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Garden Bench

Gardening • Projects • The Gardener

What you need:

  • X2 Polystyrene boards (50mm thick) 1.2m x 1m
  • Tape measure
  • Pen
  • A straight edge
  • ½ bucket cement
  • ½ bucket fine river and
  • ½ bucket building stone
  • Water
  • Rubber Mallet
  • Sponge
  • Tacking screws
  • Jigsaw
  • Re-enforcement wire
  • Tacking wire
  • Below in the DIY slot, the team makes a simple garden bench.

What to do:

For the Legs of the bench:

  1. Measure 150mm from the edge of the polystyrene board to the middle and make a mark with a pencil. Do this on the 3 sides of the polystyrene board as indicated on below. This will be the working area for the 2 legs

    1

  2. Measure the dimensions of the seats, the height of each seat will be 550mm. width 355mm

    2

  3. Use a jigsaw to cut out the legs from the main polystyrene

    3

  4. Put the cut-outs (yellow part aside – you will be working with the white remaining poly board)

    1

  5. On a new polystyrene board – measure 150mm from the edge of the polystyrene board to the middle and make a mark with a pencil. Do this on the 3 sides of the polystyrene board as indicated below. This will be the working area for the 2 legs

    5

  6. Then measure out the dimensions of the seat:  height 400mm and width 900mm. Use a straight edge to draw the measure out shape. The cut it out using the jigsaw…see below

    6

  7. Put the seat shape cut out so that the large poly board has the seat shape cavity. (you will be using the remaining white poly board as a mould).. see below
  8. Prepare re-enforcement for the seat: take 3 long pieces of 8 gauge wire (need to fit into the empty seat cavity) lay them across and then place another 2 shorter wires of the same size on top of these to create a grid. Use pliable tacking wire to secure the wires to each other so that they form a solid grid.
  9. Mix ½ bucket cement, ½ bucket river sand and ½ bucket building stones  with enough water to form a mixture of a runny consistency
  10. Remove the re-enforcement grid. Then pour in the concrete mixture into the seat cavity to form a base. Place the re-enforcing grid on top of the concrete base them fill up the seat mould with the concrete mixture to the top, use the steel trowel to make sure you are getting it into every nook and cranny.
  11. Level up the top of the seat mould, using a rubber mallet to – gently tap the mould so as to release any trapped air bubbles. Smooth down the top with the trowel to create a smooth finish.
  12. For the legs: Pour in the concrete mixture and fill up the mould cavities to the top, making sure you agitate the mixture as you go along. Gently tap the rubber mallet to release the air bubbles and then smooth down the top of the mould with a steel trowel to create a smooth finish
  13. Leave all moulds to dry. When dry, remove the bench pieces from the polystyrene moulds.
  14. If you are putting the bench into the garden – then you do not necessarily need to concrete it into the ground. Just dig deep enough holes so that you can put 150mm of the legs into the ground. Make sure the bench legs are level before placing the seat on top.

DIY Video

 

 

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