels in any color at the request of the owner.

Materials and tools

Doing such a bridge for a summer house or a country house with your own hands will not be the slightest problem, but for this you need to have a minimum set of tools: a screwdriver or drill, a hacksaw, a hammer, a carpenter's square, a tape measure and a set of brushes, a spatula, clamps. From materials other than wood, you need carpentry glue, self-tapping screws, impregnation for wood, varnish or enamel for outdoor use.

If necessary, it is possible to build a country bridge that can carry quite large loads, using bars of a larger cross section as a supporting frame. Using the recommendations in the article, with the attached photos, each owner will easily solve this problem. As a result, a beautiful and reliable bridge will come out, which will not only decorate the summer cottage, but also serve as a source of pride for the guests.

DIY bridge making video

The garden bridge plays the final role in landscape design if you make a transition through a small artificial reservoir, for example, a stream. It is not difficult to make it if you want to get an original product and not spend a lot of money.

Like any landscape design, such custom-made bridges will cost quite a lot, and you can easily see this if you study the price list of the nearest design company. But you can save a lot, about 2-3 times, if you do it yourself. Naturally, if a serious decorative structure is conceived, then the work will be complex and painstaking, but if the project is simplified as much as possible, then a bridge across a small pond, or even a dry stream, can be built in just one day.

Which bridge to choose for a summer residence

You personally will have to choose the material of production and the appearance of the product, focusing on landscape design, budget and your own skills, but there is always a mandatory list of parameters that should be followed when determining.

Durability and reliability. These qualities are of interest to every summer resident, since a reliable thing will last longer, which means that in terms of years of service, the design will be much cheaper. Absolutely every garden bridge can have such qualities - wooden, metal, forged, one has only to work with quality. Also, do not forget about the treatment with protective equipment and constant care, which will extend the service life.

Security. One of the main qualities that is fully responsible for the health of a person crossing a stream on a bridge. The structure must be strong, the material must be securely fastened, the frame must withstand the weight of several people at the same time, the base must be qualitatively installed on the ground or a special foundation. Here again, we can mention the care of the product, since timely painting or varnishing will provide the materials with their original qualities for a long time and eliminate fragility, which means they will save a person from injury.

Decorative. Naturally, appearance plays a huge role, and you can’t argue with that. We can say that garden bridges, like small architectural forms in the landscape, are precisely a decorative element, since, for the most part, they carry beauty, not practicality. Any artificial reservoir in the country can be bypassed, but the transition through it is conceived only for the original accent.

Wooden bridges

Garden bridges made of wood are considered the absolute leader, and not only in sales, but also in independent production. The reason for this is the naturalness of the product, which carries warmth and harmony with nature. Moreover, it is worth noting that the tree in the country is the most popular material, and this is precisely the answer.

Wooden products can be cheap and expensive, simple and quite complex in terms of design, custom-made and made independently. The only recommendations here will be the choice of high-quality material and the correct production technology. If you follow all the rules and work with excellent wood, then a structure up to 5 m long can be created in one day, even alone.

metal

It will not be possible to create a garden bridge completely from metal, since you will need to purchase parts of the base that cannot be made without special equipment. These are bent beams along which the wooden or metal walkway of the bridge will pass. But everything else is possible on your own, because there will be very little work left.

Here, too, you can talk for a long time about the complexity of the design and the cost of the project, but it all depends on your personal desire and financial capabilities. By and large, you can buy a prefabricated bridge and install it in a couple of hours, or you can try to save money and boil the base yourself, install the bridge, cover it with a board, and so on, but this will take several days.

As for the design, everything is in order here, especially if you decorate the bridge with something, for example, lanterns, railings and planters, live plants on different sides, and so on.

forged

An expensive decorative product that you can only assemble with your own hands, and you shouldn’t do this either, since you are already seriously spending money on forging. Let the work be completed to the end by specialists who will be fully responsible for the quality.

Forged bridges are a classic of landscape design, and a popular modern element that is of interest to many people, as an addition to the courtyard with small architectural forms, a successful combination with pergolas, forged benches, gazebos and lanterns. Therefore, it’s not even worth worrying about the design, forging fits smartly into almost any exterior.

Decorative

Most often, these are combined designs, in which the best moments of wooden and forged varieties are collected. Forging bases and railings, wooden flooring, or even burnt boards with a pattern, engravings, further, original decor with patterns, forged planters and ornamental plants, small lanterns and other landscape decor.

Features of the building

Location selection

Of course, this device is necessary for crossing a narrow river or stream, but you can always install a bridge in a place where there is no reservoir by organizing a dry stream, a pretty rocky placer, a small canal, or even flower beds with wild flowers. Therefore, choosing a location is very simple.

Preparation before installation

All that needs to be done at this stage is to remove everything superfluous from the site and prepare the ground for installation and decorative decoration of the bridge along the edges. Of course, a heavy bridge will need some kind of foundation or even fixing it on the banks of a stream, stones and plants for decoration, lanterns and other decor for styling, which means that the site must be clean, without debris and weeds.

Foundation or ground floor

Most bridges are installed without a foundation, but we recommend that you pour a solid foundation if it is heavy, large, and made of metal or forging. For this, a strip foundation is sufficient, which will be tied with metal edges by welding, while simultaneously fixing the bridge and making it more reliable and stable. If you install a bridge several meters long, then it will be enough to put a couple of bars under its supporting bases, along each edge of the bridge, so that the base does not go into the soil and does not deteriorate very quickly from moisture. Instead of bars, you can use concrete posts, bricks, or, best of all, natural stone.

Foundation creation

As we said above, you draw up the project yourself, which means that the entire choice of materials is up to you. Wood, metal, and maybe concrete pouring with masonry. But, we will start from the simple - metal beams, board, timber or logs. The design of the bridge can be flat or curved, and therefore the material will need to be chosen accordingly. If there is nowhere to purchase material for the base of the garden bridge, or it is expensive, you can install two logs in the form of load-bearing beams, or make stringers. You can make them from a solid board, for example 50x300 mm, giving it the correct shape along the length and arranging a kosour by folding the finished cut parts. But, if all this is not possible or there is simply no time, it is enough to make an even bridge with the help of logs or bars.

Even before the assembly of the main structure, all parts must be treated with high quality protective agents, for example, antiseptics and paint, or drying oil and colorless varnish, in order to extend the life of each individual element and the structure as a whole.

Base installation

The base is installed on prepared carriers - a foundation or support platforms made of wood, stone, and so on. Everything is very simple here - leveling, fixing, connecting the bases to each other at an equal width and checking the strength, then, only the flooring of the bridge itself.

wooden flooring

We decided to choose a board as a flooring, since we are talking about the simplest option, and it is always convenient and even pleasant to work with wood. The board is cut to size and laid on the base, screwed onto stainless steel screws, which is the most practical. Also, you can choose decorative flooring, a special board or even a log, but here you should start from the budget.

Bridge decoration in the garden

Since the main assembly work is completed, you can start decorating - additional painting, installing railings, decorating with plants and lighting, laying stones and installing a recreation area, and so on.

Original landscape compositions using a small bridge as a space-binding figure are not uncommon today. These ideas were doomed to popularity from the moment they appeared on the green lawns of our dachas and country houses.

Natural reservoirs, a pond or a stream are very rare on private property, so the bridges serve more as a decoration of the landscape, functionality is not the main thing.

The aesthetics of the landscape, the creation of conditions for a peaceful contemplative rest, the possibility of meditation and reflection in today's life is just as necessary as proper nutrition and the rejection of bad habits.

Add to this creative self-realization and the desire to create some kind of composition in the country with your own hands, and it becomes clear why the bridges are so popular.

The harmony of solitude

Where is the best place to place a landscape composition so that the bridge looks harmonious? Solitude requires distance, it is better to stop the choice on a remote site of the estate, somewhere among the trees, in a corner of the garden.

The first association with the word "bridge" is overcoming any obstacle, water, mountain, one that is in no way associated with a house. Therefore, the distance from home will enhance the effect, in addition, some distance is required for walking.

It is also important to tie the composition with a seating area, a gazebo. Here are some good accommodation options:

• along the way;
• aside;
• in the distance, each of which is interesting and original in its own way.

Advice: The most correct choice of place for the composition is the one that prompts the heart.

You can enhance the emotionality of the composition by man-made creation of a barrier, or by installing it on the water. It can be a pond, a picturesque ravine of a small size, originally decorated with dwarf shrubs and plants.

Decorating as a method of security

An artificially created element of the landscape is an obstacle that you can stumble upon and slide off. It is necessary to take security measures, but such that would be a decorative technique:

1. handrails. You can make handrails from wooden branches intertwined with each other, carve balusters, use wicker tyn, you can order and install forged handrails, it is important to comply with style.
2. Lighting. You can install street lights that illuminate the space at night. No less interesting and functional are garden lamps that illuminate paths and bushes. Lighting is dependent on electricity and independent, powered by solar panels. Aesthetics of lighting complements the picture emotionally and aesthetically.
3. Floor quality. It is clear that a flat, non-slippery surface is a guarantee of safety. Rubber inserts, artificial surface roughness will not be superfluous.

Take note: use solar energy for illumination. Yes, such lamps are not cheap, but they exclude the cost of electricity consumption, which is steadily rising in price.

Neglecting safety leads to negative consequences, injuries or a spoiled mood, which is not included in the estate improvement project.

What to make

It is better to use the material that is familiar. It is more convenient for someone who owns a carpentry craft to work with wood, for a bricklayer with stone, and for those for whom these activities are unfamiliar, it is better to turn to professionals or buy a finished product.

The material for the main element of the landscape composition can be:

• wood;
• a rock;
• metal;
• plastic.

Each of these materials has its own advantages and disadvantages. Choosing from what to make a design, everyone takes into account material possibilities, creative guidelines, the ability to work with one or another material.

As a rule, the choice falls on wood, the material is cozy, compositionally appropriate for suburban areas, ecologically impeccable, durable if processed in a timely manner, light and very pleasant to work with. The tree is stylistically suitable for any style, because you can build a bridge from logs, boards, timber.

The bridge made of concrete and stone looks fundamental, compares favorably with unpretentiousness and durability. To finish the railing, you can use mosaic, decorative stone, transparent glass. It must be borne in mind that such a composition must be connected by tracks and other style elements.

Do-it-yourself metal structures are difficult to make without the appropriate skills, tools and fixtures. You will have to turn to the help of specialists.

No less interesting are the combined compositions, wood with metal, metal with concrete, and so on. A matter of taste and imagination. It is important that any of the materials, even plastic, will perfectly fit into the composition, create a certain style and color. The photo will tell about that more eloquently.

We build from wood

We build a wooden bridge, armed with the following tools:

• screwdriver;
• electric drill;
• hacksaw;
• a hammer;
• plane;
• files;
• wood treatment agent, varnish and primer;
• fasteners.

We also need stationery for the drawing. Make drawings first. A product without a drawing has a lot of flaws and is short-lived.

After the drawing is ready, we get to work, we install a bridge over a small ditch, man-made or natural:

1. At the distance covered by the bridge, we lay two logs or beams parallel to each other, this is the base. In places where the foundation lies, we lay waterproofing and treat the tree with an antiseptic, protection against decay.
2. We fix the base (logs or bars) with metal brackets so that it is rigidly fixed, and the brackets themselves protrude above its surface.
3. We install the spans of the bridge, fix them also with brackets. The span may be straight, may have the shape of a semicircle.
4. Next, we put the flooring, for which we use boards, this is the easiest option; semi-logs, their installation requires skills; logs that must be fastened together with brackets on the inside of the bridge.
5. The final stage is the railing.

Find out how you can strengthen the cellular signal in the country:

It is important to know: make sure that the flooring is level, has sufficient roughness so that walking on it is not slippery. It is especially important to test the bridge for strength, especially if it is laid through a real or artificially created barrier.

After creating the design of the bridge, we proceed to decorate it. Clay toys look good in summer cottages, but original vegetation is the best decoration.

About natural and artificial barriers

In order for the bridge to look natural, harmoniously fit into the landscape composition, it is worth considering the construction of artificial barriers, a ravine or a small reservoir.

It can be a pond, a dry stream that goes around garden or other trees is perfect. The second option is more economical and easier to implement.

It is necessary to outline the channel of the stream, make small indentations, mark the banks with stones that are at hand, lay out the bottom with pebbles, sand, so that it seems that the water has left or dried up. It is not difficult to imagine how wonderful the bridge connecting the shores will look.

A bridge and a real pond, and even with a waterfall and various decorative additives - the best thing you can think of. The costs and efforts will more than pay off with the opportunity to sit by the pond, go to it through the bridge. A little effort and a mini-pond pleases with beauty.

Good to know: do not stop halfway - what is made by your hands is the most beautiful and expensive for you and your loved ones.

How to make a beautiful decorative bridge in the country with your own hands, see the instructions in the following video:

The most important purpose of a modern dacha is to become a place of rest and implementation of creative endeavors. The idea to build a garden bridge with your own hands usually visits the owners of a site with a stream or a beautiful natural swamp.

Most often, small bridges are used in landscape design in the presence of a small reservoir on the site.

Being an important architectural element, a garden bridge can not only fulfill its utilitarian function, but also decorate different areas of the garden and connect with each other.

If there are no natural and artificial sources of water in the country house, you can implement a fashionable design proposal - to build a bridge over a dry stream.

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Location of the garden bridge: basic principles

The proportions between the framing landings and the bridge structure should be observed. Do not place a small bridge under a large tree.

It is desirable that the path leading from the bridge should go deeper into the garden. Plantings of decorative and deciduous perennials, flowering flowers on one of the banks of the reservoir will make the bridge attractive.

Bridges entwined with grapes, climbing roses, clematis will give a romantic note to the garden.

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Getting ready to build a garden bridge: defining the style

The bridge, built in the country, decorates it, provided that it fully complies with the overall composition.

In landscape gardens, with irregularly shaped ponds, the bridge should be installed at the narrowest point of the pond. If part of the reservoir is located on a shallow plot, you can create 2 decorative zones: a reservoir and a swamp. Another option is the division of the water surface into a water garden and a bathing area.

In regular-style gardens, a bridge is placed in the middle of an oval or rectangular pond, which emphasizes the strict symmetry of the landscape. The opposite bank of the reservoir can be decorated with roses.

In the Japanese style, it necessarily implies the presence of bridges. Their contemplation for the Japanese is filled with aesthetic and philosophical meaning. This should encourage the owner of the cottage to get acquainted with the theoretical foundations of oriental design.

In a country-style cottage, it is especially easy if you put your hands on it. The use of tree trunks and branches, the use of logs is recommended. If the house looks like a tower, then it would be appropriate to use carved balusters to make the railing of the bridge.

The bridge in the avant-garde country style can be made in an asymmetric form, while choosing an unconventional color scheme.

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Types of garden bridge: style matching

It should be borne in mind that any bridge must carry a semantic, functional load. Depending on this, the type of structure should be determined, the choice of building material should be made.

Direct structures are made of wood, concrete or stone. Small bridges for summer cottages can be without railings and can be a regular straight flooring. Significant structures, for security purposes, are equipped with railings.

Stepped bridges are made up of 2 inclined platforms, between which a horizontal plane is strengthened. Visually, such a structure seems to be more decorative than a flat bridge.

Step-by-step bridges are built to cross a shallow body of water. Wide paving slabs or natural stones are installed on concrete bases and firmly fixed at the bottom of the reservoir, dug into the ground. If the water space is artificial, it is worth making a foundation for the foundations, pouring concrete over their supports before filling the bed with water.

Suspension bridges must be lightweight and strong at the same time, which requires the use of reliable fasteners and flexible elements. The basis of the bridge are racks on which strong cables or chains are suspended. Wooden planks are fixed as flooring.

Humpbacked bridge - stone, wooden or metal, it can be decorated with carved railings, climbing plants, "let" from the shore or planted in containers attached to the railing.

Fantasy bridges are usually built in landscape gardens. Any dacha will be transformed if a fragment of a wrecked ship, medieval ruins, rock scree appear on its territory. And for this design, you can find any style solutions.

A zigzag bridge usually adorns a Japanese garden with an imposing pond. The bridge line can have up to 8 kinks, characterizing the path of comprehension of the truth.

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Garden bridges: choose building material

Since the bridge on the site is used for decorative purposes, it can be made from thin boards and bars.

Any durable building material can be used for piles, piers, decking and bridge railings.

One of the most accessible materials is wood. You can use a windbreak, purchase logs and finished lumber in the construction markets.

Piles are best made from cedar, larch, pine, which emit natural resins, self-preserve and can perform their functions for up to 50 years. The flooring made of oak boards is not deformed, wear-resistant, resistant to moisture.

To prevent the appearance of cracks, fungus, putties and antiseptics are used, linseed drying oil is a natural antiseptic (treated 2 times a year). Wood can be coated with yacht varnish to protect it from moisture.

To use the bridge in wet weather, the flooring is equipped with anti-slip notches or pads.

The ease of working with wood will allow you to complete the construction in any style.

A concrete bridge would be appropriate in summer cottages decorated in a classic style. To do this, it will be enough to decorate it with curly balusters, attach decorative elements to the side of the flooring, use white cement.

Bamboo bridges are used in summer cottages when bamboo is used in other architectural and design elements.

The stone gives the site originality and respectability. Using its various varieties (sandstone, limestone, marble, granite), you can achieve the majesty of the landscape. But for this, both the site and the reservoir must be large enough.

Metal, due to its strength and plasticity, is used to create bridges in different styles - from baroque to avant-garde hi-tech.

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Bridge with direct decking in the garden: simple

Drawing of a humpbacked bridge: 1-3 - the location of the bases.

For summer cottages located in a wild natural zone, as a rule, the presence of ditches with stagnant water, wetlands, streams is typical. In such a place, you can install a bridge with a straight deck of trunks and thick branches of trees, which will fit perfectly into the landscape. It is better, of course, to use dry birch wood, because the bridge from it, despite its simplicity, will look especially elegant.

For the manufacture of road decking and supports, thick branches are used (they should not bend) and skinned trunks. From them, parts are prepared for supports, spans, flooring and railings.

The fence is usually made at such a height that it is convenient to hold on to the railing if necessary - somewhere around 65-70 cm. The branches are connected in the form of rectangles connected by diagonal crossbars (Roman cross).

The length of the bridge should be no more than 2.5 m. In this case, it will be stable and durable.

If a similar type of bridge is chosen for a summer residence, the logs can be sanded, impregnated with an antiseptic or tarred. The ends of the logs, intended for support and the base of the floor covering, are laid on the supporting platforms of the coastal slopes. If the bridge has a width of 2.5-4 m, piles are installed that serve as intermediate supports (concrete or wooden).